Author: BEF Author

“Welcome Back!”

Words we have been waiting to hear for so long.

Our teachers are gearing up to welcome students back to Beaverton classrooms, and our students are eager to return.

Even with life not quite back to normal,  welcoming our students back to school provides a familiar comfort for all of us. An invitation to come in, sit down and begin again – an opportunity to rediscover the joy of learning and exploration.

For our teachers and staff, back to school means preparing differently than in the past. Many programs, projects and supplies that our creative teachers and staff have envisioned cannot be paid for with normal school funding. Working together, we can give our educators and students the resources they need to launch a new year in a new way.

You can help welcome our students back!

With your help today, we can ensure that the transition back to school is as smooth as possible. Our collective goal: get kids ready and back to school.

Let’s work together to give our students, our educators and our school communities the resources to make this year successful. Whether that’s supporting outreach efforts to reconnect students to school, innovative ideas to create engaging classroom activities, or specialized supplies to ensure all students have tools for learning — each school needs something different, and with your support, we can help provide it.

Why give to Beaverton Education Foundation

We connect community and classrooms. Since 1988, BEF has helped Beaverton School District educators access community resources for innovative classroom projects, afterschool and summer programs and classroom supplies. Our support fills in gaps that cannot be covered with district funding but are important to a high-quality education. We fund many of the programs you know and love about your schools. 

BEF believes great teaching and the right resources can spark students’ interests and passions. Our mission is to ensure Beaverton School District students thrive and to prepare them for their brightest future. We empower bottom-up educational transformation by turning teachers’ ideas into powerful solutions that benefit thousands of students and advance equitable education.

Thanks to our generous donors including: Dave Gettling Technology Fund, Intel Corp., First Tech Federal Credit Union, The Spirit of New Seasons Market Awards, AHS Go Warriors! Opportunity Fund, and the BEF Building STEAM 4 All Program, we have awarded $4,093, funding four classroom projects this summer for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year.   

¡Vamos a leer! Let’s read: Spanish books for Aloha Huber Park
Staff: Kimberly Knutson, Luke Unger, and Alfonso Giardiello 

West TV Student Wellness Room
Staff: Kaija Daniel-Hoffman and Susan Leonard 

Help the Hazeldale Hawks Soar in Math
Teacher: Dan Nakoa 

Calming Spaces Create Calm Students
Staff: Tricia Howery 

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, the hub that brings community and classrooms together.  

Camp Achieve has traditionally provided summer academic enrichment for elementary students to reduce summer learning loss. Over the past seven years, through private donations and grants including recent support from the Meyer Memorial Trust, the focus has been building reading and math skills, while ensuring students are ready for school in the fall. 

This year, those traditions merged with support from an Oregon Department of Education Summer Enrichment Program Grant and Beaverton school staff built Camp Achieve 2.0 – serving an estimated 2,200+ students in grades 1-5. Students are gearing up for a return to school buildings and working with peers, after the challenges of learning at home for the last 18 months. The following is a reflection on Camp Achieve from one Beaverton parent.

Parenting during the height of the pandemic was one of the hardest things I’ve done. Dealing with four large personalities, dipping in and out of depressed states, while we mourned the life we once had. Figuring out a new normal, only to have that shift from week to week – hello distance learning! As students went back to school in the spring, our family made the tough choice to not be a part of hybrid learning. Our kids had social interaction with neighbors and through sports teams, so we decided it would be less disruptive to finish the year the way we started, online.

In preparation for returning to the classroom this fall, I enrolled the girls in Camp Achieve at Rock Creek Elementary. Day camp, focused on fun activities, seemed like the perfect way to get used to being back in the classroom. As the first day approached, however, we were all nervous to return to the place that once felt like home.

Those nerves quickly dissolved. I was shocked with the sheer exhilaration my kids had after their first day. Better yet, they were excited to return the next day. The only thing they weren’t over the moon about was eating food that wasn’t personally curated by them. I was reminded once again; picky eaters do not love school lunch. Some things never change.

