BCEF Awards Nearly $5,000 in Grants

Each fall, up to $5,000 is awarded to innovative projects selected by a committee of foundation board members.

(Batesville, Ind.) - The Batesville Community Education Foundation (BCEF) is pleased to announce the recipients of its fall grants to staff at the Batesville Community School Corporation (BCSC).

Each fall, up to $5,000 is awarded to innovative projects selected by a committee of foundation board members, according to BCEF Executive Director Anne Wilson.

Grants awarded were:

• BCSC Lead School Resource Officer Austin Gross was awarded a grant to purchase more than 200 upgraded emergency preparedness backpacks for required life-saving supplies. Due to an increase in the required items to be included in each kit, the previous bags were no longer adequate. This grant will impact all students and staff within the corporation.
• Paul Satchwill, Batesville High School (BHS) English teacher, received funding to support bringing Skye Nicholson to his English 10 Honors classes as an artist-in-residence for a poetry unit. BCEF’s grant will augment the funds Satchwill has requested from several other area nonprofits.
• Rachel West, BCSC speech pathologist, received funding to create durable outdoor communication boards for Batesville Primary School students with speech or communication challenges. These boards will help students express needs, wants, and emotions during outdoor activities, when frustration levels can be high. Besides stationary boards, a custom rolling version will also be developed for use on the playground and in the outdoor learning complex.
• Lisa Barnett’s eighth-grade advanced language arts students at Batesville Middle School (BMS) received funding for the creation of a time capsule to bury in the planned BCEF-sponsored outdoor learning space at the school. The capsule will commemorate BMS’s 50th anniversary, to be opened 50 years from now during the school’s centennial celebration.
• Bulldog Ready Coordinator Kyle Laker received funding for custom-embroidered shirts and name tags for the first group of Bulldog Ready student ambassadors. These students will represent BHS during tours and community events as part of BCSC’s growing real-world learning model.

“In the spring, our grants will instead support the Bulldog Ready real-world guaranteed experiences that eventually each grade level will participate in,” Wilson said. “These unique opportunities connect the classroom curriculum to careers and the community, but they come with a cost. BCEF is proud to make this a standing program, easing the financial burden on our schools.”