The Santa Barbara Education Foundation (SBEF) will award 71 grants to teachers in the Santa Barbara Unified School District, totaling $100,000 to help meet the needs of their students.
Since 2018, SBEF has offered Santa Barbara Unified teachers grants of from $250 to $5,000 to promote innovative teaching and to buy classroom supplies. With this grant cycle completed, SBEF has awarded more than $475,000 to teachers over the past five years.
This year’s grants will help purchase a variety of items, including Spanish language books, field hockey equipment, printmaking supplies, a field trip to La Purisima Mission, and a music recording studio.
For some teachers, it’s an opportunity to bring tech into the classroom with subject-specific funding like the Gretler Foundation STEM Grant. This year the grant will fund an LED Light Project for sixth-graders at Adams Elementary School, and robots for a coding project at McKinley Elementary School’s STEAM lab.
For Diana Hemsley, an art teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School, the grant will fund a project to teach students that their ideas have a place on their campuses and community.
“This grant will provide the funding necessary to purchase the materials and supplies needed to complete a mural for the school,” Hemsley said. “The mural will be designed, painted, and installed by students.
“This project was designed to involve all students in beautifying and creating pride and spirit in their school and contributing to their community.”
Although there is much to celebrate for the Santa Barbara Education Foundation with another round of funding completed, there are hopes to expand the program to address growing needs in local classrooms.
“This year, we saw an overwhelming amount of well-deserved grant applications totaling over $330,000 in requests,” said Katie Szopa, SBEF programs manager. “With only $100,000 to distribute this year, my hope is to fund-raise significantly more next year to fund as many of these teacher grant requests as possible. “
The Santa Barbara Education Foundation will host an awards presentation to celebrate the Teacher Grant recipients on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The SBEF started in 1985 when a group of concerned parents came together to support teachers by offering small grants for classroom supplies. Today, SBEF promotes private support of Santa Barbara’s public education system and serves some 12,700 students in 19 schools. For more information, visit www.santabarbaraeducation.org.