JEANIE RITCHIE GRANTS

History

Over the past 24 years, the MPAEF’s Jeanie Ritchie grant program has dedicated roughly $500,000 to fund more than 400 grants to teachers and staff throughout our District. These innovative programs have touched thousands of students at all of our schools. Successful grants have often been expanded to benefit larger numbers of students and, in some cases, have become permanent parts of the curriculum. Some of these curriculum cornerstones are Dancing through the Decades, Pioneer Days, Visiting Biographers, Family Message Journals, The Colonial Faire, and The Renaissance Faire.

The grant program is named in honor of Jeanie Ritchie, a founder of the MPAEF who believes strongly in supporting innovative educators. Grants are evaluated anonymously by a 15-member parent/teacher committee based on criteria including the quality of curriculum integration or enhancement, sustainability or timeliness, cost and, in the case of repeat grants, previous evaluations. Each year one grant also receives the Ingrid Smith Math and Science Award and the Mary Summers Physical Education or Arts Award in memory of two respected former MPAEF board members and District parents.

For the 2008-09 school year, the Foundation awarded 21 innovative teaching grants totaling approximately $55,000. These recently funded grants ranged from $434 to $6000 and supported dozens of teachers in pioneering projects at all grade levels—kindergarten through 8th grade—at all four District schools. The projects, many of which were interdisciplinary, involved curriculum areas such as science, music, literature, art, drama, physical education, foreign language, leadership, and community service. Adapting to the creative ideas of the teachers and students in our District, the program funded two new types of grants this year: a grant that touched all 2300 students in the District and one that was a collaboration among 17 teachers across three grades and three schools.

“The Jeanie Ritchie grants are truly the venture capital of the teaching world,” said MPAEF 2007-08 Co-President Steve Hoffmann. “These grants provide critical seed money for teachers to try out new and innovative teaching ideas in the classroom.” Our thanks go out to all the District parents who fund the Jeanie Ritchie program through their generous donations to MPAEF.