The Fort Atkinson Community Foundation has announced that 2021 Classroom Teacher Wish Grants totaling $5,000 have been awarded to 12 teachers in the School District of Fort Atkinson.
At the start of the school year, district public school teachers had the opportunity to apply to the foundation for grants of up to $500 for specific materials, supplies, equipment or a program to assist a teacher with a new or an existing project in his or her classroom. This grant program was created in 2019 to help teachers improve their classrooms beyond what tax dollars could support, information released by the foundation stated.
“We want our public school teachers to know that if they have a good idea about something that might make their classroom environment better for our students, we’d like to help make that happen,” foundation Chairman Michael Bender was quoted as saying in the release.
A committee of three retired Fort Atkinson educators reviewed all the applications and ranked them. The foundation then went down the list and funded as many of them as the endowed Classroom Teacher Wish Fund would allow. The total amount awarded was $5,000.
The 2021 Classroom Teach Wish Grant recipients are as follows:
Barrie Elementary School: Art teacher Barry Helgestad for 3-D pens for students to construct tangible solutions for design-related problems.
Fort Atkinson High School: Math teacher Casey Klein for four graphing calculators in an effort to build up to a full classroom set of 25 calculators; art teacher Frank Korb for wall material for more easily displaying student art work.
Luther Elementary School: First-grade teacher Jessica Ehlers for a variety of flexible seating options; second-grade teacher Beth Young for flexible seating swivel stools.
Purdy Elementary School: Music teacher Holly Dow for a collection of small percussion instruments for her music classroom; Early Childhood teacher Rebecca Brown for special equipment for her special needs students; second-grade teacher Jeanette Mares for small motor skills materials to help with ‘soft start’ mornings; fifth-grade teacher Kayla Telfer for flexible seating options and books.
Rockwell Elementary School: Third-grade teacher Heather Walters for book bins, a book cart and high-quality social/emotional books; third-grade teacher Devan Pomykalski for independent reading level books; music teacher Amanda Hein for handheld musical instruments to be used by all students.
The Classroom Teacher Wish Grants are awarded annually and the next application window will open on Aug. 1, 2022. Anyone interested in supporting this grant program can donate to the foundation’s endowed Classroom Teacher Wish Fund.
The total amount available will be approximately 4% of that fund, so the more this invested fund grows, the more teachers the foundation can help, the release noted.
To learn more about the program, visit www.fortfoundation.org and click on the Grant Info tab to review the full Classroom Teacher Wish Grant guidelines, or contact Sue Hartwick, foundation executive director at 920-563-3210 or via email at facf@fortfoundation.org.
Pupils in Beth Young’s second-grade classroom at Luther Elementary School work on a class project while seated in swivel stools. The Fort Atkinson Community Foundation has awarded a total $5,000 in 2021 Classroom Teacher Wish Grants to 12 teachers, Young among them, in the School District of Fort Atkinson. The grants will be used for specific materials, supplies, equipment or a program to assist a teacher with a new or an existing project in his or her classroom. Contributed photo.
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