At the Greenbelt City Council meeting on Monday, January 25, council approved 17 Advisory Committee on Education (ACE) grants to four local schools, for a total of $8,049.47. Council also approved ACE’s recommendation to allocate an additional $3,600 to address food insecurity issues at the six schools that serve Greenbelt students.
ACE grants are available to teachers and parent-teacher organizations at Greenbelt schools. The grants are given in response to proposals for projects or items that enhance or enrich school-based activities. Proposals for teacher development projects are also solicited. The grants program is funded by the City of Greenbelt, and the selection of proposals for funding was made by the council based on recommendations from ACE.
This year the proposal submission process was moved entirely online. Some projects will be possible while schools are virtual and will be funded immediately. Other projects will be funded once school is back in person.
Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) won three grants, all to fund registration fees and participation in virtual competitions for student groups. The Science Olympiad is a virtual competition applying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education to real-world problems. Destination Imagination competitions combine science and engineering challenges with artistic expression. The third ERHS grant will start a competitive intramural eSports league within the school to encourage teamwork and socializing within the virtual environment.
Magnolia Elementary School will receive a grant to purchase math manipulatives that will be distributed to the students to use at home in independent assignments. The manipulatives include number blocks, fraction strips and plastic coins, helping the students to visualize addition, subtraction and the relations between numbers.
Springhill Lake Elementary School won a grant to support their Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) program, which provides incentives and rewards for good behavior. Normally the PBIS program is supported by fundraisers such as movie nights, winter fun nights and the Spring Fest. As those programs are not possible this year, the PBIS rewards will be supported by an ACE grant.
Greenbelt Elementary School (GES) put in a lot of strong proposals this year and was awarded 12 grants. The school also recognized the need for math manipulatives that students could have at home, and there were four grants to support different classes. To enhance individual instruction, four grants will support a variety of games and materials for the talented and gifted program, STEM books, and reading and math software.
GES also received grants to purchase a set of badminton equipment for gym classes and flexible furniture for the school’s mindfulness space. The only teacher development ACE grant this year will fund attendance at the virtual Maryland State Talented and Gifted Conference.
There was a grant proposal from the GES Parent Teacher Association to address food insecurity issues at the school caused by the pandemic and resulting economic crisis by creating an emergency food bank at the school. Although this does not fit within the scope of the ACE grants program, the ACE committee recommended that council allocate $600 to each of the six ACE schools to address the emergency, due to the extremely unusual circumstances of this pandemic year. The money will be allocated and managed by Greenbelt CARES, which has agreed to work with the schools.
This is the twelfth year that Greenbelt has distributed ACE grants to the local schools; in total there have been 238 proposals funded at a total cost of $108,000. ACE’s recommendations were approved by the city council with a unanimous vote, and members expressed appreciation for the efforts that ACE put into reviewing the grant proposals.
Jon Gardner is a member of ACE.
