Friday, May 23, 2008

Second time is the charm for Conrad Elementary School




Persistence and a love of books has paid off for the entire school community at Conrad elementary, as the east side school is about to benefit from three large grants to help increase literature programs at the school.

Conrad was advised of their successful bid, by Heather Resiman the CEO of Indigo and one of key organizers of the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, who had encouraged the school to try again this year after an unsuccessful attempt a year ago.

As only one of two schools in the province to be successful in the nation wide competition, Conrad will receive 51,000 dollars over three years to help promote and develop literacy programs at the school.

250 schools across Canada made their presentations to the Foundation, with Conrad providing a determination that caught the eyes of those making the tough decisions for this year’s campaign.

The Daily News featured their remarkable achievement with a front page story in Wednesday’s paper.

SCHOOL PULLS TOGETHER TO SECURE CRUCIAL FUNDING
The population of Conrad works hard to land big grant to boost literacy levels
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Pages one and three

Thanks to the dedication of the entire school community, students at Conrad Elementary School are poised to reach new academic heights in the next few years.

It was announced recently that Conrad was one of 20 high-needs schools across Canada that will receive large three-year literacy grants from the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation. And after hearing just how much time and effort was put into the application process by Conrad staff, students and parents, most people will likely not be surprised that the school was selected from a list of 250 schools that applied this year.

One of only two schools in British Columbia to receive the grant, Conrad will be receiving $17,000 each year for the next three years for a total of $51,000 in funding aimed at facilitating literacy initiatives.

Conrad Principal Marcy VanKoughnett and several teachers worked on the application for the Love of Reading grant last year, and although they were unsuccessful, the foundation encouraged them to reapply this year.

“When we started again this year, realizing that it was quite a big application process, we put it forth to the staff to see if there were more people who wanted to help, and there were,” said VanKoughnett. “It’s quite an involved application and the staff agreed they wanted to do it, so we had a working committee with different roles for each person working on it.”

From December 2007 until February 2008, volunteering teachers collected necessary information for the application. They were required to explain why they were a high-needs school, what literacy projects already existed in the school, and more. In addition to the indepth 20-page application the team put together, they also created a DVD with video clips of teachers, students and parents speaking about the school.

“The DVD is about 10 minutes long, which we also sent with our application,” said VanKoughnett.

“We figured out that we needed to make our application memorable, something they would open up and say ‘Wow, they’ve done a lot of work and isn’t this unique.”
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Another Conrad teacher had the idea of submitting the application in the form of a Bentwood Box, a traditional First Nations art piece in which a single plank of wood is grooved and bent with heat and moisture to form a four sided shape. The box has many purposes, and in the story Txamsm Brings Light to the World, the Bentwood Box contained the moon that was then released to provide light in a world that was in darkness.”

“The idea was that by opening our Bentwood Box, they would be giving light to all the children at Conrad School and giving them their future – that being books,” said VanKoughnett.

The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation recently announced $1.5 million in funding for the next three years, and is excited about providing another round of funding to schools with high literacy needs.

The foundation followed up with past participating schools, and said they have shown dramatic changes in the reading skills of students, including a marked increase in students’ achieving the provincial standard.

“The Indigo Love of Reading Foundation focuses attention on Canada’s most valuable resource, our children,” said Heather Reisman, CEO of Indigo Books and Music Inc.

“By providing schools with funding for books, we are, in a small way, helping to brighten the future of young children and mitigate the literacy crisis in Canada. In addition to our direct work with schools, we remain committed to encouraging provincial governments across Canada to follow the Ontario Government’s lead to invest more boldly in school libraries and librarians.”

VanKoughnett said the successful application would not have been possible without the participation and dedication of the school staff, students, parents and even grandparents, school board trustees and North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
She said that while they are still working on the exact details of how the money will be spent, 90 per cent of the $51,000 total will be specifically for books in Conrad School.

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