Most people in Maple Grove are aware that the Osseo Area School District encompasses a very large population of students (more than 20,000), constitutes the fifth largest school district in the state, and draws from an area over 66 square miles. But did you know that the school system also has a non-profit branch? It’s the District 279 Foundation. The sole beneficiaries of the foundation are Osseo area school staff and students. “Since 1991,” says executive director Brian Siverson-Hall, “District 279 Foundation has given away over $2.4 million, much of it in an average of $2,500 grants to as many as 50 recipients per year.” District 279 Foundation receives both corporate and individual donations and distributes money in two main areas: summer literacy programs and classroom grants.
Three times a year, an average of 75 teachers throughout the district receive grants for “innovative and creative projects which enhance the curriculum or provide performance or social development opportunities,” according to district279foundation.org. Two grant recipients from the October 2015 grant cycle were Maple Grove Middle School and Rice Lake Elementary. Sixth-graders at the middle school got funding for packets of actual and/or reproduced historical artifacts—newspaper articles, maps, letters, government documents and photographs, among other items—from the Minnesota Historical Society’s education department. The three separate Ed Kits are available for perusal on the historical society’s website. Pertaining to civil rights, Native Americans, war and the fur trade, these literal pieces of history will serve the purpose of bringing history into the hands of some very fortunate 11-year-olds.
Twenty fourth- and fifth-graders at Rice Lake Elementary are the beneficiaries of another October 2015 foundation grant, which augments a PROS (Positive Role Models Offering Support) program already in place. PROS are student leaders chosen each year on the basis of an application including several essays and a stated desire to help others in the school and community. PROS have traditionally performed services in their school, including tutoring and mentoring other students, assisting with classroom activities and coordination and execution of three yearly in-school projects.
Amy Paton is the counselor at Rice Lake Elementary who started PROS about five years ago. In 2015 she applied for a District 279 Foundation grant for money to expand her PROS service to the greater community. Whereas in previous years, PROS managed a food drive in school, “in fall 2015 we actually went to CROSS food shelf, where the kids stocked shelves and met people at the organization,” Paton says. Similarly, money from the October 2015 grant was used this spring to fund a PROS trip to the Animal Humane Society, where students learned about operations and volunteer opportunities. In spring of 2016 a trip to Feed My Starving Children was scheduled. “The grant money has allowed me to give the kids a more global perspective on ‘community’ service,” Paton says. “They’ve learned that everything isn’t necessarily like it is in Maple Grove.”
Another set of grants was awarded in April 2016. Maple Grove had two winners in this round: Elm Creek Elementary and Maple Grove Senior High School. Elm Creek will partner with Eastman Nature Center for curriculum enhancement, and Maple Grove Senior High will partner with the Maple Grove Rotary in an ethics workshop for emerging leaders.
Siverson-Hall says that the District 279 Foundation is not unique in Minnesota, but not every school district has their own foundation. For any Maple Grove resident interested in making a financial contribution to the foundation, individual gifts are always welcome. The foundation partners with United Way, and a yearly dinner banquet for which tickets can be purchased is yet another source of community fundraising.
