By Beachcomber Staff
In the giving spirit of this season, Vashon Partners in Education (PIE) last week presented an oversized check to Vashon’s school board, representing the $34,068 of PIE grants awarded to Vashon teachers this fall.
All of this money will go directly into classrooms this school year.
PIE Board President Karen Boyle said that the PIE Board was thrilled to have so many teachers take time to submit grants as they navigated the challenges of returning to in-person learning. More than half of the 28 grant requests were for amounts less than $500, but each of these small grants will have a big impact in the classrooms where they are used, she said.
PIE’s two largest grants went to the Scientists in Schools and Artists in Schools programs. PIE has been a key supporter of both of those programs since their inception.
PIE continued its tradition of awarding home-baked pies to three teachers who submitted the selector’s favorite grants. PIE’s Teacher Liaison, Martha Ormseth, presented those awards to 2nd-grade teacher Jill Reifschneider, 7th-grade Humanities teacher, Becky Blankenship, and 12th-grade government teacher, Jason Butler.
Reifschneider’s grant will be used to plan, build and plant a native pollinator garden in a weedy plot of ground just outside her 2nd-grade classroom window — an idea that came from a child in her class last year, when school was still online.
With students back in the classroom this year, Reifschneider decided to let them dig in. Students will choose native plants to purchase from local nurseries that are suited to the site and will provide a habitat for local pollinators. Thanking PIE for the grant, Reifschneider said that her current students were sent home midway through kindergarten due to COVID at the beginning of the pandemic. They are now in second grade.
“During our time online, the children were not able to work together on a common creation, or experiment, and learn from that experience,” she said. She noted that, once the garden is planted it will provide 2nd-grade students with a learning resource for years to come, as well as a better view outside their window.
Blankenship was also eager to provide hands-on learning opportunities for her 7th-grade humanities students after a year of online learning. She will use her grant to purchase a mature tea plant and tools to prune and dry tea for each of her three classes. Blankenship said that the project will “enable kids to dig into the history of the product that has shaped our world from the early trade routes, America’s rebellion from the British to modern-day Milk Tea Alliance.”
By learning the process of cultivating and serving tea, Blankenship’s students will have the opportunity to engage in deeply held cultural practices all the way from China to South Africa.
For the past five years, Butler has submitted a grant to purchase a “pocket Constitution” for every senior at Vashon High School. According to Butler, his students use these weekly in class as a quick reference to their own inquiries about our government system, civil liberties, or to answer “can they do that?” questions. He said that with PIE’s support, he will be able to provide his Spanish-speaking students with both an English and Spanish version of the guide.
PIE is an all-volunteer organization, founded 34 years ago, supported by the Vashon community and commuter families who donated during its annual fall campaign. PIE is hoping to raise enough additional funds this year to offer teachers another grant opportunity in early 2022.
Donations can be made at vashonpie.org, or by mailing a check to Vashon Partners in Education, P.O. Box 1645, Vashon, WA 98070.
