2023-24 Mini-Grant Awards
LHS PTO continues to provide mini-grants to various departments during the school year 2023-24 to enrich students educational experience. We thank the LHS community for your generous support.
LHS PTO funded the purchase of various physics lab and demonstration equipment that will help LHS physics students receive valuable hands-on experience in learning difficult physics concepts.
Collaborative PE class outing at Kings Bowling at Burlington. Collaborative PE provides students with varying ability levels and backgrounds an opportunity to work cooperatively and participate in games, sports, leadership, fitness and wellness activities. Engaging in physical activities alongside peers with and without different abilities helps foster relationships and inclusivity.
PTO grant towards the purchase of eclipse glasses to safely view the total solar eclipse on April 8th while on a field trip to Burlington, VT organized by Environmental Earth Sciences teachers Jonathan Ng and Glenn Allen
Due to space constraints, the Earth Science classes must switch classrooms in order to conduct labs, which leads to confusion about the location of various needed materials, so this MiniGrant allowed a Material Cart, filled with a standard set of materials, to be placed in each Env. Earth Science classroom.
Throughout the year, large-scale murals are painted at LHS, brightening the school spaces. With each brushstroke, we express our gratitude to the LHS PTO, faculty, and custodial staff for their invaluable support to make LHS a brighter and more colorful place, where students can feel more relaxed.
The LHS video club, Hi-Cut, developed a digital video production news program. In collaboration with the Visual Arts department head, they developed a curriculum for the 24-25 school year to expand the Digital Video course offerings. The equipment purchased allowed them to purchase lighting and audio gear to elevate the production value of the projects to a professional level.
Gravity well - This piece of equipment is a great demo for a few of the things we do in Astronomy, including Kepler's laws of planetary motion and Einstein's geometric model of gravity (i.e. General Relativity), plus the kids have a lot of fun experimenting with it.
Approximately 500 LHS students annually explore physics concepts through labs. This MiniGrant allowed the physics department to replace broken lab equipment for students to study conservation of energy in systems with springs, to learn how the position of the center of mass affects the balance of an object and to explore motion with constant acceleration.
The math department purchased 19 copies of an important but out-of-print textbook "Advanced Mathematics" on the used book market (which is something we can't do using the school budget).
2022-23 Mini-Grant Awards
LHS PTO funded 29 grants for a total of about $15, 500 towards mini grants to various departments during the school year 2022-23 to staff to benefit students and the educational experience thanks to generous support from the parent community.
PTO funded the purchase of pGLO UV pen light replacements. These are being used by CP1 and CP2 Biology while conducting the labs.
PTO funded Ms. Legge in the Biology department towards the purchase of a class set of Go Direct CO2 Gas Sensors for use in a variety of Biology labs. According to Ms. Legge “This grant will directly benefit 10th graders enrolled in Biology at Lexington High School. These materials could be used by approximately ~500 students per year. The wireless capabilities of these sensors are an improvement over our current sensors and will simplify their use with students. It will also increase our options with our labs, allowing students to record results even in dark conditions (an important variable for photosynthesis labs).”
PTO funded a mini grant to the History department to bring Ms.Sylvia Ruth Gutmann Holocaust Survivor Guest Speaker to LHS. We had 150 10th grade students, 125 grade 9-12 students, and about 25 staff partake in her presentations over the course of the day on 3/31. It was a great day!
Ms. Fenn received a mini grant titled “Health Education and Prevention program Resource Grant For High School”. According to Ms. Fenn “this grant would provide funding for classroom materials for the LHS health education and prevention rooms. Providing more Interactive learning opportunities can be challenging but important to meet the diverse learning styles of our students. Our department strives to create engaging, fun and challenging lessons. This aligns with the district goals and strategic plan including: Joy in learning, curiosity in life and compassion in all we do. Creating a school that acknowledges and affirms the gender diversity of our students requires thoughtful and intentional approaches to learning. In order to reflect our gender inclusive practices we would like to include products that reflect the diverse needs of our students. Our curriculum strives to destigmatize menstruation/periods by educating all students about different period products, normalizing periods and empowering students. There are many new period products now available. This grant would provide funds for us to purchase some of those new and inclusive products.”
The adaptive turntables and shelves purchased by the PTO benefit approximately 400 students per year across both general education and special education students, as well as our collaborative program, by providing assistive utensils for persons who have disabilities. These materials are non-consumable and will continue to benefit students for many years to come.
The Social Workers celebrated Mental Health Awareness Month in May by organizing a number of activities throughout the month that focus on infusing the LHS culture with themes of resilience, wellness, strength, positivity, joy, connection, and self-care.
● PTO funded grant to purchase portable speakers for the PE classroom. Ms. Ciarletta said “The wireless Bluetooth speakers have been working out fantastic for the PE department! We have been able to utilize them in multiple locations (gym, fieldhouse, outside, etc.). Because they are wireless and have wheels, we are able to move them and utilize them in all of our teaching spaces--this is especially due to the fact that they are holding charge and do not need to be plugged in 24-7 like our old ones. The LHS PE department appreciates the PTO and the mini-grant program as it has allowed us to upgrade our speakers so that students can not only listen to music while they are engaging in healthy activities, but also have a positive social experience in class as well.”
