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A mini grant from the Monmouth and Roseville Community Funds will allow her to do just that. Charlotte’s Web, Holes, and How to Eat Fried Worms are a few of the books that will now be available for every student in Coulter’s class.

The two Community Funds have joined together to begin awarding mini grants of up to $500 to Monmouth-Roseville CUSD #238 teachers. In total, six mini grants were awarded to teachers in the district for the 2023-24 academic year.

Fourth grade Central Intermediate School teachers Teresa Nelson, Amy Nielsen, Kelli Ewing, Lana Stewart, and Brandi Collins grouped their application for additional books in their classrooms. Many of their students are below grade level and they don’t have many “just right” books to read independently. Their goal is to create a leveled library so students can have a greater variety of choices in what they read. Ashley Lublansky, a third-grade teacher at Harding, also plans to use her grant to buy additional independent reading books for her classroom.

Mindy Lipes and Juli Schaley of Harding will use grants to purchase flexible seating for their second and third grade classrooms. “Many times, my students are gathered at the front of the room on our classroom carpet during a lesson,” said Schley. “Oftentimes, there is participation where they are expected to write while sitting on the floor. This can be a challenge at times, as some students aren’t able to write with their book or clipboard in their lap.” The flexible seating will create a small desk in front of them as they sit on the carpet during instruction times. The desks will also be used for small group work in different areas of the classroom.

Emily Pickrell, a fourth through sixth grade music teacher at Central, will purchase Boomwhackers for her classes. “Boomwhackers offer a fun opportunity to create music and to perform as a whole class,” she says. Boomwackers are lightweight, hollow, color-coded, plastic tubes that are tuned to a musical pitch by length and will be used by all 300 students at the school to enforce musical concepts and to practice reading music.

The Monmouth and Roseville Community Funds were established by local residents and built with gifts from community members, businesses, service organizations, and other sources. The Community Funds are endowed funds of Galesburg Community Foundation and are guided by local advisory boards that are empowered to award grants that positively impact the Monmouth and Roseville communities.

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Any teacher in the Monmouth-Roseville School District #238 can apply for a mini grant of up to $500 for the 2023-24 school year. Applications must be received by June 9. Download the teacher mini grant application.

Mini grants in other local communities have purchased pocket-sized computers for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) class; an iPad app, manipulatives, and games for elementary special education classes; food for family and consumer sciences classes; a new refrigerator for a school’s life skills beverage shop; equipment to explore alternative forms of energy; and more.

The Monmouth and Roseville Community Funds were established by local residents and built with gifts from community members, businesses, service organizations, and other sources. The Community Funds are endowed funds of Galesburg Community Foundation and are guided by local advisory boards that are empowered to award grants that positively impact the Monmouth and Roseville communities.

Learn more about the Monmouth Community Fund and Roseville Community Fund.

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“The public school system in Knoxville is a vital part of our community,” said Chris Hroziencik, Knoxville Community Fund Advisory Board Chair. “We look forward to receiving applications that enrich the lives of our students.”

Any teacher in Knoxville School District #202 can apply for a mini grant of up to $500 for the 2023-24 school year. Applications must be received by April 24. Download the teacher mini grant application.

For the 2022-23 school year, six mini grants were awarded to teachers in the district for projects in the sciences, special education, consumer sciences, and life skills.

The Knoxville Community Fund was established in 2015 by local residents and built with gifts from community members, businesses, service organizations, and other sources. The Community Fund is an endowed fund of Galesburg Community Foundation, which is guided by a local advisory board that is empowered to award grants that positively impact the Knoxville community.

The Knoxville Community Fund has been granting awards to the community for eight years. Learn more about the Knoxville Community Fund.

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In Knoxville, junior high students are using pocket-sized computers to solve real-world problems in Katie Frey’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) class. In Alexis, elementary students at United North are being exposed to other cultures through instruments in Ashley Bushong’s music classes.

These opportunities—and many more—are possible through mini grants teachers from the two districts have received from their respective Community Funds.

The Knoxville and Alexis Community Funds were established by local residents and built with gifts from community members, businesses, service organizations, and other sources. Community Funds, which are endowed funds of Galesburg Community Foundation, are guided by a local advisory board that is empowered to award grants that positively impact their communities and residents.

“We know that education through our public school system is vital to Knoxville,” said Chris Hroziencik, chair of the Knoxville Community Fund Advisory Steering Committee. “Our community members are the heart of this process—and that certainly includes our teachers and students.”

This is the second time that Frey has applied for—and received—a mini grant for her Knoxville STEM classroom. “Technology is always changing and upgrading. For our STEM class to be meaningful, we need to provide the most current resources and opportunities for our students to practice coding and collaborative skills to prepare them for their futures.”

In addition to Frey’s STEM class mini grant, five other teachers received funding for equipment and projects in Knoxville:

• Sarah Hilman, who teaches kindergarten through second grade special education, received an iPad app and manipulatives and games that can be used in the classroom to allow students to work at an individualized pace on skills that are tailored to them. The app will also allow teachers to see where students are struggling and provide additional reteaching opportunities.
• Maria Taylor, family and consumer sciences teacher at Knoxville High School, teaches a series of classes on working in the food industry, food and nutrition, and catering. The mini grant is being used to supplement the budget for the food needed to complete lesson plans for four classes.
• Kaelee Potter’s life skills classroom runs a beverage shop for staff at Mable-Woolsey Elementary School. Through the mini grant, they will receive a new refrigerator that will allow them to expand the offerings of the shop and develop vocational skills essential for the independent success of students.
• Students in Jennifer Recchio’s Knoxville High School chemistry class will receive equipment that will help them explore alternative forms of energy by cooking with solar energy, building a solar powered model car, designing a water wheel that produces hydropower, generating wind power with a turbine, and fermenting biofuel.
• Students in Amy Hopper’s junior high STEM class will receive equipment that allows them to navigate the design process with digital tools to produce goods and services for their peers and community.

In addition to Bushong’s instrument mini grant, two other teachers received mini grants in Alexis:

• In Trinette Olin’s fifth grade science class, students will learn about ecosystems, food webs, and the scientific method through the dissection of owl pellets purchased through a mini grant.
• Students in Mindy Murray’s grade 3-5 special education classes will receive learning games and activities centered around reading comprehension, phonics, and math skills needed to progress in the areas they are behind in.

Learn more about the Knoxville Community Fund and Alexis Community Fund.

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