Melissa Evingham – Director's Corner

Our school was called yesterday by Congressman Chris Lee’s office! We received the PEP Grant.  THIS is so exciting for us.

“The Carol M. White Physical Education Program provides grants to LEAs and community-based organizations (CBOs) to initiate, expand, or enhance physical education programs, including after-school programs, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Grant recipients must implement programs that help students make progress toward meeting state standards.”

Our Physical Education Department came to the leadership team in the fall of 2008 and asked about the possibility of writing this grant.  Of course, our superintendent and Board of Education were very supportive of the efforts and work that this would take all of us and encouraged us to begin the process.  One of our first steps was to obtain the assistance of a grant writer.

Rosalie Magino, started us off with a phone conference in December, and boy, was there work to do!  The Physical Education Department members worked tirelessly to collect data, create and publish a survey for our students and community and spent a full conference day (and more) creating a budget that indicated the needs of our students. I can tell you that the month of February was a full month of dedication to this grant.  It was amazing how we all pulled together and got this accomplished and still work full-time jobs beyond our grant efforts!

The grant was due in March, and we have been waiting to hear about the grant.  It was like the anticipation of Christmas.  I could barely focus at work just waiting to hear about the outcome of the grant review process. During the middle part of June, we received an email asking for clarification regarding a portion of our grant.  One of our lead Physical Education teachers met with me to craft a response!  We emailed it, and we continued to wait.

July 7, 2009 was our exciting day.  What this means for our students in our community is endless.  Our first year begins with wellness centers for our buildings with state of the art equipment and technology to support the physical fitness of students K-12.  The second year we will focus on outdoor education, and the third year will be around exergaming (Wii, Dance, Dance Revolution).  How exciting!  I am all aglow. We all are aglow!  I am sure you will read more soon.  The grant began July 1, 2009. The work and the excitement begins!!