Barnes Elementary is a Title I school with a high percentage of students that have food needs. TSEC (The Social Emotional Center) is open to all students but serves mainly Tier II and Tier III students. The goal of the TSEC room is to be proactive and help students that are regularly unregulated in class. One of the main reasons that students become unregulated is because they are hungry.

The KPSF Grant will purchase cereal, crackers, fruit snacks, yogurt, and other things students might enjoy and need, which will allow them to function and learn better at school.

The grant will purchase high-visibility vests and stop flags for the Barnes Elementary Safety Patrol Team. The leadership students currently man the five main crosswalks at Barnes with old and tattered stop flags and used adult-sized vests.  The grant will provide safety and properly fitting attire for these students.

The grant will purchase Play-Doh, art supplies such as crayons, markers and color books, board games, card games, and skills, mindfulness books, and a Play tent. The Social Emotional Center at Barnes Elementary works mainly with students that have behavior concerns.

Some of our supports for the students are check in check out, scheduled regulation breaks, connection breaks, skills groups, recess support, push into classroom support, unscheduled breaks and lunch bunch. All these help students learn new skills and expand the skills they already have. These tools will keep TSEC sustainable in helping students regulate and build relationships with students.

The staff at Butler Acres are dedicated to ensuring every student can receive the best education possible, which means they need to be present at school! They have decided to provide an attendance incentive for students who make it every day for one month- these will receive prizes for their attendance. The KPSF Grant would purchase the prizes needed to award these deserving students.

The grant provides hands-on experience with owl pellets and observation opportunities of live animals in a safe environment. Teachers can provide an owl pellet dissection activity for all 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th graders. It will also provide a live animal observation station in the STEAM room including fish and snails.

These opportunities will help cover the Science Standards in Life Science that explore the structure and behavior of living things, animal needs, and the food chain and develop an excitement and love in the area of Life Science.

The feeling of belonging in school is vital for academic success.  Students who feel accepted and valued are more likely to develop confidence and engage actively in their learning.  The grant will purchase a colored printer, ink and photo paper to support a student of the week project throughout the school year. 

Students will be randomly selected to share cool things about themselves and to document this with pictures to be posted on the bulletin board for others to read and learn about them.

The grant will purchase a classroom set of the Scholastic Storyworks magazine for a Lexington Elementary 5th-gradeclass. These magazines are full of rigorous fictional and nonfictional concepts and align with 5th-grade common core standards. Reading these magazines will bring a sense of excitement every month for students.

The subscription also includes access to the scholastic website, there are videos, slide shows, read-aloud, and rigorous work that will help students. Learning will not stop in the classroom with this magazine, the idea is to bring reading into Kelso homes. Once done with the Storyworks lessons in the classroom students will bring their magazines home to enjoy them with their families. Students will be prompted to read and learn with their families with the help of Scholastic Storyworks and myself.

Research emphasizes the importance of hands-on experiences in science education. Providing students with opportunities to measure and conduct experiments personally enhances their understanding of scientific concepts. This grant will purchase the essential measuring tools including digital scales, hook scales, graduated cylinders, balance scale, and triple beam scale. These tools not only cultivate a scientific mindset but also reinforce mathematical concepts integrated into the general education curriculum.

The grant will provide more culturally diverse and career readiness books for the Lexington Elementary library. The goal is to get students more excited about reading and engaged in stories that will foster imaginations and growth in all areas of their lives.

The grant purchases science kits that connect with NGSS science standards providing teachers with the supplies and tools to have students conduct hands-on experiments and explore the scientific process in action!

The kits include everything needed to set up experiment stations with inquiry-based questions for students. Stations will include opportunities for students to work with microscopes, pulleys, make 3-D models, engage with vocabulary, interact with full-color charts making science concepts easy to grasp.

The grant will purchase T-EZ Scan, the program used to scan their mileage, lanyards to hold QR codes, tokens for each mile students complete, prizes for incentives and certificates of achievement.  The Eagles Running Club Intramural is open for TK-5^th graders and meets Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Currently 70 students attend each session, along with several parent volunteers.

The grant will purchase the books needed to build a 2^nd grade classroom library at Lexington Elementary School. Expanding the book collection and creating a vibrant and engaging space that fosters a love for reading, supports literacy development, and meets diverse reading levels. This is important for developing students’ essential literacy skills.

The library will provide access to high quality, relevant literature, and provide more opportunities for practicing reading and provide a resource rich environment.

In occupational therapy, occupational therapists (OTs), and certified occupational therapy assistants (COTAs)continuously and creatively search for ways to promote self-regulation for the students we serve. Many students in special education, and specifically the students who receive occupational therapy support, demonstrate increased challenges with self-regulation as compared to typically developing peers.

The grant will provide the occupational therapists and COTA employed with Kelso School District a variety of materials to use with students in support of promoting student regulation and better learning outcomes for both students on caseload, and others in their classrooms.

