BENTONVILLE — The Bentonville Public Schools Foundation recently awarded $45,926 in grants to teachers and counselors across the School District.
The foundation received 71 applications by the March 15 deadline. It chose 15 of them. Award amounts ranged from $403 to $11,682. Projects having to do with filmmaking, robotics, literacy and transition skills were among those chosen.
At A Glance
Foundation Grants
Bentonville Public Schools Foundation 2013 Teacher Grants, including the program title, school and amount are:
• Energy, Cartoons and Common Core, Lincoln Junior High School, $3,249
• Be Excited About Reading, Willowbrook Elementary School, $1,353
• Project Lead the Way Engineering Notebooks, Bentonville High School, $1,052.10
• Soil Scientists, Fulbright Junior High School, $5,574.78
• Why Try? Building Resilience in the Workplace, at School and at Home, Middle and junior high schools, $11,682
• Literature Circle Novels: A Novel Idea, Fulbright Junior High School, $2,851.22
• Future Filmmakers, Fulbright Junior High School, $2,961.18
• Learning Through LIPS, Apple Glen Elementary School, $1,949.85
• Brigance Transition Skills Activities, Fulbright Junior High School, $402.80
• Bringing History Alive, Washington Junior High School, $2,058
• Digitalizing Science Data to Improve Analysis Skills, Fulbright Junior High School, $1,860.18
• History Alive, Fulbright Junior High School, $3,570
• Biking with Special Needs Children and Biking Outdoors, R.E. Baker Elementary School, $2,585.11
• Just Do It For Me — A Study of Robotics. Tennie Russell Primary School, $3,947.31
• Math Backpacks, Willowbrook Elementary School, $829.59
• Total: $45,926.12
Source: Bentonville Public Schools Foundation
A committee made up of foundation board members and a community representative evaluated the applications. The applicants’ names, as well as the schools they represent, were removed from applications to prevent any biases from affecting the process, said Chris Sooter, foundation board president.
Six of the 15 grants went to staff members at Fulbright Junior High School under construction and won’t open until August. Those six grants were worth $17,220.16.
Each year the foundation chooses one grant as the overall winner. This year’s winner was Brenda Hemberger, R.E. Baker Elementary School physical education teacher, for her “Biking with Special Needs Children and Biking Outdoors” idea.
With the $2,585 grant, Baker will buy stands that allow regular bicycles to be used as stationary bikes so students can use them indoors at the school. It also will pay for four bikes with training wheels that will be used by Baker’s special-needs students, including those with autism and Down syndrome.
“A lot of our special-needs kids lack a lot of muscular strength and some have balance issues,” Hemberger said. “So we were trying to get them started at an earlier age and give them something they can do with their family.”
The school will purchase the four bikes from Phat Tire in Bentonville.
The $45,926 awarded this year is in line with what the foundation has awarded in recent years. Last year the foundation gave out more than $54,000 in grants.
Any teacher or counselor in the district is eligible to submit one grant request each year.
“They’re awarded based on whether they’re creative, out-of-the-box ideas,” Sooter said.
Money for the grants comes through the foundation’s annual Bold for Gold campaign. One of the campaign’s chief fundraisers is the Gold Rush 5k Run and Fun Run, scheduled for Friday night. Online registration for the race is available through Sunday. Visit www.GoldRush5k.com for more information.