Grants 2025-2026

Charles Wright

Botley Coding Robots

Applicant: Erica Hsia

$850

Our program aims to expand early access to computer science concepts by introducing coding and robotics to students in grades K–1 during their media center UA time. We are requesting funding for 15 Botley Coding Robots, designed specifically for early childhood learners. Botley allows students to engage in hands-on, unplugged coding activities that build foundational skills in logic, sequencing, and problem-solving. Botley also provides a platform for students to expand their knowledge of 3D shapes, number lines, letter formation, and many more curriculum based goals. Botley supports screen-free purposeful play in unified arts. 

These early coding experiences will strengthen students’ confidence in STEM and prepare them for more advanced robotics and programming tools in upper grades and beyond. This initiative also allows Charles Wright to continually support digital equity by ensuring all students, regardless of background, gain exposure to emerging technologies from the start of their academic careers.

"One School, One Book" Frindle by Andrew Clements

Applicant: Marissa Case

$1270

For the past three years, I have implemented the “One School, One Book” initiative at Charles Wright. It has started to become a fall tradition, and I would like to continue this tradition for the 2025 school year.

“One School, One Book” is a school-wide shared reading event in which all students in kindergarten through grade six read the same book together. Every family and staff member at Charles Wright receives a copy of the selected book and follows a reading schedule over 3-4 weeks. This program is a great opportunity to build a community of readers and help instill a love for reading both at home and at school. Additionally, it improves literacy skills among the students: research shows that reading aloud to students helps build their vocabularies, listening comprehension, and overall confidence about reading. Like in previous years, I hope to begin this program in October and conclude around the Thanksgiving break. I have found that completing this initiative in the first part of the school year builds students’ enthusiasm about reading and sets a positive tone for the remainder of the year. This also encourages students to read additional books in the series or by the selected author throughout the year.

The project impacts all students in grades K-6. In addition to all staff members, the youngest and only child in the school receives a copy of the text. The book I would like to use is entitled Frindle, by Andrew Clements. The book is a level R text is about a clever fifth grader who engages his teacher in a battle of wills about words. This book lends itself to many vocabulary extension activities and discussion topics. It can be purchased through BulkBookstore for $4.15 per copy. Using data from this year, we would need 270 copies of the book. With tax and shipping, the total would be $1,170.50. Additionally, I would like another $150 to purchase additional books by Andrew Clements that students can read for the remainder of the year. 

Social-Emotional Learning Calm Down Centers

Applicant: Deirdre Mahoney

$998

It is vitally important that students feel safe in the classroom, especially when they are out of sorts. One of the key dimensions in establishing effective restorative practices, in accordance with the statewide mandate, is school climate. While their are multiple components to creating a positive and supportive school climate, safety and sense of belonging. In fact, one of the National School Climate Standards centers on the creation of an environment where all members are welcomed, supported, and feel safe in school: socially, emotionally, intellectually and physically. Students’ social-emotional well-being is foundational to their success in the classroom. Dysregulated students are often unavailable for learning, as their brain is focused on the source or symptoms of their dysregulation. When students are dysregulated, they often benefit from having a space where they can go to calm themselves, regulating their mind and body to be able to return to learning. Within the classroom, it is important that students have the opportunity to regulate without be “sent away,” from the classroom, as the separation can contribute to a student feeling like they do not belong or that the classroom is not a safe space where they feel welcomed. Our initial work in this area appears to be paying off, as student behavior issues declined throughout this school year.

At Charles Wright, we have been working on a variety of strategies in developing a supportive school climate that is foundational to positive student outcomes. We are learning more about calm-down spaces and strategies that support students in times of need. These strategies include using stress balls, having a private space to reset, breathing exercises, engaging in stress relief activities, such as stretching or manipulating sensory items. The WEF grant funds will be used to purchase items to support student regulation, such as relief from anxiety and/or resolving big emotions so that students can return to the learning environment and be available for learning, within a reasonable time frame. The materials purchased through this grant will be shared and used in every classroom and space where staff and students work together so that students feel safe and welcomed in all areas of our building and can be supported in balancing their emotions to be engaged in learning. In addition, the creation of consistent calming centers across the building will help students identify their reset space, even when they are not in their typical classroom.

Hanmer

Play-Based Math Centers

Applicant: Erika Nepal

$808

Play-based learning helps engage elementary students in their education and has cognitive, physical, social, and emotional benefits. Some students unfortunately do not like math or feel that they are successful at it. One thought as to why students don't like math is because they fall behind when they have difficulty with a concept. This is especially frustrating in math because it is a cumulative subject, in which each concept builds off of the previous concepts. Therefore, when students do not understand a concept they fall behind and continue to fall further behind each year. In third Grade, students are building a conceptual understanding of many new concepts including fractions, multiplication, division, area, and perimeter. Play moves math instruction beyond rote memorization to a more expansive understanding of mathematics. It also helps build a conceptual understanding of the concepts being taught so students will be successful next year when these concepts get more challenging. 

The WEF grant funds will be used to purchase a variety of fun and engaging math games and materials for centers. The farm animals, fruit, and vegetable counters for example, can be used as a creative way to explore multiplication. Students will be able to create their own farm by creating arrays and equal groups and then write multiplication sentences that match. The fence it in game will be a hands on way to learn the real life applications of area and perimeter. There are game show buzzers to turn our small group work, or review for upcoming tests into engaging game shows. The funds will also be used to purchase a multiplication pop fidget chart which will be great for kinesthetic learners. All of  these activities build on the Common Core State Math Standards across grade levels. These materials and activities will be used for 3rd grade students at Hanmer, and will also be loaned out to other grades as needed for their students. We know students will really enjoy, and benefit from these additions to our classroom! Thank you for your consideration!

