BEF funds Beaverton’s Choice projects for October 2023
BEF NEWS

BEF funds Beaverton’s Choice projects for October 2023
Thursday, November 16th, 2023
Thanks to our generous donors, Beaverton Education Foundation has awarded $30,728, funding 21 classroom projects for the 2023-24 academic year.
Inspiring Young Musicians
Rock Creek Elementary
Students Served: 200
Recipient: Koren Russ
Award: $1,285
Funding provided in part by the Band Together initiative and the Rock Creek PTC
Rock Creek’s youngest musicians thrive with basic instruments that can be used in various ways. With the 30 sets of resonator bells funded by their Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Inspiring Young Musicians, students can use them together, or taken out in smaller numbers to focus on only the sounds they need. This allows young musicians to work hard and have fun singing, dancing and playing percussion instruments now and years to come!
Readers Are Leaders!
Stoller Middle School
Students Served: 1,000
Recipients: Kathleen Taylor, Brule Speck, Lexie Frensley, Kyle Nagelmann, Sabrina Barton & Marty Welch
Award: $3,287
Funding provided in part by the Stoller Middle School PTO
Thanks to support from our generous community for the Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Readers Are Leaders, Stoller Middle School can provide over 500 books to their 1000+ students for their 10,000 Great Books Challenge. These high-interest books from different genres will help sustain a love for reading during the influential middle school years.
Grow Student Success with Wellness Center Support
ACMA
Students Served: 700
Recipients: Meaghan Mikulic & Michelle Hart
Award: $620
Funding provided in part by the ACMA PTO
Thanks to generous donors to the Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Grow Student Success with Wellness Center Support, the ACMA Wellness Center can provide students with items to support a student’s mental and physical health to ensure they have a safe and comforting space to ground their academic journeys. The Wellness Center is a hub of support, compassion and skill building for every student in their building. Students are empowered with a choice to: process their emotions; build skills with a mental health professional; sit quietly; or self-sooth.
Hands On Healthy Eating
Sunset High School
Students Served: 350
Recipients: Courtney Gaffney & Emily Arellano
Award: $2,370
Funding provided in part by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All initiative and the Sunset PTO
Sunset High School students have the opportunity to learn about micro and macronutrients, food groups, disease prevention and more, with hands-on lessons focused on establishing useful skills and a positive relationship with food through their recently funded Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Hands On Healthy Eating.
Whitford Attendance Initiative
Whitford Middle School
Students Served: 781
Recipient: Zan Hess
Award: $1,140
Funding provided in part by the Whitford PTO
Whitford Middle School has challenged their student body to commit to perfect attendance this school year. Our generous community’s support for the Whitford Attendance Initiative project funded incentives to help encourage students to achieve weekly and quarterly attendance goals. Addressing chronic absenteeism is key to increasing academic achievement, improving graduation rates and giving students the best chance at success in their adult life.
Make Spanish Speaking Skills Stick!
Westview High School
Students Served: 159
Recipient: Amanda Bautista
Award: $1,200
Thanks to their recently funded Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Make Spanish Speaking Skills Stick, Westview High School students have the Spanish books and materials needed to create their own readers using stories created and illustrated by whole class. Spanish-language stories and picture-rich wall decor help students get excited about learning a language, contribute to details from their reading/thinking to the class, ultimately providing valuable content for students to publish their own stories for even more choice reading.
Empowering Work & Life Skills
Community Transition Program
Students Served: 140
Recipient: Kyla Zaworski
Award: $1,000
Thanks to our generous donors, the Community Transition Program (CTP) is able to repair two vending machines from which proceeds are used toward their Friday outings. These field trips provide students valuable opportunities to practice social and leisure skills in the community. Support of this Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Empowering Work & Life Skills, helps these 18-21 year old students with various disabilities who are transitioning out of high school and into the next chapters of their lives by teaching valuable work skills, and assisting them in becoming contributing members of their communities.
Decodable Readers for Greenway!
Greenway Elementary
Students Served: 65
Recipients: Tomi Kluver, Aubrey Zagar, Diane Meyer, Cassidy Griswold, Susan Lewis, Tera Langlois, Erica Jackson, Naomi Sprague, Nina Winegar-Thurston & Malia Griffin
Award: $500
Funding provided by The Anne Kelly Ofstun Tubby Fund
Greenway readers will have the tools to feel the joy of reading and the pride that comes with doing so independently, thanks to their Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Decoding Readers for Greenway!. These decodable books follow a research based scope and sequence and correlates well with the shift made in teaching students to read. Students want to read the books because they are engaging and at the same time, reading words that match the instruction given in small groups.