Category: Uncategorized

Beaverton Education Foundation is proud to continue our long-standing partnerships with the Juan Young Trust, Genentech and NW Natural. 

BEF is grateful to the Juan Young Trust for supporting BEF’s PE & Play Initiative with a $50,000 award. Funds will be used on the third phase of this multi-year initiative, to further refresh and upgrade PE equipment at middle schools across the district. Working with district partners, we are currently identifying high priority needs and cost effective strategies to ensure students can use the new PE equipment in the new year.

An early supporter of BEF’s Building STEAM 4 All Initiative, Genentech’s $40,000 grant will continue their generous support of innovative classroom projects in science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Funding will also go toward biomedical pathways programs and health literacy activities in our schools. 

NW Natural’s $5,000 contribution will go toward funding for the Safe and Sound for Student Success (S4) after school program for middle schoolers. The S4 program combines academic support with extracurricular activities. Program participants’ strengthen school connections and deliver increased academic achievements far into high school.

Learn more about the success of these programs and more in BEF’s 2022-2023 Impact Report.

Thanks to our generous donors, Beaverton Education Foundation has awarded $30,728, funding 21 classroom projects for the 2023-24 academic year.

Inspiring Young Musicians

Rock Creek Elementary
Students Served: 200
Recipient: Koren Russ
Award: $1,285

Funding provided in part by the Band Together initiative and the Rock Creek PTC

Rock Creek’s youngest musicians thrive with basic instruments that can be used in various ways. With the 30 sets of resonator bells funded by their Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Inspiring Young Musicians, students can use them together, or taken out in smaller numbers to focus on only the sounds they need. This allows young musicians to work hard and have fun singing, dancing and playing percussion instruments now and years to come!

Readers Are Leaders!

Stoller Middle School
Students Served: 1,000
Recipients: Kathleen Taylor, Brule Speck, Lexie Frensley, Kyle Nagelmann, Sabrina Barton & Marty Welch
Award: $3,287

Funding provided in part by the Stoller Middle School PTO

Thanks to support from our generous community for the Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Readers Are Leaders, Stoller Middle School can provide over 500 books to their 1000+ students for their 10,000 Great Books Challenge. These high-interest books from different genres will help sustain a love for reading during the influential middle school years. 

Grow Student Success with Wellness Center Support

ACMA
Students Served: 700
Recipients: Meaghan Mikulic & Michelle Hart
Award: $620

Funding provided in part by the ACMA PTO

Thanks to generous donors to the Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Grow Student Success with Wellness Center Support, the ACMA Wellness Center can provide students with items to support a student’s mental and physical health to ensure they have a safe and comforting space to ground their academic journeys. The Wellness Center is a hub of support, compassion and skill building for every student in their building. Students are empowered with a choice to: process their emotions; build skills with a mental health professional; sit quietly; or self-sooth.

Hands On Healthy Eating

Sunset High School
Students Served: 350
Recipients: Courtney Gaffney & Emily Arellano
Award: $2,370

Funding provided in part by the BEF Building STEAM 4 All initiative and the Sunset PTO

Sunset High School students have the opportunity to learn about micro and macronutrients, food groups, disease prevention and more, with hands-on lessons focused on establishing useful skills and a positive relationship with food through their recently funded Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Hands On Healthy Eating.

Whitford Attendance Initiative

Whitford Middle School
Students Served: 781
Recipient: Zan Hess
Award: $1,140

Funding provided in part by the Whitford PTO

Whitford Middle School has challenged their student body to commit to perfect attendance this school year. Our generous community’s support for the Whitford Attendance Initiative project funded incentives to help encourage students to achieve weekly and quarterly attendance goals. Addressing chronic absenteeism is key to increasing academic achievement, improving graduation rates and giving students the best chance at success in their adult life. 

Make Spanish Speaking Skills Stick!

Westview High School
Students Served: 159
Recipient: Amanda Bautista
Award: $1,200

Thanks to their recently funded Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Make Spanish Speaking Skills Stick, Westview High School students have the Spanish books and materials needed to create their own readers using stories created and illustrated by whole class. Spanish-language stories and picture-rich wall decor help students get excited about learning a language, contribute to details from their reading/thinking to the class, ultimately providing valuable content for students to publish their own stories for even more choice reading.

