District 99 Education Foundation Awards $15,350 in Grants to Schools, Scholarship

The District 99 Education Foundation announces it will give away $15,350 in grants this month to benefit the two schools of Community High School District 99, North High School and South High School in Downers Grove.

The grant recipients will be recognized at the District 99 Board of Education meeting on May 16, 2011 at 7 p.m. at South High School, located at 1436 Norfolk in Downers Grove.

“We are thrilled to be able to fund these very deserving grant requests,” says District 99 Education Foundation President Eric Olson. “Our Foundation members know how crucial it is to incorporate new technology into the classroom, because it ultimately increases student learning.”

“The amount of research and thoughtfulness that went into the teacher grant requests was impressive,” said Grant Committee Chair Ken Rathje. “We are empowering these teachers to take their profession to the next level of excellence.” 

Each year, the Foundation accepts grant requests from teachers in District 99 who want to make the classroom more challenging to students, but lack the necessary resources. Grants in 2011 will be awarded to support the following projects:

• SMART Board implementations in the Career and Technical Education department at South High School and in the Social Studies department at North High School;
• Classroom response systems (clickers) in the English and Communication department at South High School;
• Document cameras for the World Languages department at South High School;
• Digital photography specialty lenses for the Fine Arts department at South High School;
• Advanced classroom response systems for formative and summative assessment for the Mathematics and Social Studies departments at North High School; and
• An accessible walkway for the courtyard therapy garden for the Special Services department at North High School.

The Foundation will also award the first District 99 Education Foundation Math and Science Scholarship to Tyler Vizek. Vizek will receive a $5,000 scholarship to study Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University.

The District 99 Education Foundation provides financial assistance for District 99 students and staff in support of innovative curriculum and technologies that fall outside of traditional public funding. The Foundation was founded in 1994 as a way for alumni, parents, educators and the community to support the continued excellence of educational curriculum provided to students and faculty.

Foundation programs include the “walk of honor,” where donors may install an engraved brick paver at North High or South High, and “tix4cause,” which lets supporters donate or purchase tickets and allows the Foundation to receive the proceeds; visit www.tix4cause.com for details.