Foundation, School & Library: A Partnership to Expand Educational Horizons

Grants:
The Brooksville Education Foundation provides modest grants to support innovative elementary school programs and early childhood literacy. We budget approximately $3,000 -$4,000 annually to support such activities together with the Brooksville Elementary School and the Brooksville Free Public Library.

If you work for or volunteer at the Brooksville Elementary School and Brooksville Free Public Library and have an idea for a project or program you feel would substantially enhance or augment the educational offerings currently available to local children, please send a proposal for our consideration by either post or email. Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss your idea prior to submitting a proposal and someone from the Foundation will be in touch.

 Your proposal should contain the following information for our consideration:
  1. The amount requested.
  2. A detailed project or purchase description.
  3. Anticipated benefits to students or pre-school children.
  4. Time frame in which the grant will be used.
  5. Will this supplement town funding or funding from other grants?
  6. Have alternative sources been considered?
  7. Endorsement of BES Principal or the BFPL Librarian, as appropriate.

 Once we receive your proposal, we may ask for additional information for clarification.

 Within a month of the end of your project, we require a report from you that includes:
  1. How the funds were spent.
  2. The resulting benefits to students and/or the school.
  3. Photos of the sponsored activity or equipment in use.

Past Projects:
This sample of past projects will familiarize you with the kind activities the Foundation has sponsored in cooperation with the School and Library since 2000; some where successful enough to warrant repeating. Should you wish to do so, or if you have a new idea, please contact us:
Project Read Up! See a full description of this book-gifting program for pre-schoolers elsewhere on this site.

Graduation Books: Books are awarded annually by the Foundation to each BES 8th grader at their graduation. Books are selected by the students and have ranged widely in subject: from novels to blacksmithing, from paleontology to legal history, and from beginning Italian to shoe design, for example.

Alumni day: With the help of Foundation volunteers, BES alumni in college have twice been invited to spend a day in the school speaking in classes and eating with and playing games with elementary students -- memorable experiences for all involved.

STEM night: Recruited by Foundation volunteers, professional presenters gathered at BES for an evening of hands on science exploration. Included were: live raptors, exotic insects, trained search & rescue dogs, and a planetarium.

Experiential character education: Kieve Leadership Decision Institute conducted a three-day workshop for BES students and faculty with activities aimed at character development and community building.

Artist in residence: Brooksville artist Rob Shetterly shared his famous portraits of “Americans Who Tell the Truth” with BES. He held discussions about the role of courageous individuals in shaping society and had the students do their own interpretive artwork on these themes, some of which was featured in a special show at the Brooksville Free Public Library.

Poetry Workshops:  Poet Henry Finch (Iowa Writer's Workshop) conducted a series of eight after school workshops open to all elementary school age children in Brooksville. Eleven students participated, resulting in the publication of a volume of their work called What Is A Poem?, now in the permanent collections of the Brooksville Public and school libraries.
 Microscopes: The addition of high quality microscopes allowed BES middle school students to undertake lab work not previously available to them.

Digital overhead projector: The Foundation provided BES with its first digital overhead projector, which has since been in constant use.

 Microphones and hard drives:  These were provided to BES by the Foundation so that students could begin work on oral histories of the Brooksville community.

Quebec trip: The Foundation helped to underwrite this cross-cultural exploration by BES students, which included a trip to Quebec City.

 Robotics club: Lego robotics kits were purchased to allow two parents of BES students to start an after school robotics club.  Several years later this club was revived by other parents and components were added to the kits.

 Opportunity fund: Several grants were made to a fund administered by the BES principal to provide enrichment experiences for especially deserving and needy students.

Library upgrades. A grant was made to allow the BES library, in conjunction with the Brooksville Free Public Library, to develop a comprehensive, online catalogue of the town’s collection of children’s literature.

Ukuleles: 16 instruments and method books were purchased for use in the BES music program.

Tech Lab:  Electronic components, including Arduino programmable micro controllers, have been purchased to allow a team of volunteer educators to run a weekly after school Tech Lab.  The program is open to all middle school students living in Brooksville.