Author: BEF Author

Thanks to our generous donors including:  AHS Go Warriors! Opportunity Fund, the Anne Kelly Ofstun Tubby Fund, BEF Building STEAM 4 All Program, First Tech Federal Credit Union, Intel Corp., and the Mike Osborne Memorial Award Fund we have awarded $19,630, funding 15 classroom projects this summer for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year.

Mirrors & Windows: Help Sato Build Inclusive Classroom Libraries!

Sato Elementary School
Students Served: 750
Recipient: Tammy Fry
Award: $2,015

Funding provided through the BEF New Project Match

Money raised allowed for the purchase of diverse books for 32 classrooms, ensuring libraries are as diverse as the children who use them. Books written by #ownvoice authors challenge readers to learn, explore and celebrate one another and are crucial to creating an inclusive classroom community and strong thinking and reading skills.

Nancy Ryles Early Readers

Nancy Ryles Elementary School
Students Served: 200
Recipient: Erin Osborne
Award: $1,500

Funding provided through the Anne Kelly Ofstun Tubby Fund

During Distance Learning book bundles provided our earliest readers with a variety of books needed to build a strong reading foundation and were a big hit with kindergarteners and first graders. Thanks to funds raised through this project, Nancy Ryles can purchase enough books to continue book bundles as permanent function of the library.

Tumwater Middle School Takes the Stage

Tumwater Middle School
Students Served: 300
Recipient: Mikaela Gladstone 
Award: $3,500

Funding provided through the BEF New Project Match

Tumwater Middle School Theatre is open to all students who wish to participate, regardless of ability. Funding from this project breaks down the financial barriers that often stand in the way of students wanting to participate in extracurricular activities.

Creating the “Westview Den” – a Wellness Room for the Wildcats

Westview High School 
Students Served: 240
Recipients: Mitzy King & Tina Myers
Award: $1,205

Funding provided through the BEF New Project Match

Funds raised through this project helped Westview High School create the ‘Westview Den’, a calming space to help teach students how to self-regulate their emotions in healthy ways and re-engage in their learning, ultimately missing less school due to mental health issues. 

Cultivating Curiosity and Creativity

Vose Elementary School 
Students Served: 30
Recipient: Flor Medina
Award: $1,500

Funding provided through The Mike Osborne Memorial Award Fund

Dual language learners will grow their curiosity and creativity with art projects and exciting new educational toys to enjoy during recess time and for indoor brain breaks. Additionally, each student will have a low-maintenance plant to care for to alleviate stress and use for math, writing and science. 

The Van Gogh Experience

Aloha High School 
Students Served: 13
Recipient: Elena Chiovaro
Award: $517

Funding provided through the Go Warriors! AHS Opportunity Fund

Aloha High School AP art students will explore their own minds and inquiries in the process of creating work for their AP portfolio as they visit the Beyond Van Gogh multimedia experience, taking the viewer on a journey through over 300 iconic artworks including instantly-recognizable classics “The Starry Night”, “Sunflowers”, and “Cafe Terrace at Night”, freed from their frames. 

4th grade Rocket Readers

Rock Creek Elementary School
Students Served: 91
Recipients: Grace Dilworth, Tricia Peerenboom and Avi Huelskamp
Award: $2,305

Funding provided through the BEF New Project Match

Rock Creek’s 4th grade teachers will help students fall in love with reading thanks to funds raised to purchase books for their beginning level readers that include a cover, design, characters and story that engage a 10-year-old’s mind. 

Take the Whitford Times to the Next Level

Whitford Middle School 
Students Served: 60
Recipient: Travis Rooke Ley
Award: $1,500

Funding provided through the BEF New Project Match

The Whitford Times, an 8^th grade student-driven newspaper, will grow their journalistic knowledge and take their publication to the next level with daily print editions of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and The Oregonian in class each day. These copies will serve as references, mentor texts, annotations and research. 