2021-22 Mini-Grant Awards
LHS PTO has awarded close to $7,000 in Mini-Grants to teachers to benefit our students.
Mr. Perrotti and Mr. Salgado received a grant for $ 580 for therapy dog training! After seeing the success with Flynn, they would like to certify their dogs as therapy dogs so they can be available at LHS in counseling/dean pod consistently. Here is a picture of Pico who is training to be a therapy dog.
Samantha Lowe was awarded $1000 to purchase 35mm SLR cameras to allow for equitable access to her photography courses.
This way students’ families aren’t burdened with the purchase of a camera just for the class, and they can all work on class projects at the same time.
The seniors recently participated in their annual art show reception, and were proud to showcase their developing photography skills!
Jessica Khamarji used her $700 mini-grant award to purchase paint and supplies for collaborative mural projects for the Mural Crew Club, both beautifying the school campus and fostering friendship and creativity through this group art opportunity.
Just one of these murals takes several hundred total 'person hours', spread out over a few weeks of painting multiple days a week, and that’s after the collective brainstorming, designing, revising and voting just to decide what to paint. She would like to thank the PTO for their support of the Mural Crew, adding “while most visual art is done alone, it is an incredible experience to contribute to a creative feat greater than yourself.” You can see more of their work on their club instagram account, @lhsmuralcrew.
The first mural of a seascape with octopus was designed by freshman, Katie Yang, and painted in December in the LHS science building. The second mural was designed by sophomore, Shreya Kanaujia, upstairs in the science building, and it features a collision of different aspects of science taught there.
Becca Malouf, DLP teacher, and Jen Wolcott, Transition Counselor, worked together to develop a new collaborative iblock, called “Collaborative Recreation”, to foster relationships between students receiving special education services and their general education peers.
It is designed to allow for exploration of leisure and recreational skills related to sports, arts and music. This PTO $450 mini-grant was used to purchase musical instruments for students to use, including a keyboard, multiple ukuleles, hand drums, tambourines, maracas, drumsticks and storage tubs.
Ms. Legge from the science department is getting great use from the wireless digital microscopes the PTO funded in the fall of 2021 through our mini-grants program. The photos are of LHS students using them as a part of a flower dissection project in AP Biology. Grant was for $450
PTO funded White Cyclorama for Stage at LHS auditorium. According to Mr. Cassedy “the Cyc (white transparent background drop cloth) we currently have at LHS is dirty, stained, ripped, and doesn’t have a pipe channel along the bottom.
The new one would hang properly and having already upgraded our strip lighting (which illuminates the cyc), we should have proper fabric hanging to show off those lights for our productions as well as school events and presentations.” The grant was for $1560. Here are some pictures of it from the musical! Mr. Diperna said “It feels wonderful to finally have one that is wrinkle free with no rips or stains!!!”
Jessica Welch and Thomas Buckley requested and were granted two annual subscriptions for Study.com ($650) for access to curriculum support for their resource students. They plan to utilize what they learn on this platform as information to share during their PLC team collaboration time. So far, the 10th grade liaisons have been using Study.com to supplement their understanding of biology in order to better break down concepts to students when they complete their Biology Study Guides and Reading Guides.
Many liaisons have also taken the Study.com courses on supporting Executive Functioning needs and have shared information with general education teachers about how to make changes in the general education classroom to best support EF needs. Additionally, new knowledge from Study.com videos on Similar Triangles and Triangle proofs have helped a group of students study for an exam on Similar Triangles, and two of the students received their highest math exam score so far this year!
Josh Sideman, a Physical Education and Adapted Physical Education teacher, was awarded $500 to fund a field trip for his Collaborative PE class to Kimball Farms. This will allow 40 students 10 students from ILP 3/DLP and 30 peer assistants to play 18 holes of minigolf and get a kiddie ice cream cone.
Mr. Sideman’s Collaborative PE is a course that provides students with varying ability levels and backgrounds an opportunity to work cooperatively to participate in games, sports, leadership, fitness and wellness activities. This class emphasizes the cognitive, affective and psychomotor growth of all participants. This year we have practiced playing golf a few times and plan to apply our skills to a setting outside of the gymnasium.
PTO funded Ms. West a set of textbooks available for students to use in school for the Contemporary Applied Math class. Contemporary Applied Math is a 12th grade elective math class offered at the CP and Honors level. The grant was for $350.
PTO funded $250 to Ms. Liu in the mandarin program. Goal of this grant is to give the students in the mandarin program a hands' on experience on making some traditional food items that have been used in holidays for thousands of years. She plans to use the materials next year during her class sessions.
Ms. Nicholes received a grant for $1000 to provide community service opportunities to students. Projects would be completed during I block and other free periods. Example: They have 150 placemats ready to be shipped to Meals on Wheels in Waltham. Meals on Wheels distributes the placemats to their 150 clients a day. For most clients, this is the only hot meal and the only human contact they get per day.
Ms. Borges received a small grant for $32 to purchase a Section 504 Guidance/Best Practice Book.