Act Prep Class — $2,340

How to Take the ACT offers equitable access to 11th grade scholars who traditionally do not have the means to take a class like this, and helps to level the playing field with their peers. As these students are already in distance learning, access to the online class will be free; this grant pays for the tutor’s time to work with, guide and support the students.

Hopkins High School - Jeff Matchette

Albert Io — $1,433

This user-friendly platform for AP History has received a big thumbs up from HHS students and staff in the past, and the ability for HEF to pick up the funding this year has been crucial for distance learners.

Hopkins High School — Erik Swenson

Becoming Anti-Racist And Authentically Inclusive In Early Childhood — $3,800

Early childhood is a critical age group in which to begin the work of anti-racism. This project begins with toys and books that illustrate multiple cultures and includes materials to help staff guide difficult and open conversations between themselves, and among parents.

Harley Hopkins Family Center — Jackie Hunke

Beyond Aristotle and Dante — $1,500

This grant provides a selection of LGBTQ novels for students to choose from for the upcoming unit on Relationships, as well as a basis for the Socratic Seminars based in Social Emotional Learning and empathy. Books will be shared/traded with WJH, and virtual book clubs are being considered across the two junior high buildings.

North Junior High — Kimberly Busch

Community Earthen Oven — $3,800

Gatewood is embracing a unique outdoor learning opportunity: next fall, HEF is funding the construction of a permanent dome oven from straw bales, sand, clay, and bricks. The oven, 5’ tall and 3’ in diameter, will begin as a hands-on Engineering Learning Project for student teams guided by a professional craftsman, and then live on as a weekly teaching tool, accessible to the entire school for many years to come.

Gatewood Elementary — Brooke Davis

The Cove — A Safe Space — $577

This grant will transform the small, unadorned Learning Center into The Cove – an aesthetically pleasing, calm environment used throughout the day by up to 50 Eisenhower Elementary special education students with sensory processing disorders and mental health concerns.

Eisenhower Special Ed — Malea Becker

Covid-Safe Equipment For Sensory Motor Room — $805

This grant purchases sensory motor pieces of equipment that will be easy to clean frequently, and will greatly benefit Links to Learning students.

Gatewood Elementary — Alyssa Winterfeldt

Cultivating Digital Student Health And Wellness — $2,500

It’s difficult right now to screen less, but students can learn to screen well. All 970 students will benefit as NJH implements a deliberate culture of digital health and wellness as part of SEL (social emotional learning) during students’ advisory periods. HEF is funding a partnership with LiveMore ScreenLess, a Minnesota nonprofit that “promotes digital wellbeing for and with young people through a collaborative and comprehensive community approach”. LiveMore will use research and data to promote the balanced and intentional use of technology.

North Junior High — Ann Salzer

Distance Learning Kits — $2,000

Distance learning is especially hard on young children with disabilities who require structured, concrete, hands on, functional play-driven and interactive experiences. Families are unable to duplicate the opportunities available in the classroom, so this grant funds the creation of ‘leaning binders’ – 3-ring binders chock full of tools and supplies, along with instructions for many, many engaging games and activities.

Harley Hopkins Special Education — Lori Lilly

Distance Music Microphones — $1,400

This grant purchases an external microphone and stand for each elementary school music teacher, greatly improving the quality of their lessons and level of student engagement. The equipment will increase audio quality of both voice and instruments, eliminate stray background sound that interferes with lessons, and better model the true sound staff is trying to teach.

All Elementary Schools — Jonathan Feulner

Diy Stem Tinker Kits — $2,000 — Glen Lake — Betsy Julien, Karin Brinkhoff, Paul Spreitzer, Robb Trenda This HEF grant funds six different sets of crates full of interesting gadgets to be sent home, encouraging all students to fully participate along with any siblings who care to join in. Some enthusiastic learners have already created videos of themselves with their projects, and now the excitement can grow and spread.

This HEF grant funds six different sets of crates full of interesting gadgets to be sent home, encouraging all students to fully participate along with any siblings who care to join in. Some enthusiastic learners have already created videos of themselves with their projects, and now the excitement can grow and spread.

Glen Lake — Betsy Julien, Karin Brinkhoff, Paul Spreitzer, Robb Trenda

Fine Motor Kits For Distance Littles — $697.88

Development of fine motor skills and muscle memory is essential to successful writing, cutting, gluing, and many other tasks. This grant funds 22 Fine Motor Kits to be sent home with students, along with engaging, instructive lessons and games.

Tanglen Elementary — Liz Patrick

Gizmos And Reflex Subscriptions — $1,610

Counterintuitively perhaps, these online programs offer a solution to the problem of too much online learning. Reflex(Math) and Gizmos (Science) are fun and engaging interactive programs that promote rapid understanding and send boredom to the back of the class.

