The Foundation for Springfield Public Schools played Santa on Thursday. Staff and around 40 volunteers went around to schools to surprise teachers with Back to School grants for special projects.
Three educators received awards at Truman Elementary. One is for gardens in a central courtyard, another is for a project where students write and publish a book as a class and another is for a book club that helps kids develop a love for reading and have a chance to be part of the Battle of the Books, which Truman has won for the last two years.
Truman Librarian Scarlet Braddock was awarded that grant. She’ll use the money to buy around 14 copies of six different titles for her book clubs so each child will get a copy.
"This means everything," she said. "As a librarian, my biggest goal is that kids will love to read, and whenever they get the opportunities, and they get the books in their hands, this kind of becomes a social type of a thing, too, so when we have book clubs kids get to be excited about having an opportunity to be with their peers and talk about those books and then we get to compete, too, which is also fun."
Braddock said she'd been watching the library's door all morning hoping to receive a visit from the SPS Foundation.
Second grade teacher, Aubra George, was excited to receive a $6,000 grant award to create an outdoor space with a garden where kids can learn.
"We've had this courtyard for a long time, and it's really been in disrepair and not been used because we haven't had the funds to make it a useable space," she said.
Students with autism need a space to stretch their legs and to help them focus in order to learn, according to George.
"And it's really not a great space for them, so this grant is going to allow us to build things to help those students and help teachers to bring their classes to be able to create just a broader learning space for them to learn things like plant life cycles."
She said it will also give Truman parents another opportunity to volunteer.
The courtyard is surrounded by classrooms — including George's — so it's a secure space for students to learn outdoors.
Teacher Denelle Pantleo received funds to publish a book that her class will write. It's a project she's done with previous classes. The money, she said, will ensure that each child can afford to purchase one of their books.
"It means everything because now everybody can own a piece of their hard work," she said. "And we start working on it months before it's done so it really culminates in something really special for them."
This year 77 grants totaling just over $200,000 were awarded to 41 different SPS schools.
Natalie Murdock is executive director of the SPS Foundation. She said the grants support a variety of different projects.
"To support literacy needs, to support STEM projects, robotics clubs," she said. "We always tell teachers, 'if you can dream it, you can ask for it,' and they really take us to task on that."
The grants are made possible by donations to the foundation. Additional grants will be handed out in December, Murdock said.
It's a rigorous selection process, according to Murdock. Applications are submitted to the foundation. A group of donors and board members reviews the applications and determines which projects to fund. There are always projects left on the table even though they try to fund as many of the requests as they can, she said. That's why they try to do a second round of grants later in the year.
