Greensburg Salem foundation targets hybrid learning needs

Members of the Greensburg Salem Education Foundation were already hard at work raising money for classroom grants before the covid-19 crisis began. That made it easy to pivot a bit and focus their efforts this year on supplying educators with the tools they’d need to teach in a new hybrid format.

“In the spring of 2020, we recognized how challenging it was for teachers to suddenly teach from home without preparation,” said GSEF President Barb Garofala of Greensburg.

Their efforts began with buying $10 gift cards to help teachers purchase online activities to supplement their work.

Garofala said foundation members worked to gather information about what teachers at various grade levels would need for the school year, in addition to what the school district budget could provide. It is a mission the GSEF has had since its inception in 2012.

“Greensburg Salem School District has (an) over 50% poverty rate, and we wanted to raise funds that could help teachers and students within their classrooms,” Garofala said.

This type of additional education assistance is becoming more common. The nearby Franklin Regional School District benefits from the nonprofit Panther Foundation, which doles out similar grants for classroom programs and equipment otherwise unavailable through the traditional budget.

With the knowledge that the 2020-21 school year would look very different from any other, foundation members moved to make sure teachers felt more comfortable than during their previous online experience last year.

“Elementary teachers needed items that would typically be shared in a classroom — math manipulatives, calculators, books,” Garofala said. “For the high school, GSEF funded ‘Labster,’ a program enabling students to complete online science labs.”

Middle and high school teachers requested items such as headsets, web cams and power strips.

The foundation has raised money through a variety of means including annual fundraisers, a commemorative brick paver campaign, membership and donations.

Overall, the foundation was able to fund about $30,000 in teacher requests, outside of the rolling endowment from which grants are typically disbursed. Garofala, herself a teacher at the middle school, said she’s happy to provide coworkers with some peace of mind, to “know there is an entity to turn to when there isn’t money in the district’s budget for items that will help the students.”

Without the foundation, those items would not have been purchased, or teachers would have had to use their own money.

“Knowing that our grants assist our students in learning is truly gratifying,” she said.

For more on the foundation, see GSEDfound.com.