Newton Schools Foundation Awards a Record 20 Grants

The Newton Schools Foundation awarded a record 20 grants in the first half of the school year. In a particularly challenging year Newton Schools Foundation (NSF), the non-profit organization that provides grants to Newton educators, has received a record number of funding requests in the first half of the school year, resulting in $93,000 for 20 new grants across the district.

NSF grants support initiatives that fall within three funding priorities:  allowing teachers to try new approaches in the classroom, professional development, and addressing racial and income inequities.

This year’s grants span all three funding priorities and reach across all Newton Public Schools grades K-12 and include:

New Approaches in the Classroom

  • New Media Communities at Newton South
  • Healthy Living for Emotional and Physical Development (Central High School)
  • The Voice of Literature (Newton North)
  • Virtual Band Project (Newton South)
  • School Store (Newton South)

Professional Development

  • Enhancing the Knowledge and Skills of NPS Staff to Respond to Students’ Challenging Behavior (Districtwide)
  • Expanding Special Education Assessment Understanding and Tools (Horace Mann)
  • LIPS: Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech Training Course (Williams)
  • Anti-Racist Book Club for Faculty (Cabot)
  • STEM with Students in Visual Impairments (Newton North)

Racial and Income Inequities

  • Staff of Color Affinity Groups (Districtwide)
  • Brown Middle School, Anti-Racist and Diverse Representations in Classroom Libraries
  • Overdue: The Challenges and Work of Being Anti-Racist (Districtwide)

  • 8th Grade ELA Novel Selection (All Middle Schools)
  • Zervas School and Home, Zervas School One Book, One School Project
  • Newton South’s Peer Leadership Course: Texts and Guest Speakers that Inform our Actively Anti-Racist Action Planning
  • Decodable Books (Mason Rice)
  • Professional Workshop on Race in the Shakespeare Classroom (Newton South)
  • Telling the History of Racial Justice from the 19th Century to 2021: A conversation with historians Kellie Carter Jackson and Kevin Levin (Newton North)
  • Diversifying the SPED Classroom Library (Brown Middle School)

For details on NSF grants, events and ways to support excellence and equity in the Newton Public Schools, please visit NewtonSchoolsFoundation.org.