By Anna Skinner

Since 1992, the Westfield Education Foundation has provided Westfield Washington Schools teachers with grants up to $1,000.

Examples of past grants include vegetable gardens, weather stations, building robots, math puzzles and manipulatives and others. To date, WEF has awarded more than $200,000 for teacher grants.

“All WWS staff are invited to apply for a classroom enrichment grant up to $1,000,” Executive Director Jan Skinner said. “It’s got to be for an innovative teaching idea to engage the students … it’s for outside the box ideas.”

Principals will recommend a parent volunteer from their schools to read and score the grants, which are done so in a blind fashion so parents do not know who is applying for which grant. Reviewers have a week to score all grants with a rubric for consistency and then turn into Skinner, who creates a spreadsheet and presents the grant applications to the school board at its October meeting.

“The school board makes the final decision at the October meeting, but we value the work the readers put into their review process, and the highest scoring grant reviews are the ones who receive awards,” Skinner said.

Money awarded to teachers is available in November, but some teachers will not use it until later in the school year.

“The annual teaching grant awards is an important program because thousands of students in all grade levels benefit,” WWS School Board President Duane Lutz said.

“The Westfield Education Foundation is grateful for annual contributions from the Westfield Lions Club and Allegion that support the teacher grant program,” Skinner added.

For more or for a grant application, email Skinner at [email protected].