Author: BEF Author

In conjunction with our regular program, Beaverton’s Choice, BEF is supporting the initiatives our teachers need to engage our students during distance learning.  From middle school Mobile Canvas Caravans to anti-racism book clubs, ENGAGE supports creative, teacher-led efforts to reach our students and families.

Please select a project below to support our students and teachers.

Fir Grove, Ridgewood, Terra Linda and Vose Elementary Schools: Ready for School Outreach Camp Achieve Extension
This program will provide 1:1 outreach and a weekly engagement plan to ensure that students and their families are equipped, prepared and supported to return to school. Each school team will implement strategies and solutions to re-engage 40 families and an estimated 75 students. These are our community’s most vulnerable students.

Mountainside High School:  In Thinking for Spanish IB
We received a free trial for three months last year and it was very effective when teaching IB Spanish online. We are asking your help to cover one-year subscription for $270. In Thinking activities will increase motivation and participation.

Westview High School:  Safe and Sound 4 Student Success (S4) High School
The pilot builds on the highly successful middle school S4 program to support, connect and strengthen relationships with low-income and students of color at risk for not graduating. Funds will provide necessary academic outreach and support but also for the building of relationships between and amongst staff and students(which could include soccer once face-to-face activities are allowed.)

FUNDED:

Beaver Acres Elementary School:  Be What You See          
Provide four kindergarten teachers twenty-five diverse, anti-biased developmentally appropriate read alouds each to use weekly and drive the creation of invitations for playful inquiry.

Five Oaks Middle School’s Library and Instructional Technology Teacher, Suzanne Peerenboom, is always researching new ideas to engage students.  One of those ways was working with Rubik’s Cubes.  She’s had her students design and build their own mosaic designs, learning how to solve at least part of the Rubik’s cube. They’ve even worked together to build big mosaic pictures of Nelson Mandela and the Mona Lisa. Unfortunately, they were limited on sets and how many classes could use them at a time.   

“Our goal with Beaverton’s Choice was to purchase 100 Rubiks Cubes to be used by all grade levels for collaboration, design and engineering projects. We exceeded our goal, raising enough to purchase 144 cubes!”

— Suzanne Peerenboom, Teacher

Students have been able to work together in classrooms to design and build mosaics with the cubes. They have also been coming into the library on a daily basis to practice solving the cubes, sometimes competing with their friends for speed. 

Look out for them to keep expanding and build bigger and better mosaics! 

You can support projects like this throughout the year by donating now to the Beaverton Education Foundation and becoming a sustaining donor!  

Tools and supplies are critical regardless of where learning takes place.

With 16,000 Beaverton students qualifying for federal free and reduced-price meals, the second phase of our Back to School campaign aims to create Student Success Kits by August 23 for each of the 16,000 students. The kit consists of basic supplies needed for distance learning.

There are two was for you to be a part of the solution:

1. Make a financial gift of $50 to provide 10 students with necessary supplies. A contribution of $5 makes a difference for one student.
2. Donate supplies on August 20th at our district-wide drop-off at Beaverton High School. We welcome the following items in new and unopened condition:

• College-ruled spiral notebooks
• Sharpened pencils
• Ballpoint pens
• Highlighters
• Colored markers (10 pack)
• Glue sticks
• Black Sharpies

Beaverton High School
(entrance at the corner of SW 2nd Street and SW Stott Avenue)
August 20th, 2020
Times: 9am – 1pm and 4pm – 7pm

NOTE: This will be a contactless drop-off event. Please keep our community safe by following appropriate hygiene protocols.

Download the Back to School: Equip flyer to share with your famliy and friends.

Our goal is to solve the solvable problems so our students are ready to learn. Internet connectivity is a solvable problem.

BEF is the Beaverton School District’s partner to help raise funds and connect the community and classrooms. Right now funds are needed for a small number of families that cannot participate in the Comcast offer for internet access. For a variety of reasons, such as homelessness, foster care or moving among multiple locations – for example, spending one day with a grandparent, the next with a neighbor, the following one at a child care center – the student will need a mobile hotspot in order to access consistent, reliable service this school year.

Let’s work together to give our students, our educators and our school community the resources they need to make this year the most successful it can be.

Our goal is to solve the solvable problems so our students are ready to learn.

Internet connectivity is a solvable problem.

While our telecom partners have provided much-needed connectivity, there are still gaps for some BSD families. Of the 27,000 households in our Beaverton schools, 475 do not have a reliable way to connect to the internet this school year. With your support, students will check out a WiFi hotspot they can use to attend online classes and complete their school work. These devices are for students for whom traditional internet service providers are not a solution.

Your gift of $250 will provide a student with a mobile hotspot and internet service for the entire school year. A contribution of $25 supports connectivity for one month.

Q: I thought the Beaverton School District has an arrangement for free internet connectivity through Comcast?

A: Yes, Comcast is offering a limited number of families who qualify for free and reduced school lunch with six months of free internet. Families need to submit applications for this program by July 31. More information about this program is available here.

Q: Why is BEF raising funds for internet connectivity?

A: BEF is the District’s partner to help raise funds and connect the community and classrooms. Right now funds are needed for a small number of families that cannot participate in the Comcast offer. For a variety of reasons, such as homelessness, foster care or moving among multiple locations – for example, spending one day with a grandparent, the next with a neighbor, the following one at a child care center – the student will need a mobile hotspot in order to access consistent, reliable service. 

Q: Do families apply to BEF for the hotspots?

A: No, the District has identified families who need the hotspots. The District will be responsible for checking hotspots out to the students and for helping get them set up before school starts.