2024-2025
GRANT AWARDS
 

All North Kitsap Elementary; Physical Education

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Jamie Smaaladen

$2,939

Backyard Games

Backyard games to develop life-long skills of throwing, interacting, two sets of all games for the district, each set will be shared with three schools on rotation. Vinland, Pearson, Poulsbo will share a set, and Gordon, Suquamish and Wolfle will share the other set.

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NKSD; IDT Team

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Lynne Mackey-Moseley

$2,214

Switch capable toys and items

Adaptive switch-capable toys unlock inclusive participation for our students with different needs and abilities, enabling them to engage and learn alongside their peers. Specially designed toys can enable students to explore, learn cause and effect, build their comfort with new sensory input, facilitate functional and motivating movement opportunities, and increase participation with learning in a play-based way.

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NKSD; Psychologists

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Emily Santiago

$1,883

National Association of School Psychologist 2025 Convention

In our ongoing commitment to providing the North Kitsap School District and our students with the most up-to-date, evidence-based psychological services, we would like to attend the National Association of School Psychologists’ (NASP) 2025 Annual Convention, taking place February 18-21 in Seattle, WA. As the largest annual gathering of school psychologists, the convention is an important professional development opportunity. It offers more than 1,200 sessions and workshops over four days that will provide us with skills and strategies to improve the quality of services that our students receive.

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NKSD; Speech-Language Pathology

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Ariana Wright

$4,400

American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Conference-Seattle

In response to national school-based Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) shortages and increased referrals for speech and language services, NKSD SLPs are proactively seeking professional development opportunities to improve both the quality and efficiency of services we deliver to a diverse student population across NKSD. Consequently, The NKSD SLP Team is requesting the Foundation’s support to participate in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) 2024 National Conference that is being hosted in Seattle for the first time since 1996. We strongly believe that this unique and timely opportunity to attend, in-person, will allow us to best engage directly with professional leaders/experts, strengthen professional networks, identify potential service gaps/opportunities, and best position our NKSD SLP Team to deliver evidence-based services consistent with emerging trends and research.

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Richard Gordon Elementary

 

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Leah Barrett

$2,700

Ukulele Program

Ukulele is accessible to many grades as a string instrument and is small enough to allow  little fingers to accompany while singing. 4th and 5th graders move into note reading, usually on recorder, but that instrument is not able to sustain chords, acting only as a melodic instrument. It would be easy to integrate ukulele into their context as well, adding student led accompaniment to simple recorder melodies. In addition, learning a stringed instrument early on can open up a new world of opportunities for other types of stringed instruments for future playing/performing.

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Kingston High School

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Elizabeth Gorton

$5,000

40 calculators w/rechargeable batteries, 4 TI-84 charging stations

The calculators KHS has right now are great, but don’t cover the scope needed for AP Calculus, AP Precalculus, and AP Statistics students. The TI-84’s owned by KHS operate on a system that has not released an update in the past 10+ years. This creates a problem when the AP testing evolves and leaves our students floundering with technology that is only useful up to a point. So I am requesting $5,000 to buy 40 TI-83 Plus CE rechargeable calculators for the AP classes.

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Mary Fearey

$1,225

8ft ADA compliant wooden picnic table with side wheelchair access

Children with special needs show an increased sense of achievement and higher levels of motivation and concentration in outdoor educational settings. This table will be used to provide an appropriate and accessible outdoor learning area for the life skills students. By selecting a wheelchair accessible outdoor table, all of our students will be able to join in table top learning activities outside.

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Mary Fearey

$114

Hospital Tray Tables with locking casters

Hospital tray tables with locking casters will provide correct height and placement for hard surfaces to complete academic tasks for wheelchair students.

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Kingston Middle School

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Lynn  Atherton

$340

Supplies for cardboard building design challenges - up to 5 groups

The KMS library cardboard-building makerspace area engages students with monthly design challenges and also allows students to explore their own curiosity on a daily basis. Adding more fasteners, “scru-drivers”, and power cutting tools to the space will open up opportunities to more students, including students with less dexterity. With more supplies, students will also be able to save their work for a period of time to display and share with others. Current limited supplies mean that designs must be dismantled in order for others to build.

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Rosanna Lampano

$5,000

Cost to repair musical instruments

Students participating in the band program at Kingston Middle School are asked to provide an instrument and method book for all classroom rehearsals. While many families can financially afford the cost to rent/purchase these items outside of the school environment, there are some who see this as a barrier to their participation. Included within the band classroom are a number of instruments available for student use that could eliminate these barriers and increase access to musical instruments for all students. Unfortunately, at this time, many of these instruments need minor to moderate repairs and are currently unusable. I am seeking a grant to support the cost of repairing these instruments in an effort to reduce barriers and allow all interested students the opportunity to participate in the band program.

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North Kitsap High School

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Marie Moore

$961

2 - Multi-tiered stainless steel counter spaces

My students work on unique skills and goals that align with their post secondary transition goals. These goals include employment, independent/community living and education! We strive to build independence and support students and families allowing them to increase community involvement and employment opportunities!

