EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS.
Your donation dollars WILL drive excellence at FISD.
We focus on awarding annual, one-time grants to teachers, administrators, and District staff who participate in an anonymous grant process. As the Foundation continues to grow, these awards will increase, resulting in more annual grants and larger amounts paid. With your help we will grow the foundation into a material funding stream that guarantees the quality of FISD for years to come.
Your donations will fuel the following initiatives:
1. Recruiting and Retaining Teachers
2. Rewarding Innovation in the Classroom
3. Covering Incidental Costs of teaching
DOLLARS IN ACTION
Click on the pictures below and find out how
these grants are helping our students and staff.
2022 Fall Grants Awarded $59,986
Thinkers Thrive Here $1,722
This grant will provide students with adaptive seating and a flexible learning environment which responds to the physical needs of a diverse group of growing 9 and 10-year-old children. Furthermore, it will facilitate an environment in which 21 Century skills are explored in meaningful, authentic, and inspiring ways which allow students to think divergently in the Language Arts and Social Studies content areas.
Emergency Medical Technician Equipment $1,215
FHS is starting an EMT program. Students in the program will, upon successful completion of this course, become certified as Emergency Medical Technicians in the State of Texas and will be eligible to work on an ambulance.
Anatomical Torso w/ Removable Organs $1,800
A life size model with removable organs gives students a real-world view of body systems. The removable organs give students a tactile way to discover where organs are placed in relation to tother structures and how those structures work together for the body to function.
Let’s Bake Art $5,889
The high school art department requested a kiln for ceramics. Ceramics and the creation of 3-D artforms push the students to think innovatively, often using science and mathematics, while also serving as a medium that excites the imagination of many students.
Hope at Hand 2 $1,200
This grant will continue growing the library in the 8"-grade English classrooms with books that will engage our students in reading beyond what is assigned. The more they read, the more they think. The more they think, the more they want to explore the world. The more they explore the world, the more they can start to improve not only the Fredericksburg community but our nation and beyond.
Food Truck Equipment $3,500
FHS students will operate a food truck to learn principles about running a business and the food service industry. The grant provides commercial pots, pans, baking sheets, paper goods, propane, an espresso machine, a coffee machine, chalk boards, and a start-up fund.
Supplies for Culinary Arts Class $1,500
The FHS culinary arts classroom will use this grant to provide new pots, pans, baking pans, cups, dishes, cooking utensils, and fresh cutting boards. The funds will also cover some paint, tile, and countertop sealant to spruce up the classroom kitchen.
Community Haunted House $2,000
The Haunted House will provide a platform for our FHS Fine Arts students to showcase their creative expressions and talents as well as expand the collaboration of the FHS Fine Arts departments with their various disciplines in a unique artform. The hope is for this project to become a self-sustaining annual event for our High School Students to serve the community.
Building Billie Champions $600
The right tools will help us Build Billie Champions! This grant provides funding to help purchase materials to equip the FES School Counselors with books, counseling curriculum, and equipment for our FES student ambassadors.
Hydration Stations $2,500
This grant will provide the FHS Band program with two water bottle filling stations for the band hall. This will be extremely beneficial to the students as they endure some very hot days in the fall marching seasons. Texas is hot, and water is essential for the Pride of the Texas Hill Country!
The Rugs Alive! Oh MY! $494
With this carpet, FES students can interact with the pictures of the animals by matching its corresponding habitat card and then scanning it in an app. If the habitat card is correctly matched, the animal essentially comes into the classroom via augmented reality! The student engagement that augmented reality brings to the classroom paired with the learning about habitats is a win/win for the teacher and students.
Mindfulness Matters $1,700
Mindfulness is a powerful tool that supports children in calming themselves, focusing their attention and interacting effectively with others. Mindfulness promotes academic growth and school success by increasing students’ ability to self-regulate and focus while decreasing disruptive behavior. This grant will provide FES teachers with the curriculum, materials, and training to help students learn and practice mindfulness daily.