Think about the last time you played a board game. There are so many mathematical ideas that are built into playing games that allow you to practice math concepts without even realizing it. The grant will purchase a collection of math games/materials that will become a math play station at each building in the district.

Through this project we hope to encourage and build the mathematical skills of our students through games and foster a deeper love and appreciation for math and demonstrate that math is and can be fun!

Many of the students in special education lack the core strength to be able to maintain an appropriate posture in their seats and therefore accessing academics is more difficult for them as compared to typical peers. When posture is reduced, this has many implications including a student's ability to attend as well as a student's ability to produce their best work.

The grant will purchase adaptive seating (t-stools and cube chairs) as well as a mini trampoline. When used in conjunction, the trampoline can work to strengthen a student's core, and the use of adaptive seating can continue to build on strength that was gained. While the trampoline would be used during one specified chunk of time, the adaptive seating can be used throughout the student's school day.

HMS is starting an After-School Intramural Sewing Club with no funding available to support the program. The club will help students learn how to do sewing projects and the students will be able to implement these skills using their creativity for these home projects.

The Life Skills that these students learn are invaluable, they will be able to maintain their clothing by repairing and/or upcycling from their wardrobes and thrift shops, and they will have the ability to make new items. The grant will help provide the materials needed to make the club successful for students.

The grant will purchase materials for an intermural Sewing Club.  The first six weeks will be hand and machine sewing. Students will learn how to how to do the projects and then challenged to implement these skills using their creativity to complete the projects at home. The Life Skills that these students learn are invaluable now and as they continue to Kelso High School.

After KHS, the students will be able to maintain their clothing by repairing and/or upcycling from their wardrobes and thrift shops, besides the ability to make new items. The Sewing Club will meet FACS State Standards and 21st Century Skills. This Intramural is vital to students that have not had the opportunity to take FACS at HMS due to schedule conflicts and students that are in AVID, Leadership, Music, and Yearbook. All students need to learn these Life Skills.

The grant will purchase a classroom Pocketalk device in the classroom to increase student interaction for non-English speaking students. Not only will it support teacher to student communication, but most importantly, student to student communication and interaction. students, who speak another language, will be able to use the device with their English-speaking peers.

Many students who speak Ukrainian will be able to communicate with Spanish speaking students. Pocketalk will provide a platform for them to speak, share their thinking, and ask questions. It will empower students and give them a "voice" in our classroom and in their education.

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is an approach Huntington Middle School uses to promote and reward good behavior. With PBIS, students are taught about behavior expectations and strategies. The focus of PBIS is prevention, not punishment. The goal is to use strategies to encourage, reinforce, and acknowledge positive behavior. With positive behavior rewarded, we hope to have an increased sense of belonging to the school, a sense of safety and pride along with improved academic achievement.

The grant would provide the monies needed to provide students with Gold Pack Tickets when they are recognized for using the core values of being respectful, responsible, safe, or kind. Students then are allowed to use those tickets to "purchase" rewards in our student store or entry into a reward event.

The Helping Huskies Thrive project is designed to help support students’ school-wide, with a focus on Tier 2, Tier 3, and Special Education students. This project targets the social-emotional needs of our at-risk population, ensuring that students receive the necessary emotional and behavioral support to succeed.

One of our goals is to be proactive and help students that are regularly unregulated in class. The grant will fund a key component of the project by providing snacks to students in need. Whether it’s for emotional regulation, or for a student that arrives late and breakfast is over. This project seeks to foster a safe and positive relationship between school and students, creating an environment where all students feel supported, valued, connected, regulated and not hungry.

The grant will fund snacks for middle school students attending small group counseling sessions.  The goal is to create a welcoming, inclusive environment that addresses students’ basic needs, helping them feel comfortable and valued during these sessions. 

Meeting their physical needs will foster a space where they are better able to focus, engage, and participate in group discussions.  Small gestures like offering snacks can help students feel cared for and valued, building trust between students and school staff.

The Coweeman Middle School counselors are engaging families with the work they are doing to prepare all 6-8th students for success in school as well as life outside of school. The grant will purchase supplies to run a series of parent educational events (at least monthly) that would range in topics from social media safety, managing stress, talking to students about drugs, bullying prevention, etc.

The desired outcome will be to have parents attend these events, increasing their involvement with the work being done at school. In educating parents, all students at CMS can potentially be impacted by having consistent messaging around attending school daily, passing classes, and behaving respectfully.

Eighty two percent of the new AP Spanish Language and Culture course is made up of students who qualify for a reduced testing fees based on home income. After reviewing future enrollment, it can reasonably be expected that future AP Spanish students will have similar demographics and needs.

The reduced AP exam fee ($62) is expensive for many of the students, and they have expressed concern and hesitation about taking the exam at this cost. The grant will help offset the cost of taking the exam for these students.

