Grant Recipients Announced By Valley View Educational Enrichment Foundation

ROMEOVILLE, IL — The Valley View Educational Enrichment Foundation and Valley View School District 365U have teamed up to award a combined 38 grants totaling more than $40,000 to teachers and administrators to be used for programs during the 2017-18 school year.

The VVEEF issued 28 of the grants from its own funding sources, and worked with the VVSD administration to find additional funding sources for 10 more grants to allow funding for nearly nine of 10 grant applications submitted.

“We continue to be inspired by all of the creative grant submissions this year,” said Mike Lawler, president of the foundation. “These programs truly make a difference in the lives of our youth.”

Among programs funded are the VVSD Elementary School Battle of the Books, the 2018 Middle School Writer’s Conference, the VVSD Middle School STEM Fair and VVSD’s new all-district college celebration “Oh the Places You’ll Go!”

Grants by school include:

• Independence Elementary School—Vocabulary Instruction for Enhancing Reading, Non-fiction Connection with True-Fix, Digital Diversity, Little Fact Finders, and 3 HearBuilders Collection on-line subscription
• Oak View Elementary School—Achieving Key learning Outcomes
• Salk Elementary School—Let’s Eat-Food and Nutrition Science
• Skoff & Tibbott elementary schools—Literary Lunch Bunch
• S.T.E.P—Transition Transportation Training
• Tibbott Elementary School—I-Invent Makerspace; Coding Wizards, Under One Sun—A Multicultural Celebration; Light, Camera, Action; Families That Read Together Succeed Together; Book Talks Come Alive; STEM Fun; and Engaging Minds-Learning Spaces
• Wood View Elementary School—Videography in the MakerSpace
• Brooks Middle School—Mindstorms EV3 Robotic Toolset; Mock Sibert Award; Media Center’s Manga Madness; One Book One Grade; Ready, Set Goal; Bringing in the Whole Family; The Book Fairy Returns; Battle of the Books 2018; Huff, Fluff and Great Stuff; and Free Your Mind with the Book Club
• Humphrey Middle School—Collaborative Classroom Makeover and Ingenuity through I-Pads
• Lukancic Middle School—MakerSpace and Making 3-D a Reality
• Romeoville High School—Spartan Prairie

Grant requests outlining program goals must be submitted by Feb. 1 for the upcoming school year. The grants are evaluated by an anonymous panel of judges who score each grant against criteria established by the foundation Board. The foundation's board of directors approves a funding level based upon donations received and anticipated from their fundraising events.

The foundation then reviews the grants proposed for funding with district administration and seeks official approval from the school board.

“We truly appreciate the effort of each grant applicant for taking the time to write and submit the grant as well as delivery the program once approved.” Lawler said. “We also appreciate the support and cooperation of the school board and district administration in this process. And, of course, none of this would be possible without the tremendous generosity of the community for the last 23 years. “

The foundation holds two major fundraising events each year, the annual dinner and auction in March and the Golf Outing in June.

The foundation, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, serves the students of the district in Bolingbrook and Romeoville by funding educational programs designed by teachers, administrators, and others. Since 1994, the foundation has provided over $1.5 million to fund over 900 programs covering such areas as reading, math, science, music, amongst others.

More information about the foundation may be found at www.vveef.org. Donations from the community are accepted at the site by clicking on Donate and Make a Donation.

Submitted by Valley View School District

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