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NKSD High Schools

 

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Lisa Schuchart

$1,524

Paperback copies of The Hobbit (175) for both high schools

All 9th grade students at KHS and NKHS read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien which is an alternately approved high school text for the recently adopted StudySync English curriculum. Curriculum adoption funding had already been allocated toward other novels once the instructors for this course determined that The Hobbit would best meet the needs of the 9th graders. At this time, both schools have only enough copies of The Hobbit to accommodate class sets, which requires students to read the novel while in class rather than at home, displacing valuable instructional time. To best serve the needs of our 9th graders, having enough copies of The Hobbit that can go home for extended reading and learning is desired. Students and parents alike have approached both their teachers and the Library Media Specialists to ask for print take-home copies of class novels.

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Hilder Pearson Elementary

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Craig Frick

$3,370

​Maker Space Class

The Maker Space class at Pearson Elementary will provide students with hands-on opportunities to engage in creative problem-solving, design thinking, and collaboration. By integrating technology, art, and engineering, students will develop critical thinking skills and creativity while tackling real-world challenges. This elective will not only enhance our existing STEAM programming but also inspire a passion for learning in all students.

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Michelle  Scarr

$684

Book bags/ 3 small rugs /breathing ball/kinetic sand/toys/art supplies

STEM activities, art projects, materials, and spaces where the students can feel safe and ready to learn. I want all students to have materials for a fun learning environment.

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Tamera Rabura

$1,000

Seattle Symphony Link-Up Program and Field Trip

During the 2024/2025 season, Link Up will feature the newest edition of The Orchestra Swings. Through the Link Up repertoire, hands-on activities and a culminating interactive performance with the orchestra and a jazz ensemble, students will explore the elements that contribute to that magical moment when the orchestra starts to swing. Featured pieces include “I Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington, “When the Saints Go Marching In” and more! All Link Up Concert Program participants receive:

• Link Up student PDF bundle (online) and virtual interactive music for each student

• Link Up teacher guide (printed and online) for each teacher

• Professional development and online resources for teachers

• Access to the culminating Link Up concert at Benaroya Hall

The culminating field trip will be February 25th, when students will perform in Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony. For most students this will be their first trip to Benaroya Hall and for a few their first trip to Seattle.

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Tamera Rabura

$530

STEAM supplies- Legos

This grant will fund the materials that will merge engineering with music. Students will work in teams to create and build simple instruments (shaker, drum, scraper and ?) using LEGO building blocks. After designing and building their instruments students will work together to create rhythm patterns to perform with their instruments.

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Tamera Rabura

$1,600

OrKidstra concert field trip

A field trip to the OrKIDstra concert provides students with an excellent first experience of attending a live symphony concert where they can see and hear the instruments up close. Students are able to experience the size of the string bass and hear the loudness of the timpani, which is not possible with a CD or a video. This trip deepens the students’ learning experience and helps them to develop lifetime musical appreciation. This year’s concert includes both Britten’s The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra - which showcases each of the instruments and their families, as well as a telling of the story Ferdinand the Bull, accompanied by the music of George Bizet’s Carmen Suite.

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Todd Haltiner

$248

Customized Learning Materials and Assistive Technology

My special education students often require customized tools or technologies to help them engage, learn, and access curriculum content. As the district continues to integrate new technologies, applications, and learning tools, my special education teaching has faced limitations when trying to instruct students with severe cognitive disabilities. By applying for this grant, I am seeking to improve access to content and curriculum (for the students I serve) resulting in more equitable opportunities for life-long learning. Specifically, my request will provide learning improvements in areas of customized learning materials (i.e. tactile, visual, and auditory) and assistive technology.

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Poulsbo Elementary

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Alissa Drowns, Camille Bothe, & Mary Salazar

$1,223 ea.

Indoor Lettuce Grow Farmstand

The Lettuce Grow Farmstand will be a student-operated project located in each classroom. The farmstand will grow a variety of lettuce, other leafy greens, and seasonal fruits using sustainable and organic practices. Students will be involved in all aspects of the farmstand, from planting and caring for the crops to harvesting. Finally, students will have the opportunity to eat all of the fruits and vegetables that they grow.

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Camille Bothe

$1,000

Art Club Pilot Program

Providing students with access to an art curriculum has endless benefits to each elementary student. From an academic standpoint, art sparks creativity, inspires inventiveness, and boosts critical thinking skills. From a social/emotional standpoint, art integration can lower stress, is a medium for expression, and helps to promote resiliency. Art is essential to creating well-rounded individuals, as Dana Gioia says, “The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.”

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Cynthia Gilman

$1,800

Choir Accompanist

With each new year, in every subject, students are challenged to expand their knowledge, skills, and capacity to grow not only mentally and physically, but emotionally, interacting sensitively with the world around them. Choir provides a musical avenue to not only think abstractly, by learning to read the musical symbols; develop the physical and mental skills of listening, breath control, and developing the voice, but also expressing and responding to the broad expression of music through the various stories or events events that inspired the music - from joy to sorrow, reflection to abandon, from the profane to the profound. Choir is an opportunity for students to explore new venues of musical expression.

