Message From Bill Lampl, Executive Director
Keep On Growing!
Our children are our most precious treasure.
At Kiddo! (the Mill Valley Schools Community Foundation), our vision is to inspire all K-8 students to tap into their creative energy to reach their full potential by funding arts education and other vital programs in the Mill Valley School District (MVSD).
As the new Executive Director, I am delighted to report that Kiddo! has expanded its program funding to the MVSD for the 2013-14 school year.
Highlights include:
- Kindergarten Dance is expanding by 60% to 32 sessions per classroom. That’s a total of 512 dance classes for Kindergarten alone! Kiddo! also funds 11 dance sessions for each student in grades 4 and 5, and 5 dance classes for each student in grades 6-8. That’s a total of 994 Kiddo!-funded dance classes!
- Kiddo! is funding the Performing Arts Program “Walk Through California.” After a successful Teacher Grant pilot program, this California Weekly Explorer program will now be offered for all fifteen of our district’s 4th grade classrooms. The program focuses on major historical events in California, supporting students’ listening skills, vocabulary development, and history and geography standards through the use of drama, dance, games, and music.
- Robotics will be included in the 7th grade Technology Class elective at MVMS. Students will design and build robots using the newly released, and Kiddo! funded, Lego EV3 robotics kits, learning about engineering principles, computer programming and problem solving along the way. The extracurricular MVMS robotics team will then meet later this fall with 6th-8th graders to build student-designed robots for fun and competition.
- Staff Leadership Grant. To support our district’s 2013-2016 Strategic Plan, Kiddo! provided the district with a $25,000 Staff Leadership Grant to assist with leadership development and implementation opportunities in six key strategic planning areas.
- Innovative Teaching Grants are increasing by more than 30% to $25,000. Teacher grants are meant to foster creativity and innovation by providing resources to strengthen the curriculum and implement creative ideas.
In addition, Kiddo! will continue to fund:
- 100% of our district’s art teachers as well as art supplies. That translates to 9 art teachers (6 in K-5, and 3 at MVMS) teaching a total of 5544 classes throughout the school year!
- 100% of the funding for Instrumental Music, Instruments and Music Supplies. There are two instrumental music teachers for 4th through 8th grades that teach a total of 1364 classes and provide all the wonderful performances throughout the school year.
- 100% of the funding for Vocal Music including five music teachers who provide weekly instruction for K-5 grades for a total of 3384 classes, and a Chorus program for grades 3-5 and Middle School with an additional 504 classes.
- 100% of funding for Performing Arts programs in 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades, curriculum-based Drama for 6th and 8th grades, and a Shakespeare program for 7th grade. Kiddo! also provides funding for the Middle School Cabaret.
- 100% of funding for Poetry programs for 1st and 3rd-6th grades for a total of 388 poetry sessions.
- $498,000 for Physical Education and Dance classes. P.E. teachers provide weekly P.E. for Kindergartners and daily P.E. for 1st-5th grades for a total of 14,616 classes! Kiddo! also provides funding support for Middle School P.E.
- $225,000 in District-wide technology support personnel and technology training for MVMS staff.
- $489,000 for Aides including Classroom Aides at all of our elementary schools and Library Aides for all MVSD schools.
THANK YOU to all that have already made you donation to Kiddo! for this school year. We could not fund all of the above without your support! Last year over 75% of district families made a donation to Kiddo! How about we try for 80% this year?
Kids Need Kiddo! and Kiddo! Needs You!
