By Judith Dorato O’Gara

What brings added value to the classroom? In Wellesley, a district that boasts excellent schools and teachers, dedicated parents and a supportive community combine to further elevate innovation and excellence in the schools. For over 30 years, the Wellesley Education Foundation (WEF) has underwritten grants to educators with great ideas to enhance their classrooms.  

Over the past 10 years, the Wellesley Education Foundation has given $2.8 million to the schools, with about $250,000 per year being the organization’s goal, says WEF co-president Amy Hernandez (who shares the role with Elizabeth Shlala) She explains that the amount given “depends on the teachers. We’re not the experts, the teachers are. We rely a lot on if the teachers need it. They have the pulse on the district.”

Hernandez explains that grants run the gamut.

“Some of these grants are so exciting,” says Hernandez. “There’s a lot of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) grants – robots for the Middle School, they build and program robots in a science class, portable microscopes for physics classrooms, kits so they can analyze DNA, a Padcaster, to create their own weather videos. It’s really value added to the classrooms. Sometimes we’ll get grant (applications) for reading, and we think reading is kind of essential, but for the first grade, we did provide books with bags to take home. We’ve given makerspace materials for libraries, and this year we had a bunch of theatre stuff, in the auditorium in the high school, microphones and lighting and funded grants for public speaking.”

Hernandez continues, “We can’t do things like help with teacher salary but have funded professional development. We focus a lot on project-based learning. We purchased furniture for certain classrooms to promote project-based learning, and recently, given the pandemic, we did some with social-emotional learning. We also will fund speakers, working with the district to see what the need is. We did one grant for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion director, for the author of Caste to come and speak, and some books for different classrooms. Sometimes we’ll pilot some things, like Spanish for K-5th grade. We funded it for three years, I believe, and then (the school) continued it.”

Hernandez explains that grants WEF funds must provide innovation and excellence in the schools. This year, WEF is funding a district-wide social-emotional learning audit for the schools. 

The 35-member board, who have only begun meeting in person after two years of meeting remotely due to COVID-19, meets six times a year to review grant applications and work on fundraising. All members are parents who live in Wellesley, with two co-presidents and two vice presidents (also presidents-in-training), and all make a 4-year commitment, with an option for a 5th year. 

COVID-19 brought on new challenges to all public educators, and Wellesley was no different. Since the district’s needs arose so quickly during the pandemic, the organization put together the COVID Innovation Fund with an initial contribution of $250,000 from WEF’s endowment. The COVID-19 Innovation Fund provided $600,000 to facilitate weekly SARS-CoV-2 testing for staff and students and allowed Wellesley to implement one of the first public-school viral testing pilot programs in the nation: The Safer Teachers, Safer Students: Back-to-School Pilot Testing Program.

Wellesley’s success served as a model for other school systems. “We funded for everyone, including faculty and staff, three days before we opened in person, and we fundraised to continue testing weekly for upper levels, and then we tested 3rd grade and up, so that was a big undertaking last year.”

“Like everyone else, we just kind of struggled through the pandemic,” says Hernandez. “Zoom is not the same as having in-person meetings,” and some current members, up until this year when in-person meetings resumed, had only met other WEF members through virtual meetings. 

COVID-19 also prompted a change in WEF bylaws, says Hernandez.

“During Omicron, there were so many teachers out, we changed bylaws, so (members) could start subbing,” says Hernandez. 

The pandemic also forced a step back from what was a large event, a large STEM expo that WEF used to work with the Wellesley Public Schools’ Science Department to put together.

“It was huge. People from all over the area would come to it, but it was a huge undertaking. It grew and grew and became too much. That, mixed with COVID, we decided to no longer do that and support the district through grants. It wasn’t a decision we took lightly,” say Hernandez.

Funding for the Wellesley Education Foundation comes from the community. 

“Our Spelling Bee is a huge fundraiser,” says Hernandez, of the fall event that has run for 32 years. About 50 teams participate in the Wellesley Spelling Bee, representing local businesses, law firms, alumni groups, community organizations and school PTOs as well as student teams from Wellesley High School. The winning team takes home the Ruth Humphries Bee trophy to keep for their reigning year, and all winners are listed on a plaque that hangs at the Wellesley Free Library.

The Red Apple campaign is also a large WEF fundraiser. 

“I don’t know who thought of this, it’s such a great idea for holiday gifts, end-of-year gifts for teachers – you can buy a Red Apple. The teacher gets one magnet and gets a nice note, like so-and-so donated a Red Apple in your name. It’s a great fundraiser. We have parents contributing to WEF and honoring their teachers at the same time,” says Hernandez. “The teachers love it, parents love it, we love it.”

 

Hernandez, a former teacher, joined the Wellesley Education Foundation, she says, because she loves “being involved, and to help with education and be invested in the community.” One of her favorite WEF traditions, she says, speaks to the high quality of the Wellesley School System.

“Each year we have a chair ceremony – if you’ve worked in Wellesley Public Schools for 25 years, we give you one of those black academic chairs, and this past year, to note, we had 12, and next year, we’re going to have 12. Not a lot of people know we do that, and it’s not a fundraiser. It doesn’t involve parents, just teachers,” says Hernandez. She adds, “that you’ve had so many teachers for 25 years – that says a lot about the quality of education in the district.”

Overall, Hernandez says, the Wellesley community as a whole has been very generous. “I think the parents are dedicated. It’s just nice we can add value to the classroom,” she says, “We don’t ask outside our community for fundraising. Parents just want to help contribute to the schools.”

For more information about the Wellesley Education Foundation, or to volunteer or donate, 

visit www.wellesleyeducationfoundation.org .