Dear BMS Teachers,

The Basalt Education Foundation’s mission is to raise funds to enhance education in the Basalt public schools. As many of you know, we offer a grant program to teachers and administrators annually. Please find attached to this letter, the annual grant application for teachers for the 2016-17 school year.

Each year the BEF Grant Committee works with the principal of your school to develop themes for teacher grant applications. We believe that a thematic approach increases the efficacy and productivity of the granting program through the pursuit of common goals within each school. This yearwe have worked with your principal, Jennifer Ellsperman, to determine the themes of:

  • Professional Development supporting student engagement and motivation.
  • Development and/or execution of authentic learning experiences allowing students to collaborate, explore, and demonstrate their learning in "real-life" ways.

With your principal’s support, we are encouraging all grant applications to fit into one or both of these themes. If you have questions or need clarification regarding these themes and how your idea might best fit into them, please ask your principal.

Though we are seeking applications consistent with the above themes, we still are encouraging creativity in grant applications. The themes are broad by design, and our Committee and your principal look forward to seeing many different ideas.

At the request of the principals from all three Basalt schools, also please note that the Grant Committee will put an emphasis on the level of collaboration among teachers in evaluating grant applications. We encourage teachers to work together to come up with collaborative projects within the designated themes.

Our deadline for the 2016/2017 grant cycle is January 16, 2017. To be eligible a project need not be something that will be completed during the current school year. We will consider applications for projects that will extend into or occur within the 2017/2018 school year.

All grant applications should be submitted by email to both Bart Johnson and Lindsay Lofaro by 6 p.m. on January 16. Please let us know if you have any questions. You may reach either Bart or Lindsay as follows:

Bart Johnson: phone at 970-544-4602 and email at

LindsayLofaro: phone at 970-309-3172 and email at

BASALT EDUCATION FOUNDATION APPLICATION

Project Title:______

Project Site/School: ______

Applicant Name(s) & Position(s): ______

Contact Phone No. & Email Address: ______

Number of Students Benefitted (estimated): ______

Grade Level(s): ______

Number of Staff Benefitted (if applicable):______

If this is a collaborative project, please list all staff working on this project:

______

Amount Requested: $ ______

Total budget for this project $______

Are there other sources of funding being used?YES or NO

If yes, from what source(s)?

Total amount from other source(s) $

Project Duration: Beginning date Ending date ______

Have you requested funds from the Basalt Education Foundation before?

YESNO

If so, how much; name of project; whether approved or denied

$ ______Project: ______Approved (Yes/No): ______

  1. Describe the project.
  1. Why is this project important; what are the goals?
  1. Is this project a collaboration among more than one teacher? Please describe.
  1. How will you know if the project was successful and the goals met?
  1. How will you report the degree of success back to the Basalt Education Foundation?
  1. If applicable, how will you continue the program in the future? What will be the recurring costs?
  1. Please use this space to tell us anything else about this project that you feel will help us understand how it meets the Foundation’s evaluation criteria?