Gatewood Elementary — Lisa Schmid

Glen Lake Go! Bus Design & Wrap — $3,150

Glen Lake is taking education on the road, offering a more engaging authentic school experience for all students through real-world adventures and frequent curriculum-based field trips. A dedicated bus, called “Glen Lake Go!” is the modern substitute for a magic carpet, whisking students off to first-hand experiences and behind-the-scenes looks at the fascinating opportunities across our community. HEF will fund the colorful student-designed 3M vinyl bus wrap to make this vehicle super special, and even more exciting.

Glen Lake — Principal Jeff Radel

Glowing Creativity With Glowforge — $4,990

Glowforge is a powerful laser cutter and engraver that cuts materials such as cardboard, wood, leather, cloth – even chocolate! – and engraves on glass or wood, putting endless creativity into the hands of everyday users. NJH Media Center is excited to offer this tool to all students as an enhancement to the MakerSpace previously funded by HEF*. With Glowforge, students will learn the CAD design process and how to use and reuse materials to create art and functional products. Both the process and the tool have the potential to lead to STEM careers and to spark interest in design and manufacturing.

North Junior High — Jen Legatt

Grade 5 Virtual Literacy — $1,500

Currently, fifth graders are acquiring 60-100% of their learning virtually. This grant funds subscriptions to a slate of digital literacy resources to enhance and engage their endeavors during this very unusual year of COVID-19.

All Elementary Schools— Kim Rossow

A Great Hopkins Read-Aloud — $1,200

This grant helps to bring all Hopkins scholars together through a shared reading experience. Different books will be chosen for different grade levels and purchased with HEF funds.

All Elementary Schools — Tracey Beaverson

Hmong Family Outreach — $5,000

For Tanglen’s Hmong students and families (most of whom have chosen distance learning) and the 15 teachers who need to communicate with them, the systemic communication barriers Hmong families have always experienced have become more evident during the pandemic. This grant will compensate interpreter Panou Xiong for up to ten additional hours per week for the rest of the school year, and five hours per week during the ten weeks of summer.

Tanglen Elementary — Sara Vanhove

Home Studios Unlock Creativity — $1,200

This grant purchases home studio equipment for use in rotation by a cohort of social studies staff at NJH. Their goal is to create digital content more engaging than what can be produced on district-issued hardware, and to meet the individual needs of their students.

North Junior High — Nick Lovas

Literacy in the Music Room - $1,000

This classroom library in the music room at Tanglen will feature multicultural songs, stories, poetry, biographies of musicians and composers, and activities for exploring sound and movement. These resources will be used for lessons for all Tanglen students – and for many years to come – to broaden the scope of music education beyond a European-centered cannon.

Tanglen Elementary - Angel Clark

Longboarding And Community Service — $11,100

This spring, HEF will fund the construction of 20 shared longboards for current sixth graders, an exciting hands-on learning opportunity with returning assistance from Urban Boatbuilders of St. Paul. The Youth Longboard Program immerses students in the project from start to finish: collaboration, design, Math and science skills, handling tools and wood burning, and last but certainly not least, instruction in riding longboards (helmets will be worn).

Alice Smith — Maggie Lund & Mykenna Yesnes

Micro Home Libraries — $3,000

This grant puts two books by BIPOC authors (black, indigenous, people of color) into each of the hands of Reading Acceleration students whose home libraries are small to nonexistent. The pandemic makes this endeavor all the more important and timely, as these students are experiencing school in isolation at home.

North Junior High — Laura Jensen

Mobile Sensory Kits — $4,700

Mobile Sensory Kits are loaner kits full of easily-sanitized sensory processing equipment for preschoolers in the environment of COVID-19. Much more than toys, these weighted blankets, fidget tools, noise cancelling headphones (as a few examples) are designed to be soothing and/or stimulating for Hopkins youngest learners.

Early Childhood Special Education — Michelle Kloke, Lyndsay Hetzel, Jessica Lindberg

Outdoor Forest Kindergarten Startup — $1,600

All three Gatewood Kindergarten sections (70+ students) will be outside next year 3-4 hours out of their six-hour day! The forest, pond, field, gardens, and hillside will be their classroom. HEF will be funding rain/mud gear for all students, including boots. The gear will be re-used year after year, to make outdoor activities comfortable for all.

Gatewood Elementary — Katie Schmidt And Kay Mccarthy

Outdoor Inquiry Kits And Research Station — $1,438

These 30 reusable HEF-funded tool kits will include items such as binoculars, pond nets, pocket guides, tool kits, activity guides, magnifying glasses, insect habitats and collection bags to enable students to complete investigations at a variety of research stations, changed regularly. The exciting level of engagement provided to these young botanists and zoologists leads directly to content knowledge and higher order thinking skills.

Eisenhower Elementary — Abby Larson, Lisa Hake

Reading Groups, Together At Home — $999

For the 66 Tanglen second graders enrolled in the Distance Learning Academy, the typical access to multiple books is not available. This grant provides multiple copies of 35 titles, both fiction and non fiction selections, with a diversity of main characters. Students will engage in small reading groups tailored to their needs, along with their teacher, via Googlemeets while staying safe at home.