2022 Spring Grants Awarded
2022 Spring Grants Awarded
At David Douglas School District, Spring not only brings flowers, it brings David Douglas Educational Foundation-funded grants!
Each spring, school district employees are invited to submit requests for DDEF-funded Spring Grants for the following school year. A Grant Committee reviews the requests and makes funding recommendations to the Foundation evaluating whether the requests are appropriate for the DDEF Spring Grant program or should be funded through other sources such as the regular school district budget, Multnomah Education Service District, or DDEF Special Grants.
This year’s Spring Grant awards were finalized at the April 2022 DDEF Board Meeting awarding approximately $6,158 in grants to teacher and district staff requests.
See below for pictures and a description of the approved grants.
Grants awarded for the 2022-23 school year include:
A common theme in several of this year’s grants was flexible seating options for students and a variety of supplies to create or enhance calming spaces for students to regulate their emotions. Some students need to move during instruction so a variety of moveable chairs have been purchased for Gilbert Heights, Lincoln Park, and Menlo Park Elementary schools. In addition, supplies were purchased for some of the elementary schools as well as the high school and the Community Transition Program to create calm spaces within the classroom and within the high school’s Wellness Gym and the Community Transition Program. This allows students to take short breaks and feel more regulated and ready to learn when they return to their usual classroom space.
DDEF also approved grants for a fish to fry program at Alice Ott Middle School. This allows the students to raise salmon eggs and steelhead trout eggs (provided by Oregon Fish Fish and Wildlife) which are released into the river when they are ready. The project is presented in the 6th grade math and science classrooms at Alice Ott incorporating lessons by Indigenous People on estuaries and the study of ecosystems and living organisms in science. The project is coordinated with Oregon Fish and Wildlife which provides salmon and steelhead eggs.
Finally, a grant providing additional funding to purchase 7 new cheerleading mats for high school and youth program use to replace old, worn-out mats was approved. The equipment will be used by 5th through 12 grade athletes. It will also provide a safer space for partnerships between our school and community to conduct junior cheer clinics where youth in the community are invited to spend an afternoon with high school cheerleaders to learn and practice cheerleading routines.
DDEF is happy to again support the Spring Grant program, thanks to generous donors like you!
If you would like to see the previous years’ grants, click here.