During the last year, I tried my best to check all the boxes for my kids: stay connected to academics and our school community, make space for peer interaction, allow each child room to learn in their own way. What I didn’t recognize was, none of this is truly accessible, at least for my girls, while constricted to the confines of home. We can’t learn new things when we are surrounded by sameness everywhere we turn.

For example, at camp my daughter learned that what she thought was sushi and was terrified to try, was actually a turkey pinwheel sandwich in her school lunch. She also figured out she can take the things she doesn’t like off her sandwich. While important in dining situations, these realizations taught her lessons that will be helpful her whole life: things aren’t always what they seem; and, if you don’t like the situation you are in, you have the power to make it better for yourself.

I will be forever grateful for the work our educators have done over the eighteen months to engage our students, but now I also have a renewed and stronger sense of gratitude for the work they have done all along. Thank you to everyone that has made Camp Achieve happen including Beaverton Education Foundation and the dedicated staff at the Beaverton School District.

What happens when students choose thought-provoking and relevant books to explore? That is precisely what Southridge High School was able to discover with their BEF-supported World Books project. The result: connections are built and a lifetime of learning is underpinned.

This year was especially important to get books into the hands of our students while at home during distance learning. BEF funds helped Language Arts teacher, Sarah Blattner, purchase 61 books with authentic, worldly voices discussing social justice themes and connecting to class interests. A sampling of books included: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, and Darius Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

Following a class discussion, one student decided to read Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay. The book features a male lead, from an immigrant family and follows the main character’s journey to research a tragedy that happened to his cousin in the Philippines.  

This particular student was previously completely disengaged from learning; he was not passing any of his classes and did not show up to Zoom. Through one-on-one chats Sarah was able to build a relationship with him, that strengthened further while discussing his chosen book. She learned he was dealing with a challenging family situation and connected with the book on several levels. Partnering with his community mentor, Sarah guided vibrant discussions between the three of them, addressing the book’s many parallels to her student’s life. 

“It only takes one book matched with one kid, and it’s magic,” explained Sarah. “My student was connected to school and my classroom community because of this book. Thank you for this opportunity.” 

Thanks to money donated through BEF’s crowdfunding site, Beaverton’s Choice, we were able to connect our community to the classroom, providing Southridge Art Lit students an experience to further their academic journey in a way that went beyond traditional school funding.

Learn more about Beaverton’s Choice today.

More than 1,300 students from Mountain View and Cedar Park Middle Schools will start summer break with brand-new books, thanks to their dedicated Library Media Assistants and individual contributions from our generous community. 

Throughout the last year and a half, library staff have worked tirelessly to get physical books into the hands of students. Despite their best efforts, many students still have had limited opportunities to pick-up reading materials. Now that the school year has come to an end, these same students have even less access to books.

Using funds generated from BEF’s crowdfunding platform, Beaverton’s Choice, staff were able to buy books from long-standing educational partner, Scholastic. Those purchases earned Scholastic dollars, that were immediately available to purchase even more – resulting in approximately 25% more books in total.

“During Scholastic Book Fairs, the students get very excited about buying new books,” explained Debbie Hernandez, Cedar Park Library Media Assistant. “But a lot of them can’t afford to buy them, so it’s great to be able to hand them a book at no charge.”

Prior to distance learning, Mountain View routinely had some of the highest book checkout rates in the District. Their Hands-on Books for Hands-on Readers! project through Beaverton’s Choice is helping Library Media Assistant, Madeline Robinette, keep her students’ love of reading strong this summer thanks to new books delivered to 450 students.

After students received their books, they sent messages exclaiming, “I GOT THE BOOK, THANK YOU,” and “Thanks for the book! It brightened my year!“

While we all look forward to a much-deserved break this summer, 1,316 more Beaverton middle school students will be able to do so while losing themselves in the book in front of them, and not the screen. Do you have your summer books picked out?