Monthly Math Magic

Hiteon Elementary School 
Students Served: 120
Recipient: Helen Chandler
Award: $1,000

Funding provided through the Building STEAM 4 All Program

Hiteon’s 5th graders will benefit from daily calendar math resources filled with patterns and complex problems. The activities and games give students ongoing practice with key skills and build a solid understanding and love of math.

Help Amplify Our Voices!

Cedar Park Middle School 
Students Served: 120
Recipient: Heidi VandenHooff
Award: $100

A Karaoke Machine and multiple microphones will help masked students get excited to speak and share their ideas and ensure educators will be heard loud and clear at Cedar Park Middle School. 

The World Needs to Hear YOUR Voice

Sunset High School 
Students Served: 210
Recipient: Rebecca Larson
Award: $395

Sunset High School students will read stories with personalized manner that mirrors their own life and see first-hand that “The world needs to hear your voice”. Students will then take their own stories beyond senior literature class and into the bigger world during a unit that focuses on the New York Times “Personal Narrative Writing Contest”.

Thanks to your generous contributions, the dollars raised are enabling enrichment programs in Beaverton schools that otherwise would not be possible. For current programs, and to begin your application, please visit Beaverton’s Choice, Beaverton Education Foundation’s online resource that brings community and classrooms together.  

When Southridge High School launched its Brassy and Bold Beaverton’s Choice campaign, it never imagined it would be funded more than 2x over in a matter of days. The result was not only the music supplies they needed, but the knowledge that BEF and the Beaverton community stand behind them — supporting their immediate needs and their dreams for the future.  

With the $7,540 they raised, including a $500 matching gift from BEF, the band purchased supplies that will be used for years to come — like field frames for glockenspiels and vibraphones and services that were previously out of reach, bringing the symphonic and concert bands together for the first time in over a year.  

Band Teacher, Cameron Jerde, explained that while he initially came to BEF with an urgent and immediate need to help students who play brass instruments, the overwhelming support allowed him to think strategically and improve playing conditions for even more members of the band for an extended period of time.

“This project impacted our total band program and will have a positive affect for years to come,” added Cameron.

Understanding the power of BEF’s connected donor community allows our educators to think big. Knowing there is support ready and willing to fund their ideas, gives staff a safe and supported space to explore and wonder. It’s this environment that fosters innovation and meaningful impact for all our students. 

Stay connected to BEF and learn about all the great projects in schools and classrooms throughout the District – like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and Twitter and join our mailing list. 

See all Art + Music programs and projects funded through Beaverton Education Foundation.

Fifteen second graders are beating authentic African drums, following the rhythms of the Ghanaian musicians leading their drum circle outside at Rock Creek Elementary School this July. The students are smiling behind their masks and when they are invited to get up and dance to the music, they start moving their bodies excitedly.

When they go back inside, their teacher reads a book about Ghanaian culture, and they look at maps and talk about the culture of Ghana, from their foods and sports to clothing and burial traditions. The students learn how to say hello and goodbye in Akan, one of the Ghanaian languages. At the end of the day, the students bring home their excitement for school and share what they’ve just learned with their families.

This is the magic of Camp Achieve, the summer program founded and funded by the Beaverton Education Foundation (BEF). It mixes academic learning and positive school experiences while preventing the dreaded ‘summer slide’, when students can lose critical amounts of reading, writing and math skills gained during the school year.

“The day the students did drumming, and really every day of Camp Achieve, my daughter came home so excited about school,” says Chanel Sheragy, BEF board member and mother of a Rock Creek Elementary School student. “Earlier in the pandemic, it was hard for my daughter to connect with her new school and make friends. But this summer, she was sad when we picked her up at the end of the day — she didn’t want to leave!”

Scaling Up a Model

“When first envisioned, the intent of Camp Achieve was to prevent the summer slide,” says Brian Curl, principal at Raleigh Park Elementary School, one of the first Camp Achieve sites. “We soon realized Camp Achieve was an opportunity to couple academic interventions with enrichment opportunities. And this summer, we knew we really needed to re-engage students with school.”

Research shows most students lose more than two and a half months of grade level equivalency in math over summer break, while low-income students on average lose two months of reading skills as well. This is in contrast to their peers who often make slight gains in reading during the summer months.

