Humboldt Education Foundation (HEF) started awarding classroom grants in the 2019-20 school year to address the needs in classrooms. That year HEF had $6000 total to award over three school quarters. A little about the overwhelming need at the time; during the first quarter 34 grant applications were received that would benefit 5,322 students totaling an amount of $15,663.
On March 5, 2024 HEF members distributed a total of $2,325 to five lucky teachers and students in the Humboldt Unified School District. HEF President Aimee Fleming said, “When you walk into a classroom with balloons and an oversized check everyone gets excited, and this cycle was no different. We were warmly greeted with shouts of hooray and thank you because several teachers involved their students in the grant writing process.” Teacher recipients were:
Adrienne Houston- CSES $500-Purchasing materials for STEM projects for 4th grade
Susan Spigelmire-LTS $500-Robots and coding for kinder
Amy Cooper- MVES- $500-Speech communication support materials
Jennifer Johnson-CSES-$500-Save our books- book binding machine to save and repair broken books that are used so much and want to keep these classics for 3rd grade students.
Vicki Erickson- GES- $325-Music world activities to help with rhythm, signing and movement.
This cycle was like others in that there were 28 teacher applicants for a total of $12,424, where 5,112 students would have benefitted from the grant request. However, with the funds available only the five requests were granted, still benefiting over 1,458 students. Fleming said, “We would love to grant all the requests, because these kiddos are our future and should have the best of the best when it comes to learning.”
Since that first year, HEF has applied for grants, and received donations from local developers, businesses, and individuals. The source of ongoing money is from the Foundation’s Teacher of the Year Banquet. This year’s event will be held on April 18th 2024, at The Warehouse Event Center. This is a heartwarming event where HEF honors teachers from each of the HUSD schools who have been nominated as Teacher of the Year by their students. Since HEF is a completely volunteer-based board, 100% of sponsorship funds go back into our schools for teacher classroom grants and to give high school students scholarships to college. For more information on becoming a sponsor or attending the banquet please go to: https://humboldteducationfoundation.org/projects/teacher-of-the-year/
The Humboldt Education Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and an approved State of Arizona Qualifying Charitable Organization for Arizona Tax Credit program. For more information on becoming a sponsor or attending the banquet, check out the HEF website at https://humboldteducationfoundation.org/projects/teacher-of-the-year/ or email [email protected].
