Great Beginnings Early Education Center
The Foundation believes in the importance of working closely with the community to create great opportunities for students. And that’s just what occurred from 2001-2005 with the birth of Great Beginnings Early Education Center.
At the time, the youngest, most fragile students in our district were being taught in extremely inadequate learning facilities due to funding shortages. A generous anonymous donor provided a $2 million challenge grant to build a new, state-of-the-art facility for our youngest students the idea of Great Beginnings was born.
Quickly, foundation board members rose to the challenge and worked hard to raise the needed $2 million match. The community provided the remaining $2 million through a no-tax-increase bond issue. This community partnership built Great Beginnings Early Education Center at Legacy Park. This facility serves as a wonderful example of what a community can do when they work together.
Awarded Classroom PEAK (Promoting Excellence And Knowledge) Grant Projects
| Year | Project | Amount | Teacher(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Parenting Skills for Adolescent Parents | $575.00 | Marta Gore |
| 1999 | Born to Learn | $1,045.14 | Kerry Boehm |
| 2001 | Infant Massage Instructor Training | $550.00 | Annette Collison and Karen Spencer |
| 2002 | Promoting Success Through Sensory Input | $998.24 | Melissa Finneseth |
| 2003 | Spanish Parent Materials | $422.75 | Karin Spencer |
| 2003 | Resources to Teach Language & Speech II | $725.50 | Melissa Finneseth |
| 2005 | Born to Learn Home Resources | $561.32 | Tracy Halphin |
| 2005 | Family Resource Lending Library | $700.00 | V Faust, C Smitka and L Keezer |
| 2006 | Improving Speech Intelligibility in Preschool Aged Children | $1,072.00 | Jill Jones and Cheri Gutekunst |
| 2006 | Picture Audiometry for Preschoolers | $2,315.00 | Melissa Finneseth |
| 2007 | Sensory Manipulatives for the "Born to Learn" Curriculum | $900.00 | Carol Rauscher and Stacy Simpson |
| 2007 | Improving Pre-Literacy and Phonological Awareness Skills | $596.00 | Jill Kounkel and Jill Jones |
| 2007 | Soft Play Area for Indoor Recess | $1,737.20 | Trisha Morris |
| 2007 | Healthy Lifestyles Begin Early | $1,092.85 | Crissy Smitka |
| 2007 | Early Literacy for High Needs/Teen Families | $810.00 | Vikki Iseman |
| 2007 | Resources for High Needs Children | $675.46 | Amy Hansen |
| 2007 | Get on Board with Boardmaker! | $1,763.96 | Melissa Finneseth |
| 2008 | Sit for Success | $343.00 | Dawn Myers & Merry Campbell |
| 2008 | Ready, Set, Learn | $2,368.80 | Tracy Halphin & Crissy Smitka |
| 2009 | Spotlight on Healthy and Safe Habits | $2,527.00 | Nicole Breshears |
| 2009 | We Treasure Reading | $1,250.00 | Laurie Paige and Lila Raymond |
| 2010 | We Treasure Reading, Part II, "We Found the Treasure" | $1,325.00 | Lila Raymond, Laurie Paige |
| 2011 | Don’t Lose the Treasure Now | $1,680.00 | Lila Raymond and Laurie Paige |
| 2011 | Parenting Tools for Raising Responsible Kids | $1,069.00 | Pam Hayes and Crissy Smitka |
| 2012 | "Play Happens" | $2,224.12 | Cathy Ledbetter |
| 2012 | The Rhythm of Diversity | $2,520.00 | Laurie Paige & Jennifer Stevenson |
| 2012 | Language Enrichment For At Risk Preschoolers | $1,445.00 | Janet Little |
| 2013 | Increasing Vocabulary Skills in Pre-School Students | $1,568.55 | Jill Kounkel |
| 2014 | A Bug's Life | $1,246.76 | Cathy Ledbetter |
| 2015 | Literacy Speaks Program | $2,357.07 | Jill Jones |
| 2015 | Learning for Success | $1,801.12 | Crissy Smitka |
| 2015 | Speech Puppets | $146.50 | Janet Little |
| 2016 | Phonologically Speaking | $1,927.75 | Jennifer Stevenson |
| 2016 | Teaching Self Regulation | $1,052.73 | Carolyn Bushur & Tamara Bohlman |
| 2016 | Books That Heal | $546.82 | Mary Beth Panek |
| 2017 | What You Do Matters | $987.94 | Tracy Halphin |
| 2017 | Sand Timers as Visual Aids for Social/Emotional Growth | $574.83 | Lisa Gard |
| 2018 | Bugs, the fun kind | $329.67 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2018 | Puppets with a Purpose | $622.69 | Mary Beth Panek and Jill Smith |
| 2018 | The Preschool Incubator Project | $524.23 | Mary Fleming |
| 2018 | Sensory Success for Little Learners | $571.29 | Amy Hachinsky and Tiffany Johnson |
| 2019 | Sensory/Obstacle Course | $808.10 | Gayle O'Hair and Erin Artis |
| 2019 | Naturalist Learning Tools | $690.60 | Jeanie Cook and Kerry Boehm |
| 2019 | Parent Speech and Language Resource Center | $1,240.00 | Jennifer Stevenson |
| 2019 | Games With A Goal | $312.49 | Mary Panek and Elly Shierbeck |
| 2019 | Let's Build Those Motor Skills | $2,340.34 | Suzy Haas |
| 2019 | Starting STEM Early! | $448.30 | Tiffany Johnson |
| 2019 | Soft Play Structure | $1,049.74 | Hollie Temple and Cathy Campbell |
| 2020 | A Door (or Window) Into Play | $67.79 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2020 | Teach Me To Talk | $2,177.30 | Cara Glodowski and Audrey Wood |
| 2020 | Loose Parts | $884.22 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2020 | Weaving | $88.90 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2020 | Let's work on speech sounds! | $242.03 | Janet Little |
| 2021 | Trains to Teach Teamwork and So Much More! | $314.59 | Suzanne Haas & Tiffany Johnson |
| 2021 | Fun Toys | $171.99 | Darcie Tramp |
| 2021 | AMI Speech Language and Literacy Snow Day Bags | $1,154.51 | Erin Tompkins |
| 2021 | Grow a Maze | $329.78 | Tiffany Johnson |
| 2021 | Books About Me - Books for Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Students | $521.71 | Krystal Wygas & Darla Nelson |
| 2022 | Science Kits | $4,945.56 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2022 | Laughter, Language and Silly Speech! | $625.69 | Jill Kounkel |
| 2022 | Project Approach Kits | $1,479.86 | Cathy Campbell |
| 2022 | Multicultural Toys | $769.77 | Carly Bruns |
