Grants Awarded for the 2020-21 School Year

 1. Big Blue Blocks

Project Lead: Shelley Moeller, Social Worker at Lincoln Schools; Project Collaborator: Sarah Collmer, Principal of Smith Elementary School

Big Blue Blocks give students a greater number of options for play at recess so they feel more engaged, safe, and empowered. Additionally, students learn and practice important skills such as teamwork, problem solving, and sportsmanship. The Big Blue Blocks from Imagination Playground include cubes, bricks, cogs, curves, cylinders, pieces with holes, and shapes that fit together. They provide a new mode of open ended loose parts play and creativity for students.

2. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions Proficiency Training (Smith and Brooks)

Bethany Dionne, School Psychologist at Lincoln Schools

Given reported increased need for consistent support around social emotional and behavioral challenges for students, this proposal puts forward a training for a core group of 8-10 teachers. “Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) is an empirically supported, evidence based, non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma informed model of care. The model focuses on identifying the skills a child is lacking and the expectations he or she is having difficulty meeting and helping kids and caregivers solve those problems rather than trying to modify kids' behavior through application of rewards and punishments.”

3. Speech and Debate Club

Project Lead: Sharon Hobbs, Principal of Brooks Middle School; Collaborator: Jenny Nam, English Teacher at Brooks Middle School, Rhea Karty and Joanna Schwarz, Lincoln-Sudbury High School Seniors

This grant is to support the creation of a 6-8th grade speech and debate club facilitated by two L-S Seniors. The goals for this project are to provide students a cross graded opportunity; to give students an introduction to a more formal debate program; and to allow us to feed students to L-S more ready to participate in a formal debate club.

4. District Antiracism, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (AIDE)

Becky McFall, Superintendent, and Jess Rose, Assistant Superintendent, Lincoln Public Schools District

The LSF joined with the Lincoln PTO and METCO Coordinating Committee to support the district’s partnership with the National Coalition Building Institute focused on making Lincoln Public Schools an inclusive and antiracist district.