The grant will purchase calculators for the KHS library that students can check out as needed. Students in math classes have access to a classroom set of calculators, though these need to remain in classrooms. On a trimester schedule, students could be in classes (math, science, special education, or other) that require calculators and not have access to them outside of school. The ability to have their own calculator to check out eliminates a financial burden on families and is critical to student success at KHS.

The grant will purchase calculators to be used in the geometry and UW Pre-Calculus courses. Most of the students do not have their own calculators. The desired outcome/goal is to have a classroom set of calculators that are all the same so the instructor can lead lessons with them, teach students how to use them, and not let finances be a burden for students who cannot afford their own calculator.

Students who have been identified as Multilingual Learners (formerly English Language Learners) are enrolled in a Language Arts class that is specially designed to help them strengthen their English language speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills while earning a Language Arts credit. This class is designed to help ML students develop their academic language skills and confidence with the English language.

To help students build confidence, it is important that they have access to materials that are written at the appropriate level of difficulty. The grant will support these students by providing a subscription to Scholastic Action magazine for each student. These monthly publications contain a variety of high-interest short fiction stories/dramas and a range of informational texts that address topics of interest to teen readers. 

The grant will buy snacks to keep in the counseling center for students who are hungry in between classes or miss out on a meal. Often students come into the counseling center and ask for snacks, currently counselors are purchasing these snacks with their own money. 

Donations from the CRC are not available as not all kids who are hungry are not homeless or McKinny-Vento. The grant would enable the counselors to provide students snacks that can help them better engage in their school day.

The grant will assist students of low socio-economic status purchase clothing that can be worn for interviews and special occasions: dress shirts, sport jackets, dress shoes for male and female students, dress socks, nylons/tights, slacks, skirts dresses etc. The items will be purchased specific to the students size and "professional" attire comfort level.

The grant will purchase Wipebooks, a reusable flip chart that makes it easier to have students stand up, move around the room, share their work, work as a group, and easily make mistakes and learn how to fix their mistakes. These Wipebooks will make student learning more interactive and allow them to take ownership of their learning as they can make mistakes, try things and explore, experiment, etc., while also having large enough surfaces to share their work safely and easily with classmates.

The grant will be used to assist students of low socio-economic status purchase the required graduation apparel (caps, grad year tassel, KHS grad year stole). NOTE: The Career Center has closet of donated graduation robes for students to borrow.  Every year we have students that cannot afford to purchase the required graduation attire. Emails go out for staff and local businesses to personally sponsor the purchase of the required materials.

The $500 grant would supplement those efforts. Cap and gown packages cost $50. A stole and tassel purchased in a set aside from the cap and gown cost $30.

This grant will provide funding for students to access post-secondary testing which includes the ACT, SAT, or PSAT tests where fee waivers are not always available. Also, if fee waivers are available, some students may not qualify but may still need financial support. The grant will remove the financial barrier for students that are wanting and/or needing to access these assessments that will provide them the opportunity to not only participate in testing but prepare for them for their postsecondary goals such as applying for colleges.

Most students do not have their own calculators. The grant will purchase a classroom set of calculators so lessons can be taught using them. If every student has the same calculator, they can be taught how to use them for their particular content, and finances will not be an issue in students learning math.

The calculators are used in the higher-level math classes at Kelso so having students used to using them throughout their careers at Kelso for math, science, or other classes is ideal.

The KVA Collective aims to provide an enriching, hands-on art learning experience for students whom many have limited opportunities for in person learning due to their on-line education program. Integrating ceramics into their day will foster creativity, promote real world life skills, and build a stronger connection between the school and the diverse community served. The grant will fund 11 clay workshops, 200 pounds of clay, underglaze, and glaze for students.

Kelso School District is dedicated to the mission of "preparing every student for living, learning, and achieving success as a citizen of our changing world". By partnering with Lower Columbia Gardens (LCSG), the district is actively working toward this mission by providing hands-on education, empowering students to cultivate their green thumbs while nurturing a deeper understanding of food systems and environmental stewardship.

Through experiential lessons in science, math, and nutrition, students witness the magic of see- to-harvest, fostering healthier eating habits and a lifelong appreciation for nature. This project isn't just about planting seeds; it's about sowing the seeds of curiosity, responsibility, and community engagement. The grant will help to provide the necessary tools and resources, the project will cultivate more than just crops — it will cultivate future leaders who are passionate about sustainability and equipped with the skills to make a positive impact in their communities.

This grant provides the needed funding to provide running shoes for low-income and at-risk students in our growing Track and Field programs. By offering this essential equipment, we help remove financial barriers that prevent many students from participating or hindering their performance. The grant will help promote inclusion, safety, and success for all athletes, ensuring that every student can join the team and thrive, regardless of their economic background.