McKinley Elementary School Benefits from XCSF’s Classroom Grant Program

The Xenia Community Schools Foundation provided almost $25,000.00 on grant funds for twenty-two special projects districtwide for the 2021-2022 school year. Six of those grants were awarded to staff at McKinley Elementary. Grant projects are intended to provide enhancements to the established curriculum for activities and purchases that are outside of the normal range of school funding.

One of the projects, the “Boonshoft Kindergarten Traveling STEM Program” is sponsored by Xenia Rotary and the Dr. Jenene Washington-Stepter Science Grant. Individuals, businesses ,and organizations participate in the Foundation’s “Sponsor a Grant Program” as a way of supporting innovative initiatives in the Xenia Community Schools. Signs acknowledging sponsors are in the school buildings. Sponsors are recognized on the Xenia Community Schools Foundation website, Facebook, in the Hall of Honor program and in press releases about the grant sponsorship program.

The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery , as part of the “STEM to You” program is bringing one selected program to 65 kindergarten students each quarter. Students have participated in two programs so far and describe them as “amazing” and say they cannot wait for the next one. Teachers report the students are engaged and attentive during the presentations. The four presentations are as follows:

1. Thinking Like a Scientist.
2. Science Tools and Measurement.
3. Meet the Animals
4. Creek in the Classroom.

The entire McKinley student body is involved in the “One School, One Book” grant project. ”One School One Book” is a national movement designed to get an entire community, including parents , involved in the joy of reading. The book is read at home, as a family, and in school along with daily events and projects. The book selected for this project is: A Boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold. It is about boy with special needs who falls in love with a skunk kit and strives to raise him. Bat's mom is a veterinarian who helped rescue the baby skunk after its mother and siblings died in an accident.

Staff also applied for and received funding for: “Sharing is Caring Club”, “Teaching Social Skills Through Literature”, “Teaching Writing Through Literature”, “Bragging About Positive Behavior”, The McKinley Library, along with the other elementary schools and the preschool, received new books that are age-appropriate superhero books through the “Super Hero Books for Super Readers” grant.

The Xenia Community Schools Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

For additional information about the Sponsor a Grant Program, contact Barbara Stafford, Executive Director of the Xenia Community Schools Foundation at (937) 372-3591 and leave a message.