POULSBO — Farm-to-table projects. A traveling Tribal museum. Cigar-box ukuleles. A field trip to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall.
The North Kitsap Schools Foundation is touching academics in the community one grant at a time.
This year, 18 grants were awarded to teachers and schools in the North Kitsap School District. The NK Schools Foundation raised twice as much money this year as it has in years past, giving away more than $59,000 in grants at its Celebration of Learning, Nov. 18. Average grant totals in the past: $28,000.
“Due to a very generous gift of $30,000 from Sandy and Bunker Hill, we were able to do a lot more this year,” said Shannon Singleton, foundation president.
“I only hope our work here is honoring Sandy as an educator.”
Singleton recalled a former educator telling her that teachers hear the word “no” too often throughout their careers.
“I hope with these grants, you hear us saying “yes” to all of you and to the work that you’re doing, so you can continue to be inspired and inspire your students,” Singleton said to grant recipients.
And a “yes” it was, as Sonia Barry, the school district’s associate director of learning support programs, received $2,500 to create a district traveling museum box: “Native People of the Northwest Coast.”
“I was inspired by the traveling Burke Museum,” Barry said. “Sometimes, you can’t take the student on a field trip, but we can bring the field trip to them,” she said.
The grant will purchase materials such as cedar, stone tools, animal hides, trade beads, books, maps, photos and artwork to support the teaching of Northwest Native history, culture and government.
Gabriel Grieser, music teacher at Suquamish Elementary School, was awarded $760 for Symphony Link-up, a program of the Seattle Symphony. The grant will enable 120 third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders to travel to Seattle and perform on recorders with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall.
“This is a great opportunity, we’re a high poverty school so it’s hard to collect money for added expenses, a lot of our students have never been to Seattle before.”
Aaron Covey and Valerie Randall of North Kitsap High School were awarded $5,000 for the culinary program’s farm-to-table project. The grant will fund improvements and maintenance of the central greenhouse, creation of an outdoor produce washing and packing station and creation of an outdoor herb garden and raised vegetable beds. The program supplies produce to the student-run Odin Inn restaurant and teaches students about nutrition through growing and harvesting fresh vegetables.
Pearson Elementary School music teacher Tamera Rabura brought three of her former students to the event to perform a cigar-box ukulele concert. All of her fifth- grade students made ukuleles funded with her foundation grant last year.
NK Schools Foundation has provided North Kitsap teachers and schools with grants to support learning opportunities in classrooms and students with scholarships for college, water safety and driver’s education. Since 2012, the foundation has awarded nearly $100,000 for teacher and district-driven programs that provide direct service to students who are underperforming in reading, math and science, as well as programs and materials that provide enriched STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) instruction.
The NK Schools Foundation seeks to bridge the gap between state funding and local needs by helping teachers and schools provide the best learning opportunities for North Kitsap students. Its motto: “Strong Schools equal Strong Communities.”
The Celebration of Learning was sponsored by Seattle law firm Patterson Buchanan Fobes & Leitch, the Suquamish Tribe, and Port Madison Enterprises. The foundation also recognized the Poulsbo North Kitsap Rotary Club and the Poulsbo Noon Lions for their longstanding support.
To make a donation: www.nkschoolsfoundation.org.
