2024 Positive Impact Grant Award Winners

This year witnessed an impressive amount of applications, with numerous compelling and pivotal proposals vying for recognition. SCEF takes great pride in honoring initiatives that have left a lasting imprint on vital fronts such as student mental health, wellness, early development, and the pursuit of racial and socioeconomic equity. In addition, SCEF has also continued in our tradition to recognize outstanding library proposals dedicated to fostering literacy across the district. Join us in celebrating the dedicated educators whose projects are propelling positive change within our educational community.

 

The following is a list of awardees and the proposals:

• Ashley Ramirez, $1000 Harbor High School - Program Support for Special Education/Students In Transition who are struggling with chronic absenteeism to meet their IEP Goals. Funds will help equip the wellness center space with food and tools to help students regulate emotions and anxiety. These funds will also address basic needs resources such as transportation (PILOT Metro), increasing food access, and to help address their social determinants of their health.

 

• Barbara Lawrence, $1000 Gault Elementary - Playaway digital Audiobooks which will address disparities in access to educational resources. The Playaways will increase reading comprehension, promote multi-sensory learning and technology integration. Importantly, they play a role in accessability, bridging learning gaps for English Language Learners and Special Education students.

 

• Daniel Bickham, $1000 Gault Elementary - NEWSELA license for Elementary Level. Newsla is a critical instructional platform that provides curated, current news articles adaptable to various literacy levels and available in both English and Spanish. This platform helps develop critical thinking, culutral relevance, vital media literacy, and supports differentiated learning. The license will be available to all elemetary and will include library access.

 

• Larissa Adams, $1000 Soquel High School - To enhance the school library's History and Geography collection, fostering a more inclusive and comprehensive learning environment. Allocating funds towards updating texts, incorporating diverse viewpoints and voices, and delving deeper into the impacts of colonialism on world history will significantly benefit students and educators alike.

 

• Mandi Masri, $1000 Occupation Therapy at Gault Elementary, Delaveaga Elementary, Monarch Elementary, AFE, Branciforte Middle School, Soquel High, Costanoa Continuation High School-Occupational Therapy Sensory Modulation Program for use in emotional regulation, sensory processing organization, and improvement of focus and executive functioning skills. The program would provide sensory modulation kits for classrooms, which would include tools and strategies for students to modulate and regulate energy levels, mood, and focus while remaining in the classroom. This program would provide emotional regulation support to both the students and the staff who serve them, allowing students who are emotionally, physically, and mentally dysregulated, to practice coping skills in a self-directed, mindful, and diversity-affirming curriculum which is offered as an option to teachers and students, as well as classified staff who work directly with students, by providing interventions in the classroom.

 

• Nadine Said, $1000 Mission Hill Middle School - Mission Hill aims to enhance the Mission Hill Middle School library's non-fiction collection by replacing antiquated titles with contemporary, diverse, inclusive, representative, and relevant materials. With a focus on providing resources that resonate with students' lives and interests, the project will prioritize acquiring books that cover a wide range of topics, perspectives, and voices.

 

• Maia Fernandez, $750 Santa Cruz High - Upgrades for the Special Day Class (SDC) cooking program for the Life Skills Class which builds confidence and independence skills for our SDC students.

 

• Anthony DiFrancesca, $500 Gault Elementary - Leveled Reader Books to enhance Literacy levels at Title I School and to foster strong learning skills at school and at home in early development

 

• Elianne Parks, $500 ASES Gault - The ASES-After School Program will be procuring specialized tools such as mobile cabinets, de-stimulation headphones, fidget toys, weighted vests, and other toys and tools to help audio-visual processing, sensory issues, and emotional coping skills for high needs students, including some of our district's most socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English Language Learners, Newcomer students, who are at the After School Program for long hours until the early evening.

 

• Jessica Cuttris, $500 Food Services at Bay View Elementary, De La Veaga, Gault, Monarch, Westlake- For the continuation of the pilot program with Life Lab Gardens and our local farming community, which brings organic produce to our school cafeterias and nutrition education to our students.

 

• Katrina Del Caro, $500 Soquel High School- The Multicultural Graduation opens the door for our underrepresented students to take center stage and express their parting sentiments and gratitude before they embark on the next phase of their lives. Additionally, students who completed their Seal of Biliteracy and those in the AVID program receive special recognition. Funds will help continue to provide the ceremony, which will impact many of our first-generation Latino families.

 

• Laura Gibson, $500 Occupational Therapy at Branciforte Middle School and Mission Hill Middle School- Occuptaional Therapy materials for sensory processing skills, fine motor strengthening, and executive function for my middle school students. These materials will help our students to reach their IEP goals, and move closure to a success graduation.

 

• Mandy Rubin, $500 Gault Elementary- Social Emotion Learning and Resiliance curriculum for Transitional Kindergarten at Title I School as a means to increase preventative measures against mental health challenges, and to be an intervention tool to identify and address early emotional and mental health issues at an early stage in a chld's development.

 

• Maya Lord, $500 Westlake Elementary- Provide sensory materials and tactile learning supports for our youngest learners to support academic readiness, social-emotional well-being, and inclusivity for many of our students with diverse learning abilities.

 

• Meghann Finn, $500 Gault Elementary- Support the TK/Kinder Round-Up Event which will help teachers do early screenings of students, help Title I families in the registration process, and foster a connection to the school for an easier transition for school entry. All families are also all provided a free backpack with books, crayons, and magnetic letters, ensuring equitable access to educational tools.

 

• Moshe Vilozny, $500 Gault Elementary- Provide Gault with equitable instruments and resources compared to the other SCCS school sites and to purchase saxaphones, so that the students who have be unable to procure instruments will finally be able to play.

 

• Nereida Robles, MSW, $500 Costanoa Continuation High School- Cultural workshops by the Costanoa Mental Health team that will address trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and generational trauma in a student's life. These culturally competent classes include gardening, cooking, life skills, and will increase familial, intergenerational communication, build confidence, and will foster healthy life habits and choices.

 

• Shannon Tracy, $400 Harbor High School- Support for Harbor High Library LIT Book Club with the purchase of "Accountable" by Dashka Slater for the 10th grade readers. This project will promote discussions of racial injustices and how that can play out in social media, especially for teens. Specifically this book explores the idea of accountability, which is critical for our high school students.

 

• Debra MacArthur, $300 Branciforte Middle School- Support the Garden Classroom at Branciforte which provides a vibrant learning environment, from science lessons, bilingual cooking lessons, and improving students mental health. All students benefit from the Garden Classroom, especially the SAIL students.