The board of the Oxford Educational Foundation recently held a meeting and announced the awardees of professional grants—a total of $7,481.50 was awarded to six professionals. The money will be used for purchases to benefit the students in three schools of the Oxford Area School District.  

The first three grants were awarded for literacy projects in the early elementary schools.  

A grant awarded to Jordan Bank’s Kristen Ciaccia will be used to bring in visiting author Miranda Mittleman to engage with students in both Jordan Bank and Elk Ridge Schools. Mittleman is an author from Baltimore who writes stories that teach life lessons through the adventures of her rescue dog Weaver.  After her Paws and Think! programs are presented, each classroom will receive a book.

Audra King of Elk Ridge school will see her grant used to bring in the Reading Rocks Magic Show to the students in that school. Two assemblies will be held that promote themes and characters from books by using magic. 

Christine Hamilton’s students in Elk Ridge will use three sets of decodable readers through a grant from the Oxford Educational Foundation. These readers will be used by teachers and classroom volunteers to help early readers to improve their reading fluency and accuracy using different phonics skills. 

Three more grants were awarded to teachers in the school district.

Deborah Dillard of Elk Ridge School will use her grant to provide for a sensory pathway installation that helps students improve their own behavior regulation and focus as part of the school’s new Positive Behavior Program. This program was first piloted in Jordan Bank through an earlier Oxford Educational Foundation grant. 

In Jordan Bank, Mollie Steigerwalt will use her grant for cross-curricular lessons in health and physical education classes for her kindergarten students. Materials such as muscles puzzles, fitness spots, and health spots will be utilized.

Penn’s Grove School’s Brittany Hassler will see ten guitars purchased for the music classes with the grant that she received. A change in scheduling increased the number of music classes and these guitars will fit the need for this increased number of instruments.

The board and staff of the Oxford Educational Foundation extends congratulations to all the educators for seeing a need for their students and for utilizing Oxford Educational Foundation resources to fill that need.  Their students will benefit from these grants.