Redondo Beach students will have the opportunity to try a handful of new and enhanced programs, including science and engineering, yoga and mindfulness training, and cooking, thanks to teacher grants provided by the Redondo Beach Educational Foundation.
RBEF expanded its Innovative Mini-Grant Program this year, providing $60,000 in total grants to 17 programs for teachers across the Redondo Beach Unified School District’s elementary, middle and high schools. Previously, the program offered $50,000 in total funding to teachers.
The grant program focuses on programs that shore up the college-readiness of students, as well as programs that further round out educational experiences.
“The teacher grant program is designed so we can invest in innovative ideas and that come from the teachers, and invest in teacher visions,” said Raymur Flinn, Executive Director of RBEF. “We’re the supplement, the enrichment, that takes it to the next level.”
Typically, Flinn said, the foundation receives more grant applications than it can fulfill, a reason for increasing its benefaction amount this year through the program’s founders at the Windsong Trust.
This year’s programs include a continued theme of STEAM (shorthand for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) funding, including a field trip for Lincoln Elementary second graders Trash For Teaching, which uses discarded industrial materials as materials for experiments; development of hands-on tinkering “maker spaces” for five Lincoln first-grade classrooms; and expanding cross-curricular art and science programs at Parras Middle School.
The arts were given a continued focus, as students at Patricia Driezler Continuation High School were granted funds to tour LA-area museums. Redondo Union programs were also given grants for materials and technology for theater, choir, and band programs, and the district’s Elementary Honor Band was granted money for its performances at RUHS.
RBEF also funded whole-student rounding programs, granting money to expand Adams Middle School’s “Good Eats, Good Life” program, which teaches food preparation and choices; life-skill preparedness for post-high school life for RUHS students; and weekly mindfulness and yoga training for RUHS students using the Student Union rooftop.
“These grants have the potential to impact our nearly 10,000 kinder-through-12th grade students,” RBUSD Deputy Superintendent Annette Alpern said in a release. “We have seen elementary STEM labs created, science equipment and interactive response systems utilized in classrooms, and student performances flourish.”
