Grants Advance Learning

ROGERS — Teachers are reaching outside school budgets to help bring new ideas to students through grants.

Grant-writing is becoming more of a culture and less of a new idea, said Madeline Allin, grants director for Rogers School District.

Teachers are full of creative ideas for their students, but sometimes those ideas require equipment, Allin said. There are tax benefits for corporations that set aside funds for grants, and for teachers searching for just a little extra money for a classroom project, those can be a perfect fit. A former school administrator, Allin reads and tracks district grant applications and coaches teachers.

She has seen reports of $30,500 in small grants granted so far this year. That number will grow as the school year winds down, Allin said. Grants awarded so far this year have been used for science materials to an economics game, printmaking blocks to a class hamster to a field trip to Eureka Springs to ride the train.

State funding gives schools about $6,200 a child, totaling about $114 million a year for Rogers schools, said Kathy Hanlon, district treasurer. Federal grants add $10 million to the district’s budget and there is an additional $1.7 million in state grants. Outside grants can be difficult to track, but she estimates the district is awarded $2 million to $3 million a year. Some are large, such as a prekindergarten grant from the Walmart Foundation, and some are small, such as $1,000 for a pair of iPads.

Grants give the district and teachers a chance to try new software or new programs before committing large amounts of taxpayer dollars to an idea, Hanlon said.

“The benefit to the kids has been huge,” she said.

Grants can enhance public education, said Joy Pennington, executive director of the Arkansas Arts Council. The council supports artists, but also helps schools bring presentations to their schools, awarding $800,000 annually through their Arts in Education program, Pennington said.

“I would like to have a grant in every classroom,” she said.

Businesses are looking for people who can solve problems in creative ways, she said. Arts integrated into education give children different ways to learn, she said. Music helps children memorize and learn, and art projects can offer practical math applications, like the fractions of mixing paint or multiplication through scaling a mural.

“You’re teaching people to use both sides of their brains,” Pennington said.

School budgets buy things schools must have to operate, like staples and photocopy expenses, said Betsy Kinkade, principal at Joe Mathias Elementary School. Extras might include teacher training or a set of classroom books, but those are prioritized by what will benefit the most children.

“There’s not really a lot of wiggle room in our budget. We’re buying the basics,” Kinkade said.

Special needs are where grants can shine, administrators said.

Teachers at Mathias have worked together and individually to write grants. Shade trees planted this year came from an Arkansas Forestry Commission grant, there were musical instruments purchased through a Limeades for Learning grant and an after-school leadership development program from State Farm. Not every request is fulfilled, but it can’t hurt to try, Kinkade said.

“I write a lot of grants that I never hear back from,” Jeanne Trueg, library media specialist at Grace Hill Elementary School.

Puppets older children use when reading to younger ones, bilingual books, picture books and nonfiction books at the Grace Hill library came from grants. There is money to buy library books, $12 a child each year, she said. Grace Hill students represent a wide variety of reading levels and most do not have many books at home.

Web Watch

Grants

Classrooms can post projects and ask for donations online at www.donorschoose.org.

Teachers can search for grant opportunities through: www.grantwrangler.com and www.getedfunding.com.

“Books are expensive,” Trueg said. “There’s other things to pay, like rent and electricity.”

The school library is the only library for some children. Transportation to the city library can be an issue, she said, so the school checks out extra books on weekends and on holidays.

Grants bring the magic of new books to children who could not otherwise afford them, Trueg said.

When new books come she lets the children smell the paper and stamp them for library shelves. Children love to crack the spines, she said.

“Every time a child comes up to me and says ‘I wish you’d buy this book’, I take that very seriously,” Trueg said.

Allin says she tells teachers to write grants they could hand to someone outside a gasoline station and have them understand. Writing one grant will teach them tips for the next one, she said, but what really makes the difference is believing in their students.

“You have to be passionate about what you are writing the grant for,” she said.

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