Musical Technology Improvements $7,003
FPS takes pride in staging musical performances throughout the year. We are blessed to have wonderful tools for learning music, but we have been lacking enough instruments and tools for all students. This grant will provide these instruments and will also provide storage cabinets when instruments are not being used.
Lit Club 2022-2023 $1,960
This grant will provide funds for a one-of-a-kind club whose goal is to have students interact with books in a way that will spark imagination and creativity in our 5th grade students.
Think Up! Curriculum $3,740
Using ThinkUp! Curriculum, the 6th Grade English Language Arts team will be able to provide 6th grade students with the rigor and pace needed to show growth on the 2022-2023 STAAR assessment.
Everyone Reads $1,500
Reading stamina is proven to provide students several positive benefits in the classroom setting. The more exposure students have to printed words, the better writers they become. This grant will improve and update the 6" grade English Language Arts and Reading classes with choices with rigorous, high-interest novels.
SPELL-Links Reading and Writing Program $524
The SPELL-Links Reading and Writing program enables FPS to reach students struggling with attaining foundational reading skills. The approach of this program is to become a reader and writer from the sounds of speech first, rather than the traditional phonics approach of text to speech. Education is not one-size-fits all, and this program will allow us to deliver relevant skills to all students.
Stonewall Science Club $511
Using this grant, Stonewall Elementary will start a science club to enhance student interest in science, to promote scientific study, and to provide a deeper understanding of fourth and fifth grade. This will allow SES students to partner with FES by joining their local science fair and attending the Austin Regional Science Fair, exposing our students to a larger community of learners.
Sensory Supports $8,054
This grant will provide adaptive equipment and support in order to better serve the special education students with sensory and adaptive equipment needs in order to allow them to learn longer and be able to demonstrate self-regulation skills.
Student Business in Special Education $590
The FES Special Education classes will use this grant to start a student run business. Student business models have been shown to foster independence, build relationships, and teach new concepts. From making to selling the product, we will give our students access to life skills and interactions they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Alter Stolz: Community Outreach Project $1,650
This program will foster school pride across FISD and will teach students responsibility by enabling the purchase, care and feeding of two angora goats, Alter Stolz, to be made available for non-UIL school related activities such as campus open houses, first day of school and new student orientation. FHS students will learn about animal husbandry and coordination of events and personnel, etc.
Physical Education $1,112
This grant will enable FHS to order new equipment that helps PE students be active in class, including ping pong tables, spike ball sets, and pickleball equipment.
Classroom on Wheels $5,550
Clear touch boards are a portable all-inclusive smartboard with a built-in computer and projector. Built on a cart so it is mobile, these clear touch boards allow a classroom to be set up anywhere. Any information/activity that can be done on a touch screen, a computer, or tablet, can be done on this board.
IN the Moment with LIVE Theater $1,730
Live theater is an experience that many have never had the opportunity to experience. Students deserve to have the experience of LIVE productions and be immersed in the literacy we engage them with each day. Using this grant, all FES students will go on a fieldtrip to see “The Cat in the Hat” at the Zach theater in Austin which is known for their immersive environments and production style.
CriCut for Education Classes $600
Future teachers in FHS Education classes will use the CriCut to create graphics, posters, bulletin boards, and classroom atmospheres that excite young leaners, especially in early childhood classrooms. This grant will be used to purchase the CriCut Maker 3 bundle, basic tool kit, transfer tape, smart vinyl, and permanent vinyl rolls.
Decodable Readers $317
This grant will purchase decodable readers to help beginning FPS readers develop phonics skills using strategies. Decodables use letters and letter groups that students have been explicitly taught, allowing the student to read the words on the page and not rely on guessing or following a pattern. Decodables are the scaffold that students need (kind of like training wheels on a bike) to enable them to be lifelong readers.
2021 Fall Grants Awarded $41,573