Grants from education foundation open doors to district staff

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

School district staff members know they have a few more chances each year to earn a small grant from the Charles City Excellence in Education Foundation.

The foundation is changing up its awards system for district members: instead of awarding money in the fall and spring, the foundation is now taking applications any time during the year when teachers or students have a new idea.

“Our goal is to enhance the learning experience in the district,” foundation President Chuck Staudt said. “We found the timeframe of how we were doing those applications didn’t fit well into the curriculum of the staff members. They’d already had their curriculum put together.”

The foundation can award $5,000 in small grant amounts up to $1,000, Staudt said.

“It makes it easier for staff members to apply in June and know they’ll have it by July,” Staudt said. “We want to be more flexible for the staff members, to give them flexibility when setting up curriculum.”

“Anything that’s outside of the base curriculum” is considered for a foundation grant, he said — which could mean a class project that has extra expenses to complete, or a field trip to a place or out-of-school event that has value to students.

Past grants have supported the purchase of FitBits for Charles City students to wear during gym class, which helped them grasp the health benefits of their activity in an app.

Funds to support the Excellence in Education grants are supported by tax-deductible donations, Staudt said. The foundation has been around since the mid-1980s to establish a route for donations to the district.

“If the donor has a request, as long as it meets our mission, that’s something we can do,” Staudt said.