Foundation awards grants for innovative education

By Nick GevockNick Gevock - 11/07/2008

Elena Giono was more focused on getting report cards done and other work when the first-grade teacher at Kennedy Elementary was asked to come to the gym during lunch hour Thursday.

But it was worth the distraction.

Giono and three other teachers arrived to find members of the Butte Education Foundation with a giant $2,500 check. The money will be used for the teachers' Reading Is a Journey program that provides books, backpacks and journals that students take home every day.

"We're a little surprised to get pulled out of class," Giono said in the gym, where her students were eating lunch.

She was joined by fellow teachers Michelle St. Pierre, Jackie Delaney and Mary Spangler as the kindergarten and first-grade students came up saying "good job." The nonprofit foundation was formed to help support the Butte schools. The group awarded four grants this year.

Kennedy teacher Amy Guldseth wrote the proposal for the reading program. The teachers buy backpacks and a collection of books, and then encourage their students to take them home and read.

With about half a dozen backpacks in each classroom, the books get cycled through the week. And the packs also include a journal to get the kids writing.

The program stood out because it includes an element that gets kids motivated to learn, said Susanne Dauenhauer, foundation president.

"We want it to be innovative above and beyond what you see in schools," she said.

Other educators who received foundation grants Thursday are: