Instructional Grants

The APE Foundation is pleased to consider applications that benefit the students of the Austin Public Schools. Please review district goals when submitting your grant.

Eligibility

Licensed instructional staff is eligible to submit grant requests for resources that enhance and enrich the learning experience within the classroom.

The foundation does not provide grants for the following:

Salary or fringe benefits for school district employees
Continuing education or professional development
Student fees and/or rentals normally paid by parents or guardians
Curriculum
Clothing
Field trips
Smartboards or iPads – Technology that requires ongoing district support
Consumable Products that are One and Done: Batteries, Paper Supplies, Glue, Stickers, Food, snacks, etc.

If you are requesting an item that will require the district’s support, please talk to your building administrator to see if it can be supported.

Application Guidelines

Your grant should not be more than 1-2 pages. Refer to the sample grants below for guidance.
Submit FOUR PAPER COPIES of your grant to Jennifer Boysen, Executive Director, at the APEF Office located in the High School. Emailed grants will not be considered.

Your grant needs to contain the following information:

Date, grant request title, school, applicant name(s), signature(s) and contact phone and e-mail information.
A brief description of the objectives or purpose of the grant request, including the number and description of the people who will be served by the grant.
A detailed description of item(s requested with estimated costs.
List each item separately; it is beneficial to prioritize your items and attach pictures. This allows us to help prioritize and approve partial grants where possible.
Your administrator’s signature, demonstrating their support for your grant proposal.

Reward Instructions

If a grant is awarded, approval is given only for item(s) and dollar amount described.
The foundation board must approve any changes prior to purchase.
For Instructional Staff grants, email your administrator detailing your grant request. This will keep principals informed of the number and objectives of grant requests generated by their staff.

Timelines

Applications are due March 6th, 2023 for projects to be funded for the 2023-2024 school year.

The grant committee will notify you if your grant was selected, by April 7th, 2023. If your grant is accepted, give your purchase order to your principal stating it is for the APE Foundation, prior to the last day of school. For building administrators, submit purchase orders as normal with a notation that funding is provided by the APEF grant. Your order will be made after July 1st, 2023 and you should have your items in time for the 2023-2024 school year.

Access a Word document sample of an Instructional Staff Grant Process here.

Instructional Staff Grant Sample:

2/2/22 3rd Grade Listening Center Materials

Dear Austin Public Education Foundation,
I am writing to request a grant for the 3rd grade at Wood Creek Elementary School. We currently have 125 children in the 3rd grade at Wood Creek. This number does fluctuate each year.

Our district started a new reading series this year called Happy Readers. With Happy Readers, everything that the children do during reading time is leveled. One of the activities, that Happy Readers suggests, is a listening center. Because of this, we would like to have listening materials at a variety of reading levels. We have very little resources for listening center materials in our building. There are 10 books with CD’s available to check out in the library. All of the 3rd grade teachers have CD players in their classrooms. We are lacking books and CD’s to play on our players.

We would appreciate it if you were able to fund listening center materials from Lakeshore Learning. Although there are 4 classrooms, we feel we would be able to share the materials. We would like to have 2 of each set that is available.

2- Read along Grades 2-4 $179.00 ($358.00 for 2 sets)
2- Read along Grades 4-6 $179.00 ($358.00 for 2 sets)
Total purchase $716.00

Thank you for taking the time to read my request,

Suzie Smith
3rd Grade Teacher
Wood Creek Elementary School
# 555-5555 / s.smith@wces.mn.us
Signed: Suzie Smith_________