Clipper Foundation to Recognize 2015 Grant Award Winners May 19 at Discover Portsmouth Center

The Clipper Foundation is pleased to announce it will award five Seacoast-area teaching projects with grant awards during a special presentation on May 19 at the Discover Portsmouth Center.

The grant awards represent a combined $30,000 in funding for new and innovative programming for students at schools throughout the Portsmouth School District, as well as at Greenland Central School in Greenland, N.H.

“The Clipper Foundation is thrilled to award $30,000 in grants to area schools in just our second year of operations,” said Stu Levenson, president of the Clipper Foundations’ Board of Directors. “The projects that will be funded through this year’s grant awards represent an eclectic mixture of educational opportunities for students all throughout the local community. All of the teachers involved deserve a tremendous amount of credit for developing programs that will not only support, but enhance the classroom curriculum in innovative ways.”

Grant awards recipients include:

• A Greenhouse Project for Portsmouth Middle School submitted by Student Services Teacher Lyndsey Bouzakine — This grant will fund the purchase of a greenhouse along with benches, tables, and shelving for Portsmouth Middle School. The overall project and purpose of the greenhouse will bring awareness of health and nutrition to students while teaching them sustainability. Specifically, the greenhouse will be used to teach students about the growing process and to grow healthy foods for students.
• Who We Are Project for Portsmouth High School submitted by high school teachers Samuel Tombarelli and Kate Brunelle — This grant will fund a student-led project to makeover the main entrance foyer at PHS to visually reflect “who we are” as a school community. The spirit of PHS from 1827 to the present will be researched by students and presented in a professional, creative manner with in-kind consulting from Infinite Imaging. The result will be a visually stunning, living history of PHS that all who visit PHS will be able to enjoy.
• Growing Readers-Growing Minds for New Franklin Elementary School submitted by Reading Specialist Linda Beal — This project will build a lending library of “just right” books for students in grades K-2 to be borrowed during after school hours and summer months. The books will be delivered to students over the summer with the goals of promoting independent readers, making books more accessible to low income families, and extending the school day and school year while providing additional literacy exposure to our neediest population.
• PHS FIRST Robotics Competition Team for Portsmouth High School submitted by Math Teacher Steve Barry — This grant will fund a pilot project and start up costs for a Portsmouth High School competitive robotics team. Partnering with New Heights, PHS is excited to offer an opportunity for PHS students to connect with technical mentors and experience engineering in the professional world. The team of 15-20 members will compete in a competition in March of 2016.
• Innovation Lab for Greenland Central School submitted by Curriculum Integration and Extended Learning Coordinator Beth Sommers — This grant will create an “Innovation Lab” by transforming a GCS classroom into a hub of excitement that engages students in problem solving, applying knowledge, and simulating real-world experiences. The grant provides for sophisticated computers that can support 3-D visualization software. It will create a scaffolded, instructional approach (Explore-Create-Share) to foster student learning and innovation in product development will be used and grounded in project-based, interdisciplinary, STEM activities.

The Clipper Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to funding teacher driven grants for programs that promote curriculum enhancements, innovative programming and partnerships within the community that would not typically be funded within the normal school budget. For more information on the Clipper Foundation, visit www.clipperfoundation.org.

Media/Photo Opportunity

When: Tuesday, May 19th at 5 p.m.

Where: Discover Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle St., Portsmouth