CEEF Grant History and Recent Grant Awards

CEEF’s fifteenth grant cycle welcomed more grant requests from teachers and staff than ever before.  Initially requests totaled over $147,000, and while later reduced to $88,000, we were still left with a large difference from the $30,000 budgeted for this cycle.

Awards in the end totaled $26,364.75, a reflection of our desire to remain true to CEEF’s mission of funding programs that are innovative and fall outside the school budget.  Among the grants awarded, $7,476 was granted in technology to Pond Cove, to outfit the remaining teacher classrooms which did not have the newest in technology items such as LCD projectors and SmartBoards.  CEEF is proud to have played a large role in providing over $22,000 in technology to Pond Cove over the past two years.  Also at Pond Cove, a professional development grant will provide funding for several educators to attend the Wayland Literacy Institute this summer to gain a deeper understanding of the developmental needs of young writers.

Cape Elizabeth Middle School will receive funds for three different professional development opportunities, including one for the technology integrator to enhance methods of teaching, a program offering Spanish-language and culture immersion in Santiago, Spain, and a course to augment guidance counselor strategies for students with behavioral and emotional needs.

The CE high school wind symphony will be treated to the experience of having a custom-written symphony project to work on with an internationally known composer, thanks in part to a $3,000 CEEF grant.  The piece will be inspired by local Cape Elizabeth residents who’ve made important contributions to local and national culture.  The effort to revive the once-proud Lincoln-Douglas debate team will once again gain steam, as a CEEF grant combined with other resources will seed this competitive extra-curricular program.  The ever-popular Chef-of-the-Month program received $500 to continue its efforts to bring tasty and healthy local cuisine to the high school, to be enjoyed by students and community members alike.  Future years will find the program self-sustaining.  Social studies classrooms at the high school will be equipped with the proper mounting supplies needed to utilize cutting-edge technology so vital to ever-changing research methodology teaching.  Additionally at the high school, a grant will provide partial funding for a professional development opportunity for improving methods of teaching instructional support students in need of stress management techniques.

A joint CEHS/CEMS grant rounded out the grant cycle, in the form of a certification program to provide modern language teachers a high-level standardized course of assessment of proficiency for language students.

The total from this grant cycle increases CEEF’s grant-making total to over $755,000 awarded to our public schools since 2002.

Thank you for your support. As you imagine the future of our schools please think of supporting CEEF so that we can continue to help our schools achieve their vision for the future.

Claire Depke
Chair, CEEF Grants Committee 

                            Please click here to read about each grant awarded in spring 2010.