Camp Achieve started at one school site in 2013 and thanks to the vision and support of BEF, says Curl, additional schools soon started offering Camp Achieve summer programming to students identified by teachers as most in need of academic interventions.

With federal CARES Act funding available to school districts this summer, BSD quickly tapped into the Camp Achieve model to offer academic interventions and enrichment to all students who wanted it, and about 2,300 enrolled. With the combined support from BEF and a grant it received from the Meyer Memorial Trust, as well as state funding, BSD was able to use the proven Camp Achieve format to scale up summer programming much faster than other Oregon school districts. 

The greatest beneficiaries this summer, says Curl, are the students who might not have had an adult around during the day, could have had limited access to food or books during the summer, or have infrequent opportunities for structured and regular movement during the day. This summer, 80% of Camp Achieve students were current or former English language learners or migrants, and 21% had disabilities.

Education Cloaked in Enrichment

Sheragy appreciates how enrichment opportunities, like music, arts and sports, turned into a summer of meaningful education for her daughter. “I was worried she’d missed out on some foundational learning in kindergarten,” Sheragy says. “But Camp Achieve helped her stay on top of her academic skills and be prepared for starting a new grade. I could see that for myself in the writing she brought home and I could see her confidence return.” 

“This summer, I wanted my daughter to return to loving school and enjoying learning,” says Sheragy, “and my expectations were exceeded. We are so fortunate to have this tried-and-true model of Camp Achieve at BSD schools and that so many students can benefit from it.” 

Despite being more physically distant than ever last year, our strong community bonds kept us connected. In partnership with our dedicated educators, we supported many unique projects to engage students throughout our District and build student connections.  

“Community is the cornerstone of successful learning. We have created classroom community during every phase of learning this past year and are so looking forward to the fall when all of our students return.” explained Sunset High School teacher, Alisa Harvey. 

However, there are still Beaverton students who have not physically attended class at all since March 2020. These students, many of our most vulnerable, are missing educational opportunities and crucial friend and mentor connections that are key to success in school and beyond. 

Together, with the District, we are activating the second year of Camp Connect outreach. Using phone calls, emails, and text messages, combined with home visits, outreach will focus on families who have lost connection with their schools. In addition to back-to-school information, families will receive access to much-needed resources including the District’s Clothes for Kids program, food box deliveries and school meals. 

You can help keep our students connected. Your interest in and support of Beaverton Education Foundation’s work prepares all Beaverton students for their brightest future. Please follow the Foundation on social media for all of the latest updates.

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With the pandemic came unexpected changes, and the Beaverton Education Foundation was ready. We did what we always do — support our students and staff across the Beaverton School District so our students have the tools they need to learn and succeed. And as a result, we were able to shift with the times and support programs big and small to fill in gaps in district funding. 

Our commitment to connecting community and classrooms remains constant. Thanks to our donors, last year we invested $434,307 in:

• afterschool programs for middle school students, providing key academic support, mentorship and opportunities to play sports, and other enrichment opportunities
• summer programs that re-engaged students after remote and hybrid learning, and help prevent the summer slide while building relationships
• specialized resources for implementing hybrid learning
• innovative classroom projects, like ones that help students with social and emotional learning
• much-needed classroom supplies 

We reached more than 33,000 students in 2020-2021 — that’s more than 80% of all Beaverton students — and worked directly with educators at more than 45 schools across the District. We listened to what they needed, and valued their inside knowledge and connections to their communities. That’s what makes Beaverton Education Foundation’s programs impactful and scalable across the District, this year and every year.

Be a part of what’s to come

We know this school year will require agile thinking and swift action to face the challenges coming our way. And we’re ready. We will continue to support our cornerstone initiatives — our afterschool and summer programs — and seek out new solutions at the district and school levels to meet the needs of Beaverton’s students and educators. 

With help from our donors and partners, we will listen and respond and innovate, so that our students can thrive and be prepared for their brightest future. Join us.

“BEF’s support got us thinking even bigger than we originally were.” 

— Highland Park Middle School Math Teacher