Photo Credit: Grande Prairie Public School Division

By Shane Clausing

Community

Over $50,000 in grants handed out to Grande Prairie Public Schools

Dec 10, 2020 | 2:21 PM

Over $50,000 has been handed out to 17 different Grande Prairie schools this week thanks to the Grande Prairie Public School Division’s Education Foundation.

The Education Foundation has been giving money to schools for years and helps supply them with much-needed equipment.

The grant program gets its money through fundraising through various different programs, community groups and events during the year. It also participates in raffles and casinos.

Shaundra Siebert, the Executive Director of the Education Foundation, says that the goal of this program is to help out as many kids as possible.

“Every year in September at the start of the school year, an application package is sent out to all the teachers and all the program leads in the division to review what their needs are for the school year.”

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“We collect those applications until early November, and then the Board of Directors set their monthly board meeting to deliberate on the applications and award the funds to the different projects.”

Every year, the Education Foundation receives multiple applications from every school in the GPPSD. Siebert says that there was an uptick in new equipment requests this year.

“This year we did see just about double the requests for funding and a lot of that is in line with the response to the pandemic. These health measures sort of limit the sharing of items within schools and different things that would add up to more needs for the schools.”

With over $50,000 handed out to schools, there were many different pieces of equipment handed purchased:

• Alexander Forbes School – Learning Support Items – $3,000
• Aspen Grove School – Online Literacy Subscriptions & Learning Kits – $2,275
• Avondale School – Replacement of Laminator – $2,704
• Charles Spencer High School – Student Store Startup, Document Cameras, and Student Subscriptions for Online Computer Technology Learning- $5,398
• Crystal Park School – Manipulative Math Learning Kits – $3,000
• Derek Taylor Public School – Schoolwide Fine Arts Project and Laptop to Support Special Needs – $2,470
• École Montrose – Incubators and Alternative Seating – $3,000
• Grande Prairie Composite High School – Greenhouse – $750
• Hillside Community School – Laptops – $3,000
• Isabell Campbell Public School – Cross Country Skis – $4,000
• I.V. Macklin Public School – Phys. Ed Equipment – $2,553
• Maude Clifford Public School – OSMO Kits, Visual Working Memory Games, Online Literacy Subscriptions, and Musical Instruments – $3,622
• Parkside Montessori – Laptops and Guided Reading Books- $3,540
• Peace Collaborative Services – Visual Communication Boards – $737
• Riverstone Public School – Cross Country Skis – $4,000
• Roy Bickell Public School – Coding & Robotics Learning Materials – $4,000
• Swanavon School – iPads – $2,639

“The biggest goal is to spread the money available out as best as possible amongst all the projects,” said Siebert. “Some projects are (already) partially funded. So, we help out with them and other ones are fully funded depending on the amount of the request.”

One of the most notable items was Roy Bickell Public School receiving money to purchase new Coding & Robotics Learning Materials. Siebert says this is a program that is growing amongst the schools.

“It’s a popular item with the kids,” added Siebert. “Very innovative and kind of one of those weaving into the future items.”

The hope is that students can benefit from this new equipment for years to come.