Empowering Work & Life Skills

Community Transition Program
Students Served: 140
Recipient: Kyla Zaworski
Award: $1,000

Thanks to our generous donors, the Community Transition Program (CTP) is able to repair two vending machines from which proceeds are used toward their Friday outings. These field trips provide students valuable opportunities to practice social and leisure skills in the community. Support of this Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Empowering Work & Life Skills, helps these 18-21 year old students with various disabilities who are transitioning out of high school and into the next chapters of their lives by teaching valuable work skills, and assisting them in becoming contributing members of their communities. 

Decodable Readers for Greenway!

Greenway Elementary
Students Served: 65
Recipients: Tomi Kluver, Aubrey Zagar, Diane Meyer, Cassidy Griswold, Susan Lewis, Tera Langlois, Erica Jackson, Naomi Sprague, Nina Winegar-Thurston & Malia Griffin
Award: $500

Funding provided by The Anne Kelly Ofstun Tubby Fund

Greenway readers will have the tools to feel the joy of reading and the pride that comes with doing so independently, thanks to their Beaverton’s Choice classroom project, Decoding Readers for Greenway!. These decodable books follow a research based scope and sequence and correlates well with the shift made in teaching students to read. Students want to read the books because they are engaging and at the same time, reading words that match the instruction given in small groups. 

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.

“Hi, my name is Sam. I am a high school volunteer for the  Beaverton Education Foundation.  This is our 25th year supporting Beaverton teachers and students – I am calling tonight to ask for your support of BEF’s efforts to fund a variety of programs designed to help all Beaverton students achieve their brightest future.”

For six nights in October, 250 student volunteers from all high schools throughout Beaverton asked our community to Answer the Call – and support hands-on, innovative programs and projects that reach all Beaverton’s 39,000 students. 

“Schools transformed into mobile call centers filled with students asking our community to support programs — from band camp and summer reading to career technical exploration and after school support — that make them and their peers excited about coming to school,” explained Kristine Baggett, BEF Executive Director. 

Answer the Call donations were generously matched by long-standing partners, First Tech Federal Credit Union and OnPoint Community Credit Union. 

Additional support was provided by: Beaverton Valley Times, Columbia Sportswear, King Pins, Marsh McLennan Agency, Nothing Bundt Cakes and  Shake Shack.

Learn the scale and scope of what your support meant to students during the 2022-2023 school year. Your support today ensures positive impacts for students continue.

Thanks to our generous donors Beaverton Education Foundation has awarded $16,711, funding 12 classroom projects for the 2023-24 academic year.

Tick Tock! Help our Camp Achieve Students Tell Time

Greenway + McKay Elementary Schools
Students Served: 75
Recipients: Trina Simkins-Moore & Brule Speck 
Award: $750

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Camp Achieve students in third through fifth grade from Greenway and McKay elementary schools are learning to read an analog clock using hands-on tools. Thanks to your support and our generous Building STEAM 4 All funders, 75 easy-to-read watches were purchased to supplement district curriculum and show lessons in real time. 

Expand Art & Film Opportunities at BASE

BASE
Students Served: 100
Recipient: Jared Agard
Award: $1,000

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

BASE art students are achieving even greater success thanks to funds raised for supplies and audio equipment for the school’s recording studio to make even more award-winning news stories for PBS Student Reporting Labs.

A Golden Dream for the AHS Boys Soccer Program

Aloha High School
Students Served: 70
Recipient: Julio Abad Guzman
Award: $2,365

The AHS Boys soccer program can expand to four teams and include as many students who want to participate as possible thanks to funding from the AHS community.

Bring Geography to Life!

ACMA
Students Served: 190
Recipient: Brooke Warren
Award: $862

ACMA Social Studies students will get to participate in hands-on learning thanks to our community’s support for 35 dry erase world maps and U.S. maps to learn about the places and communities around us.

Building Community with STEAM Tubs

Sexton Mountain Elementary
Students Served: 86
Recipients: Heidi Demmitt, Emily Pike & Kelsey Baldwin
Award: $1,215

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Sexton Mountain third graders can start their days off in a positive way with fully-supplied Soft Start STEAM Tubs, thanks to support for their Beaverton’s Choice project. Students will have opportunities to grow their skills in cooperation, collaboration, inclusiveness, critical thinking, problem solving and building community.