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Heather Blue

$450

​Mobile Planetarium Visit

The mobile Bremerton allows students to climb into the dome and travel in space to our moon and all 8 planets. CKLA Knowledge Unit 6 is all about astronomy.

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Suquamish Elementary

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Konni Boll

$1,000

72 book bags , 60 Scholastic books

This grant would allow me to create grade appropriate book bags for students in the Title/LAP reading groups to take home on a weekly basis. The bags would include two fiction and one non-fiction book at the student’s level, purchased through Scholastic Books and thrift stores. They would also include a simple handout with reading strategies encouraging family involvement in reading. Students would return their current book bag and receive a new book bag each week of school. A larger selection of books could be sent home over the summer. [...] These books would also provide an additional exposure to the reading skills they are developing in the classroom and in small group instruction. I would use reading improvement data and family surveys to determine the success of this book bag program, and hope to extend it to our other grade level Title/LAP groups next year.

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Lori Prantil

$400

Attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

I am the Math TOSA at Suquamish Elementary. [...] By attending this conference, it would allow me to get updated on new techniques that are used and new ways of approaching a concept in multiple ways. Some kids need repeated exposure to the same concept, but in different ways. This conference would allow me to learn those new techniques. and to share them with staff in our building.

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Misty  Hernandez

$765

Art Supplies

“There is only one you in this great big world. Make it a better place.” These words are from the book “Only One You” by Linda Kranz. 10 years ago, my fourth grade class led a school-wide project to create a river rock path out in front of our school where students, staff, families, and community members painted a rock. If you have ever visited Suquamish Elementary, I am certain you have seen our river rock path. As things tend to do with time and the elements of the weather, our river rock path is fading and needing a refresh. I would like to have my current third grade class lead a school-wide effort to remind us of the theme of the book and the significance of the river rock and what it symbolizes. I would also like to lead the effort in cleaning it up and adding new fish and new designs for our current students, staff, families, and community members.

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Randall Wood

$1,337

Bremerton OrKIDstra & Seattle Symphony

This project will provide 111 students in grades 4 and 5 with transformative music education experiences, exposing them to professional orchestras and live performances. Through the Bremerton WestSound Symphony’s OrKIDstra concert and the Seattle Symphony’s Link Up program, students will engage directly with orchestral music, deepening their understanding of musical concepts and fostering a love for the arts. The hands-on, interactive nature of these experiences will not only broaden their cultural horizons but also enhance classroom learning by connecting music to subjects like history, literature, and math. By participating in these performances, students will develop critical listening, collaboration, and creativity skills, helping to cultivate well-rounded learners. Additionally, thanks to NKSF's support, student-composed pieces from both Suquamish and Pearson Elementary were premiered by the Seattle Symphony, inspiring future musical exploration.

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Reanna Rapada

$750

Art Club

Art has the power to inspire, build confidence, and ignite creativity in students, but our elementary schools in North Kitsap lack the resources to nurture these talents outside the classroom. I am seeking to extend my experience of an after-school art club that will provide a safe, creative space for students to explore various art forms, develop technical skills, and express themselves freely. This program will foster collaboration, enhance problem-solving abilities, and boost self-esteem through artistic achievements.

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Angela Hanson

$1,406

Gross Motor play equipment

Suquamish Elementary has been a fantastic environment for our exceptional students and for our early childhood education program, which is now expanding to include a third homeschool. As special education grows at Suquamish, we aim to create outdoor opportunities for play within a traditional K-5 setting, where appropriate gross motor structures and equipment are currently limited. These structures and equipment will benefit our young learners and provide valuable resources by providing equipment tailored to our students’ gross motor skill levels.

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Vinland Elementary

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Anna Saavedra

$1,120

Burke Museum Burkemobile, plus 2 Burke Boxes

4th and 5th graders will be studying these topics in self-directed learning projects in ELA, social studies, STI and science, and are prepared for a deepening, extension and enrichment of their learning through experiencing the museum materials.

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Jennifer Lorella

$2,672

2nd Annual Multicultural Diversity Fair

Our focus this year is on people throughout the world that have made our world a better place. We will have an assembly, a school walkthrough, “living museum” where a student from each class will dress up as someone who inspired the class. During the walkthrough, each student will also have a Passport - filled with positive messages and self reflection tasks leading up to the event. When they tour the school, it will be the same experience. In the evening, the community will have a chance to review the same living museum will be displayed and we will have (potentially) three events for the parents:

• FreeRice, a trivia game that with every successful answer will feed a family.

• Charity Miles - exercise that helps raise money to benefit children, their environments and provide food for them as well.

• Humanitarian Aid project with StandUpForkids (local chapter) that helps youth in the throes of homelessness.

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Paula Krasowski

$4,000

State Capitol Educational Tour

Traditionally at Vinland, the 4th grade students take a field trip to Olympia to visit our state capitol. When students are asked what they are looking forward to in 4th grade, this is the one event they mention most often. It has been our experience that many students (and parents) have never visited the State Capitol or even been to Olympia. Most students also have little to no idea about how laws are made, how the election process works, or understand the different branches of government. The well informed, professional tour guides at the capitol explain all this, as well as give a history of when and how it was constructed. Some years we are lucky and get to see the legislators in session.