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Tolland School District highlights small grants to help families, boost curriculum
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Willet told the board the district secured a $5,000 Alice Enrichment Partnership grant to help families pay activity fees, and is pursuing grants for a bicycle-repair program and a social-media/digital-citizenship program; he asked that future budgets show short- and long-term impacts of strategic initiatives.
Tolland School District Superintendent Dr. Willet told the Board of Education on Oct. 9 that the district will begin reporting smaller, non-federal grants on its dashboard and walked members through recent and prospective awards.
Dr. Willet said the district has received a $5,000 Alice Enrichment Partnership grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut to provide preloaded cards families can use for clubs and activities. "These are cards that get distributed, encoded and then we track them," he said, describing an audit trail the district maintains in partnership with the philanthropic organizations.
The superintendent said the Tolland Education Foundation is pursuing a separate grant to buy bicycles, tools and equipment for an engineering and technology bicycle-repair program submitted by Mr. Carpenter, a member of the district staff. He also said the district is applying for a roughly $5,900 grant to support programming about social media harms and digital citizenship for students.
Dr. Willet described timing for the three grants: the Alice award is secured; the bicycle-repair and social-media proposals are expected to be decided within about 30 days if approved. Board members pressed for clarity on how the funds are tracked; Dr. Willet said the Alice funds do not pass through district operating accounts but are tracked by card distribution records with the partner organizations.
Finance committee members also asked that the superintendent include estimated short- and long-term budget impacts of strategic initiatives — for example, a potential full-time 3K preschool program — when he prepares the superintendent's proposed budget so voters and town officials can see fiscal implications. Dr. Willet agreed to include that analysis in the five-year projection portion of the budget materials.
The student council reported separate activity fundraising: a DECA chapter raised about $500–$600 at recent events and plans to attend a DECA Power Trip Nov. 15–17.
The board did not take formal votes related to grants during the meeting; grant awards and related budget entries will be brought forward as required for approval or reporting.