Send the Aloha Marching Band to the Championships!

Aloha High School
Students Served: 28 
Recipient: Aliyah Jackson
Award: $2,775

Funding provided in part by the Go Warriors! Opportunity Fund

The Aloha Marching Ensemble will participate in their early performance time for the 2023 NWAPA Championships at Autzen Stadium this October with funds to spend the night prior to this year’s culminating competition. This competition is especially meaningful, following last year’s success where the band won first place at every competition and scored high enough to perform in the final round at 2022 NWAPA Championships. 

Multisensory Tools to Support Handwriting Instruction

McKinley Elementary
Students Served: 350  
Recipients: Michael Vieira, Gretchen Johnson, Marla Davies & Chris Gillbertson
Award: $2,475

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative and Parents and Teachers for McKinley (PTM)

McKinley’s Kindergarten, First Grade and Second Grade students have access to LCD writing tablets that will provide purposeful, hands-on multi-sensory tools for  handwriting instruction and fun! These tools also provide teachers with opportunities to give in the moment corrective feedback. As a result, students’ writing will improve as well as the quality of their written compositions in higher grades.

Magic Out of Math

Whitford Middle School
Students Served: 480 
Recipients: Sandra Miller, Jyoti Shah, Andrew Gagnier & Chad Carnes
Award: $2,729

Funding provided in part by the Building STEAM 4 All initiative

Whitford Middle School students smoothly transitioned into 8th grade AGS 1 math curriculum and feel confident taking notes to study for tests long into high school with Interactive Notebooks. Each pre-printed bound, spiral notebook has a structured setup with a glossary and helpful, customizable reference pages. 

A Performance that Will be “Out of this World!”

West Tualatin View Elementary
Students Served: 63
Recipients: Brooke Bailey, Kellie Tichenor & Peyton Matthews
Award: $540

Funding provided in part by the West TV PTC

Second grade teachers at West Tualatin View Elementary are able to organize a student performance of “Patterns in the Sky: Sun, Moon, and Stars” involving all second grade students’ talents and learning. Students are learning the information and skills while preparing a showcase of learning for the West TV community.

Pre-K Supply Drive!

Elmonica Elementary
Students Served: 36
Recipients: Michelle Hebden, Kristin Beckley & Ben Ruehlman
Award: $500

The brand new pre-K at Elmonica Elementary has needed supplies like playdough, paints and tricycles to help keep their four-year-olds active and engaged thanks to our generous community.

Build Classroom Community with Books!

ACMA
Students Served: 165
Recipient: Lynn Chapman
Award: $1,040

Sixth through eighth grade students can read an entire novel as a class, thanks to support for their project. The process of reading a book together allows Lynn Chapman to explicitly teach characterization, plot, theme, and other aspects of a novel. Plus, it allows for rich discussions and builds classroom community.

Inspire Young Readers!

Greenway Elementary
Students Served: 41
Recipients: Cassidy Griswold & Susan Lewis
Award: $460

Fun, engaging, diverse decodable books that teach students how to read and also serve as windows and mirrors are now a part of Greenway Elementary’s decodable library. These books allow students to have books that support their individual needs and provide immediate opportunities for students to practice foundational skills while building a strong reading identity.  

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.

Over the past 25 years, thousands of student volunteers from all Beaverton public high schools have asked community members to participate in our annual Beaverton Education Foundation (BEF) fundraiser – Answer the Call. 

Your investment makes an impact and provides funding for hands-on, innovative, academic programs and projects. These innovations go beyond normal school funding to ensure Beaverton students have an opportunity to learn, thrive and reach their highest potential. Together we can incubate promising ideas, create hands-on learning opportunities, and fill in funding gaps, all while connecting the community to the classroom.

Your continued support will help all Beaverton’s 39,000 students reach their brightest potential. Answer the Call on October 17-26, 2023 or donate today! 

Learn how last year’s generous contributions made a difference across all 54 Beaverton schools in our 2022-2023 Impact Report.