School Excellence Grants

“The Foundation helped us address a very real need to improve attendance and parent involvement at our school.”
Principal at an inner-city elementary school

Principals are constantly challenged to find ways to improve various aspects of their schools – academic achievement, community support, parental involvement, student attendance and civility in the school environment, etc. As with challenges in any organization, the solution is normally not one simple thing, but typically a combination of efforts. These would include structured programs addressing the specific challenge, setting measurable goals in the areas being addressed and tracking improvement. In many cases, non-cash incentives and community involvement will provide the needed resources. In other cases, funding outside the normal district funds would be required to make this happen.

School Excellence Grants have reached thousands of students; raising reading scores, improving literacy and media centers, improving student attendance and increasing parent involvement.

As matching grants that school administrators may apply for at the beginning of each school year, the grants are for up to $5,000 and are designed to address needs which impact large segments of the school community (a grade-level, curriculum area, school-wide, etc.)

School administrators may apply for these matching grants at the beginning of each school year. The grants are for up to $5,000 and are designed to address needs which impact large segments of the school community (a grade-level, curriculum area, school-wide, etc.). They are designed to be one component of a school excellence initiative to make an area excellent. Over the years, the principals and school communities have demonstrated tremendous creativity which has resulted in significant improvements facilitated, in part, through School Excellence Grants.

“We improved reading scores on the FCAT, and brought the school’s grade from a D to a high B this year because of our grant.”
Local High School Principal

Hillsborough County schools and the Hillsborough Education Foundation have enjoyed tremendous community support from a variety of corporations, individuals, and foundations over the last 18 years. This has supported performance at the district. Despite the strong academic performance of many schools, there are still needs. Solutions to these particular needs expressed by the schools are best developed by a cooperative effort of the various stakeholders (teachers, support staff and students) led by the principal. The community has the ability to support theses efforts by supplementing the many initiatives with modest funding for those efforts which cannot be paid for by current funding.  Please visit our How You Can Help section if you are interested in providing funds to support these worthy causes.

Case Study – Robinson High School Media Center

During a two year period, the Foundation worked with the New York Life Foundation and Public Education Network (PEN) to update the collections and renovate the media center at Robinson High School. Robinson had prioritized improving its FCAT reading scores and realized the media center was an underutilized resource due to its aged books and appearance. Through a series of School Excellence Grants, the Foundation was able to assist the raise in Robinson’s Reading score from a “D” to a “B”. Even more exciting was the reaction of the students…and the increased utilization of the media center. Some of the comments and feedback from students have included statements such as:

• “I’m going to have to come here more often.”
• “This is SO much better than the old library.”
• “This is starting to look like Barnes & Noble.”
• “I don’t mind reading if I can get comfortable while doing it.”