A small crowd of teachers attended the school board meeting on Monday to receive recognition for a $49,898 grant awarded from the Monmouth Independence Community Foundation.
Teachers from the district applied in August for funds to be used this school year. The teachers completed a short application describing their proposed classroom projects.
“The process of reading applicants was exciting for me to see the broad diversity of creative ideas developed by Central School District educators,” said Michael Cairns, Chair of the Classroom Enrichment Grant Committee.
With 31 individual classroom grants, this is the largest combined grant ever given by the foundation. It was made possible through the generous donations of local donors and the earnings from their gifts. MICF was thrilled with the number of applications they received.
“Foundation is honored to provide these grants to district teachers for their Classroom Enrichment Projects,” said Vernon Wells, President of the Community Foundation, on behalf of MICF.
These awards help eliminate the need for teachers to spend money from their personal finances to fund their classroom projects. The Classroom Enrichment Grant Program was introduced in 2000 to benefit Central 13J classrooms by providing mini-grants to teachers with creative and motivating ideas for use in the classroom.
In 2018, the MICF board voted to expand the Classroom Enrichment grants to include school clubs that provide academic benefits to students. The Classroom Enrichment grants use non-endowment and earnings from the Classroom Enrichment Project Endowment Fund to provide grants to Central School District teachers at the recommendation of a MICF board committee or committee of educators appointed by the board. Don and Verna Duncan created the concept of the Classroom Enrichment Program. Don was a founding member of MICF and served on the Foundation board until retiring in March 2018. All grants are made possible only through the continued generosity of caring donors. Please visit the website at MIFoundation.net for more information about partnerships or to donate.
Article in thanks to the Polk Itemizer-Observer
