Acton Education Fund sees rise in teachers’ grant requests

The Acton Education Fund has disbursed more than $3 million to Acton schools in its lifetime.

Among the programs it has helped fund are Rivers and Revolutions, the Acton-Carlisle High School Weather Club’s weather balloon project, and the STEAM Lab, all of which continue to this day.

Today, board members say the non-profit is receiving more grant requests from teachers than in previous years. To keep up, CEF is looking to broaden its donor base from mostly parents to the wider community so it can support more projects.

“We want to say yes more often,” CEF board member Lynda Ferrari said.

Incorporating new ideas

The CEF was established around the time of the 1990 Massachusetts Education Reform Act to provide funding for teacher-designed projects that fall outside the district’s regular operating budget. Ferrari said some grants later become part of the school system’s regular programming.

Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter said through Tom Lucey, a district spokesperson, that school and district leadership choose which successful CEF-funded programs get rolled into the regular budget. 

She did not answer Acton Bridge questions about how that decision is made or what happens to grant-funded programs if CEF can no longer support them. 

This year, CEF awarded about $65,000 in grants. Over the past seven years, it has distributed an average of roughly $73,000 annually, Ferrari said. 

She said the challenge lies not in declining fundraising but in growing demand, with more teachers across the elementary, middle, and high schools submitting proposals that meet the fund’s criteria.

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Ferrari declined to discuss which requests were not approved this year, saying the CEF does not publicly release the full list of applicants.

Hunter attributed the uptick in CEF requests to the schools’ doing a better job at promoting the grants to teachers.

“The partnership with the CEF is invaluable and we are incredibly grateful for all their efforts and support for our districts,” said Hunter, adding that the districts communicate with the CEF to keep “this partnership so successful.”

Recent beneficiaries

Among this year’s recipients is Mental Health Matters, a Acton-Carlisle High School program that will bring art therapy to students experiencing anxiety and other emotional challenges. Another grant will support students with complex communication needs by providing them with alternative tools while helping classmates learn how to communicate with them.

At Willard Elementary School, the fund is supporting the creation of a garden laboratory where students will study pollinators, plants, and ecosystems as part of the nascent elementary EL Education curriculum.

Rivers and Revolutions is among the programs that received early support from the Education Fund and later became part of the regular CCHS curriculum. The interdisciplinary program combines English, history, math, and science and takes students outside the classroom to learn.

Math teacher Ashley Cohane, the program’s leader, said recent CEF grants have helped students continue learning outdoors with the help of rechargeable hand warmers, ponchos, portable stools, and field guides used during lessons in places such as Estabrook Woods and along Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway.

“We’re able to get the students out no matter the weather,” Cohane said.

Cohane said she has seen the grants’ benefits both as a Acton teacher and public school parent. 

She praised CEF as giving parents a way to make a direct “impact on the education and learning that our kids have access to,” and notes a districtwide effect.

“I’ve seen the ways that different teachers have been able to get the support from the [Fund] to bring interesting and innovative programs to their classrooms and to the schools in general,” she said.