The Foundation for Educational Excellence awarded 19 Innovative Teacher and School Resource Grants on Tuesday, November 19th to teachers across Beaufort County. These grants totaling more than $23,000. were given to teachers whose educational activities and projects surpass regular school lessons. The funds will provide 3,837 unique learning opportunities for students throughout the district at all age levels.
Projects funded this grant cycle range from science to the Arts and everything in between. A unique project received a grant this fall entitled “BOOK CLUBS- Bringing families and classrooms together.” This innovative idea will impact all ELA students district-wide through the purchase of new and relevant books to facilitate parent/student book clubs. Another grant that received funding was entitled “Adding Spark to ‘It’s Electricity’” for HHI School for the Creative Arts. This project will help provide funds for third graders who will be performing a cross-curricular musical play that addresses third grade standards in science, visual, and performing arts.
This grant cycle was partially funded by generous contributions by The Bargain Box of Hilton Head, Friends of Callawassie, Italian American Club of Hilton Head and the Foundation’s major fundraiser, “Jewels and Jeans.” Applications for Innovative Teacher Grants and School Resource Grants may be submitted in the Fall of the BCSD school year. Student Enrichment grant applications are accepted throughout the school year.
“We are so thankful to the organizations that help make it possible for The Foundation to award grants to these inventive teachers who want to go beyond the basic to transform the educational experience of students in Beaufort County,” says Michel Claudio, Foundation Board Member and Grant Chair.
The grant recipients for Fall 2019 are listed below:
GRANT NAME, SCHOOL, SUBMITTED BY
Argument Driven Inquiry, Battery Creek HS, Vincent Vernacchio
Say What?! I Can Tell a story with Video Games?!?, Pritchardville Elementary, Christina Cook, Michelle Quisenberry
Racing into Robotics, River Ridge Academy, Eric Mohrman
We Need A Hero, Port Royal Elementary, Kim Waters
LEGO by Makerspace, HHI Elementary,Beth Minton
Shared Reading Project, Districtwide, Sarah Bazemore, Pamela Rush
Rotary Club/What Lifts You Mural, M.C. Riley Elementary, JoEllen Jacobs
Sensory-Vision Therapy Room, M.C. Riley Elementary, Christie Brown, Sue Maloney, Debra Elsner
Engaging ELL’s with Novel Studies, Bluffton Middle School, Danielle Belmont
Garden of ACE, Beaufort Jasper ACE, Samuel Carpenter, Jeff Bates, Jerry Ferguson
4th Grade Musical (School House Rock), Red Cedar Elementary, Nathan Kooi, Sarah McGhee
Theatre Funding, HHI Middle School, Soraya McCune
Book Clubs, HHI Middle School, Jody Hutcheson, Angela Bellatone, Lee Trew
Bridging the Language Divide, Mossy Oaks Elementary, Whale Branch Middle School, Whale Branch Elementary, Davis Elementary, LaToi Smith
Adding Spark to “It’s Electricity”, HHI School for the Creative Arts, Jennifer Friend-Kerr, Melinda Smith
Learning with LEGOs, Robert Smalls International Academy, Rebecca Gerrard, Barbara Mallon
Matilda: The Musical, Hilton Head High School, Kimberly Guinn
World Drumming, Whale Branch Elementary, Kelly Lee Turner
Junior Naturalists, Okatie Elementary, Danielle Hunt
