South Pasadena Educational Foundation

Grants to the South Pasadena unified school district provide additional equipment and materials for the benefit of all students enrolled in the district. Through spef's major grants committee, spef will continue to help fund the district's initiative to improve campus-wide student socio-emotional health through teacher training on positive behavior reinforcement, promotion of self-regulation techniques, and greater use of small group peer counseling for students that need support. Spef also funded the launch science curriculum for $100,000 to bring the next generation science standards and new science curriculum into the elementary classes.

The teacher direct grants allow teachers and support staff to apply for grants up to $4,500 to implement unique programs in their classrooms, helping them enhance the curriculum to meet the needs of all students, and to ignite curiosity. Teacher direct grants affect all curriculums such as science, with the "juice for juice" chemistry grant; engineering, with the "femineer program" which engages k-12 girls in stem; learning to code, with our ozobots grant, and literacy and music, with the "music touches everybody" library grant. Standing desks were purchased to improve learning opportunities in the classrooms for students with adhd, and kindergarten students' creativity were encouraged with the imagination playground grant.

Spef runs afterschool enrichment classes, the annual 5th grade musical, summer school and summer camps. The spef summer school serves over 2,000 children from kindergarten to 12th grade. Our annual 5th grade musical brings 5th graders from all three elementary schools together to learn about and perform a musical for the entire community. Spef's basketball & leadership skills camp is an annual camp in we collaborate with a.c. green to bring his coaches and curriculum to the South Pasadena summer camps and work with students. In addition to teaching and developing basketball skills, the camp provides an environment promoting character and confidence building for the students who participate.