Highcrest

Xylophones!

Applicant: David Dion

$1725

This request is for three student xylophones for use by the Highcrest School percussionists in the band program. There exists a need in the high school and middle school band programs for the percussionists to be better prepared to perform on mallet instruments and improve their music notation literacy through the study of mallet instruments at the elementary level. We do not have nearly enough instruments for them to use at school as we have 7-9 percussionists in each grade, each year (we only have one). Moreover, renting a bell set is expensive and cost prohibitive for many families so many percussionists have no instrument to practice on at all. The portable bell sets that they do rent are woefully insufficient to learn to play the mallet instruments, the bars are too small and make very little sound at all. Not only that but they are very heavy and many percussionists struggle to be able to bring them to school on the bus.

These 3 xylophones would give us 4 sufficient instruments for the students to practice on at school and to perform on at concerts. With only the one xylophone and 25 - 30 percussionists, very few get the appropriate instruction or the opportunity to perform on them as all the string, brass, and woodwind students do.

The instrument replacement budget for district teachers is insufficient to fund such an initiative as so many of the school system's instruments are very old and in need replacement, we have needed to shave our replacement requests yearly. This request is for 3 Sound Percussion Labs Student Xylophone 2-2/3 octaves with resonators and stand. Each unit costs $574.99 (free delivery), and is very inexpensive compared to intermediate and professional models at the secondary schools costing $2500 to $5000.

There are no additional staffing or materials cost to this initiative and will be stored in the Highcrest School band room.

There are 24-30 percussion students that would be directly impacted in a positive way each year, though the band as a whole (80-100 students each year) would benefit as well. These instruments will benefit students for the next 20- 25 years!

STEAM Kits

Applicant: Carley Carew

$2164

Educational STEAM and play based learning engages students in inquiry and critical thinking. Students can create connections between standards and real-world applications while having an open-ended approach to their learning. Our 3rd and 4th grade teams at Highcrest would like to incorporate STEAM activities and play-based learning throughout the year in order for students to retain the knowledge learned with a hands-on approach. Materials will be used during relationship building, SEL lessons, and in WIN during enrichment groups.

Our grant funds will be used to purchase art supplies (markers, crayons, cardstock, scissors), engineering supplies such as legos, STEAM building sets, Plusplus blocks, Magnatiles, and snap circuits that we can use during our Hour of Code and screen free week. These funds will also cover bins we can use to organize these materials in our science closet so they can be shared with our grade 3 and 4 teams in an organized way. These items will allow students to participate in all aspects of STEAM and collaborate to learn in a more play-based way. These materials will also be loaned out to other grade levels as needed. 

Webb

Sensory Tactile Bins

Applicant: Kyrstin Giliberto

$2500

This project stemmed from a place of realization that in the educational field, we tend to group students in a K-2 bracket. Which, when looking closely at ages, makes sense, yet we provide certain accommodations, tools, resources and opportunities in Kindergarten and First Grade, like extended play and access to tactile resources, than we do for our older students. 

Research shows that the use of sensory and tactile bins benefit student performances throughout their day by providing stimulation for their senses, improvement for fine motor skills, increased socialization with their peers, cognitive development, language development and therapeutic and social-emotional well-being, which align directly to our District and School Improvement Plans. This type of sensory play can have profound effects on our students’ readiness to learn. Research shows that integrating sensory activities into a student’s daily routine - especially in the morning - can help regulate their sensory system, improve focus, and reduce anxiety.

This is why I propose to build a K-2 Library of Tactile Bins that are accessible for all classrooms in K-2 at Webb, but not limited to K-2 students, to use in the mornings, and any other parts of the day as needed. These bins can simultaneously be used for calming activities when students are needing resets and for indoor recess time.

The total cost of this project is $2,571.12. This amount includes a variety of materials and bins to organize the materials. Some of the materials, tools and resources included in this grant are: magnetic tiles, play-dough, puzzles, sensory and calming objects (i.e. stress balls,), coloring books, collaborative STEM games, blocks and more.

I will be ordering and organizing the bins myself and working with staff in the building to create a place where teachers can go to borrow and use bins. The direct impact this project would have is to approximately 130 students (K-2 approximate number of students at Webb) but has the potential to positively impact all students at Webb.

Wethersfield High School

QLab Liscense for WHS Drama

Applicant: Jeff Roets

$949

QLab is a powerful software used for programming and running audio, video, and lighting cues for live performances. It is the industry standard, used everywhere from Broadway to universities to community theaters. It allows for precise timing and complex sequencing, enabling seamless integration of multimedia elements into theatrical productions. As it currently stands, the extracurricular theater program here at WHS runs sound from a USB and lights from obsolete software. These methods are time-consuming to learn while carrying little real-world application. A QLab site license will allow our technical theater students to gain proficiency in professional-grade software, moving their hands-on experience beyond basic operation to show design, thereby increasing their prospects of admission to BFA programs or employment in theater and related fields. QLab will additionally be integrated into the new CCSU TH 110 Introduction to Theater course, in which students will learn the basics of the software and then design a series of sound cues for a hypothetical production of one of the plays they read in class. Between the productions and classes, approximately 50-75 students per year will directly benefit from QLab integration. Owning QLab will also allow our tech students to use it for Capstone projects.

QLab runs exclusively on macOS, and so students in the theater course(s) will need access to the Macs in the electronic music room, while students in the extracurricular program will use the Macs that belong to the auditorium’s control booth. An educational license that includes all three features (sound, lighting, and video) is a one-time $949 purchase that provides perpetual access to QLab 5.