Harlem teachers secure more than $17,000 in classroom grants, board hears

At the Harlem Consolidated School District board meeting on Jan. 27, teachers and staff described more than $17,000 in classroom grants they received this year from the Golden Apple program and local foundations.

The awards are funding classroom projects ranging from robotics and coding kits to adaptive physical-education equipment, sensory-play materials and a collaborative mosaic mural, presenters said. "We consider this a very big deal at Maple," Tammy Poole, a Maple School staff member who brought students to the meeting, said as teachers were introduced.

Jason Bloom, a district staff member who introduced the guests, said the district collected more than $17,000 in Golden Apple and partner grants this year and thanked the community organizations that supported the awards. Christine Franklin, an Olsen Park teacher, described a grant of about $2,400 to buy small programmable robots for her students to learn color-based coding and Blockly. "They learn how to... make them twirl around, and they change colors," Franklin said.

Special-education teachers also received several grants. Mindy and Garrett from Moss Park Elementary said they won a grant to buy a Tony Box — a soft-sided audio toy designed for easy, switch-free use by students with physical disabilities. Nate Green from the middle school received a $2,500 Blazer Foundation grant for adaptive physical-education equipment, and Jody Graber at Parker Center received a $2,500 Blazer Foundation grant for sensory-play materials to serve about 80 students with special needs.

Other awards cited by the district included a $2,500 Collins Aerospace STEM grant for high-temperature polymer 3-D printing in a high-school capstone engineering course (submitted by Chris Noble), a $450 Collins Aerospace STEM grant at Harlem Middle School for renewable-energy projects (Jennifer Bell), and multiple smaller literacy and special-education awards from local foundations and donors. Art teacher Chesney said a $450 grant from Sam's Club will help build a mosaic mural at her school.

District staff highlighted that many of the grants required staff time to apply and competitive selection. "We appreciate the staff members who went above and beyond to secure these grants," Bloom said. The board and several members publicly thanked teachers and the community funders for supporting classroom programs.

Board members also noted the effect of the grants on student engagement and classroom opportunity, and invited grant recipients to bring demonstrations back to the board later in the year.

The presentation and the list of recipients were part of the meeting's recognition and communications section and did not require formal board action.