The Sportsmanship Superstar initiative is a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program (PBIS) designed to promote positive peer interactions and reduce disciplinary incidents during recess for students in grades K-2. The initiative reinforces good sportsmanship by recognizing and rewarding students who demonstrate fair play, kindness, and respect during recess.  The grant will purchase a sportsmanship video, soar tickets, and prizes.

The grant will purchase a classroom set of the Scholastic Storyworks magazine for a Lexington Elementary 5th-grade class. 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.

The grant will be used to fund hands-on materials, models, and tools that support active exploration and deeper understanding of life Science concepts taught in Transitional Kindergarten through 5^th grade.                

It will also purchase an aquatic chiller for the classroom axolotl to ensure it remains healthy in a stable, appropriate environment. Having An axolotl in the classroom provides students with a unique, living model to observe key life science concepts firsthand.

The grant will provide 5^th grade resource room students with Summer Bridge Activities, 5^th- 6^th Grade Workbooks, and copies of the novel Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova. These students are on IEP’s and benefit greatly from structured, engaging summer learning resources. The goal is to prevent summer learning loss, reinforce key academic and social skills, and support a positive transition to middle school.

The grant will purchase more sports biographies, non-fiction graphic novels, and popular series collections for ALL students for the Lexington library. The goal is to get students more excited about reading and engaged in stories that will foster imagination and growth in all areas of their lives.  All Lexington Elementary students will be impacted as they will have the opportunity to choose books that are interesting and exciting to them, personally, and therefore will be fully engaged in reading, causing growth in many areas of their lives.

The grant monies would provide much needed 'brain fuel' for at-risk children inside Lexington Elementary School. The Social Emotional Center (TSEC) is open to all students but serves mainly tier 2 and 3 students. The goal of the TSEC room is to be proactive and help students that are regularly dysregulated in class. One reason students become dysregulated is because they are hungry or have food insecurity issues. If a hungry student does not have the skills to regulate themselves or speak up for what they need, they can escalate to the point of destroying the classroom and causing learning to stop.

TSEC does not have a budget they can pull from to buy snacks for the children. The three individuals that run TSEC at Lexington have often purchased snacks for tier 2 and 3 kids out of our own pockets. The grant will buy things like cereal, crackers, fresh fruit, yogurt, and other options that kids might enjoy. The snacks would be available to all students that come into TSEC and for students that come to school late and have not had breakfast.

This grant provides the needed funding to provide running shoes for low-income and at-risk students in our growing Cross-country program. By offering this essential equipment, the financial barriers that prevent many students from participating or hindering their performance are removed. 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.

The grant will purchase trifold poster boards, construction paper, scrapbook paper, sharpies, scissors, and glue sticks for a class project where students are able to research a career of their choice within the technology field. Students complete a written assignment answering numerous questions with information based upon their research, they then create a tri fold poster featuring all their information. Students then present their information at a "Career Fair" where students participate in a gallery walk and see what careers their classmates researched.

A goal at Coweeman Middle School is to make their counseling services and lessons accessible to all in an equitable way.  The grant will purchase Chromebook carts and licenses for Screencastify. Stations would be used for students to sign up for counseling, make reports with concerns, and for parents to also be able to access these services.  Additionally, this technology can be used at parent events to help educate families on skyward, show them how to access the systems, and gain feedback from key community members through surveys.

The grant will fund a podcast/video channel for the CMS counseling center with content related to the three domains of counseling that are universal to all students: Academic, Career, and Social/Emotional.  The desired outcome is to be able to produce content within these domains that maybe used in lessons for all students to gain skills and knowledge with the overall goal of reaching more of the district goals (attendance, grades, graduation rate, engagement in post-secondary, etc.).  The district is currently absent from a foundational curriculum for all students to gain universal skills, these lessons will be a step in the direction of giving all students access.  

The grant will provide a yearly subscription to the Scholastic SCOPE Magazine. The subscription provides our at-risk population lessons that: -are relevant and pertain to current and past world events -encourages exploration, collaboration, and discussion-increase understanding and appreciation for cultural similarities and differences - reinforces literacy skills that align with WA State ELA standards, as well as the WIDA standards (Multilingual Standards). The subscription provides access to lesson plans, printable resources, translated documents, ability to share whole class videos pertaining to the article, and the ability to assign assignments within a Google Classroom.

The grant will allow HMS to start an After-School Intramural program, currently no funding is available to support this program. The first six weeks will focus on hand and machine sewing. Students will be taught how to do the projects and will be able to implement these skills using their creativity. 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, plus having the ability to make new items.

The grant will help offset the cost of testing fees for students who speak a home language other than English as well as upper-level World Language students (mainly Spanish-speaking, but proficiency tests are available in other languages as well) - They will be able to earn high school and/or college credits as well as the Seal of Biliteracy.

The wider community will benefit from visible institutional value and promotion of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The reduced AP exam fee is expensive for many of our students, and they have expressed concern and hesitation about taking the exam at this cost.

Kelso High School will be hosting the 8th Annual No Limits Track Meet. This area event is designed to allow students to celebrate their individual skillsets and participate in a fun and exciting day. Events include assisted running/walking, wheelchair and trike races, standing and running long jump, bowling ball push, and tennis ball /Frisbee / softball / javelin throws. The grant will be used to purchase the correct weighted balls and additional ramps for the bowling Ball Push.

Students in wheelchairs or needing mobility assistance will now be able to participate in the bowling ball push and not just participate but be empowered to compete in the event with little to no assistance giving them a mark achieved truly on their own and an additional opportunity to showcase their abilities.

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 all students use the same calculator, they can learn how to apply it to their coursework without financial barriers. 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.

This grant provides the needed funding to provide running shoes for low-income and at-risk students in our growing Cross-country program. By offering this essential equipment, the financial barriers that prevent many students from participating or hindering their performance are removed. 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.

The Family and Consumer Science programs at Kelso High School are rapidly growing as well as their associated Career and Technical Student Organization, FCCLA. The financial commitment required to attend FCCLA conferences is a barrier to a lot of students as it requires students to follow a professional dress code including the FCCLA Blazer ($60-75), polo or white dress shirt, black slacks, skirts or sheath dresses and professional shoes. This can often be a deterrent to students who would like to participate but are unable to afford the required attire.

The grant funds would purchase blazers to start a professional closet in which students can borrow FCCLA blazers. Having FCCLA blazers for our students to check out will remove financial barriers for our low-income students and provide them with the opportunity to participate in after school programs that connect to their classroom learning.

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). The Career Center has a closet of donated graduation robes for students to borrow but caps, tassels, and stoles must be purchased for students annually.
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The grant will be used to 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. Items will be purchased specifically to the student’s size and" professional" attire comfort level.

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.

Students are required to have notebooks for classes. Not all students can afford multiple notebooks. The library has donated notebooks which get taken by needy students within the first week of school. The National Guard has donated notebooks in the past but no longer can meet the need. The grant will purchase bulk college ruled notebooks to offer to students in need.

Spirit Art has been creating art to promote a positive and welcoming school environment for the past 7 years. Students create big installations by drawing and painting several smaller things to add to a bigger scene. Some examples include the winter snowmen and the Keith Haring "Impact" characters and flowers lining the stage in the Commons area. The grant will fund an Art-O-Graph Projector and a “Cay do 100" Art Projector. This technology is needed to create more work and explore the idea of making murals.