Rockwell grants: School committee highlights $209,000 in teacher grants for arts, STEM and equipment
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
The committee reported awarding about $209,000 in Rockwell grants to teachers for arts, STEM, field trips and equipment; committee members listed dozens of funded projects and said the fund has distributed about $820,000 since inception.
A series of Rockwell grants totaling roughly $209,000 were announced to the School Committee on March 10, with awards to support arts programs, STEM projects, equipment purchases and student field trips across the district.
A School Committee member said the Rockwell grants allocated about $209,000 this cycle and described a long list of funded items that included classroom communication boards for English learners, an outdoor classroom trip, new microphones and spotlighting for auditorium and theater programs, kilns and ceramics equipment, a 3-D printer for a middle school makerspace, field trips (including attendance at a Worcester Bravehearts game and a trip to see a theater production), musical instrument purchases and repairs, and equipment to eliminate certain athletic user fees.
Committee members noted that this was one of the largest single award rounds since the Rockwell committee began, and they reported that the program has awarded about $820,000 total since its inception and that the fund balance sits near $2,600,000 (up from roughly $1,900,000, as described by the committee member).
Committee members praised teachers for applying and asked that the awards be used to enhance classroom learning and district extracurricular opportunities. No formal committee approval of the grant awards was recorded in the meeting excerpt presented; the report was presented as part of committee communications and recognition of awarded projects.