SHOPA Teacher Grants Help Continue Legacies At Two Newtown Schools

By Shannon Hicks

Three Newtown teachers applied for and received SHOPA Kids in Need Teacher Grants about a year ago, and the grant money and the results of the teachers’ planned projects reached completion just before school let out for the summer.

Newtown High School art teacher Diane Dutchick and Newtown Middle School teachers Nancy Martin and Claudia Mitchell received grants of $1,000 each from SHOPA, a Dayton, Ohio-based non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing, promoting, and supporting initiatives that foster educational excellence.

SHOPA stands for School, Home, and Office Products Association. The grants received by the Newtown teachers this year represent the second such award to be won by the middle school and the first for the high school.

Under the foundation’s current Kids in Need initiatives, impoverished students are provided with basic school supplies free of charge and innovative classroom teachers are awarded grants for learning activities. It was the latter of these two programs that the Newtown teachers participated in.

SHOPA was established in 1995, in the belief that there was no better group than business people with close ties to the educational marketplace to get involved in an effort to aid needy students, and thus improve the state of education. The foundation gives SHOPA members and others interested in education the opportunity to invest in the futures of children through its Kids in Need Resource Centers, Kids in Need Teacher Grants, and through its new SHOPA Foundation Scholarship Program.

The SHOPA Foundation helps to engage students in the learning process by supporting what it sees as the “most creative educational resource” — teachers. For the 2000-01 academic year, 134 grants totaling nearly $100,000 were awarded to certified K-12 teachers in public, private, or parochial schools for their innovative classroom projects.

The Teacher Grants are available to K-12 teachers in public, private, or parochial schools in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Grants of between $250 and $1,000 are awarded. Grants are funded through donations from SHOPA, SHOPA Member Companies, and other corporations and individuals who share the foundation’s values and the importance of education and creativity.

SHOPA Member Company Sponsors during the 2000-01 school year were Ames Department Stores, Longs Drug Stores, Fred Meyer Stores, Price-Less Drug Stores, and Sev-On Office Supplies. These companies provided the money that was used for the grants; Ames Department Stores represents the New England and much of the Mid-Atlantic regions.

“These people are very interested in making a difference,” middle school art teacher Claudia Mitchell said recently.

Mrs Mitchell and Mrs Martin worked with middle school students in creating Journal 2001, a spiral-bound book printed on heavy stock with works written and illustrated by Newtown Middle School students. The publication’s printing was covered for the second consecutive year by a SHOPA grant.

Mrs Mitchell served as advisor for the art portions of the book, and Mrs Martin handled the English coordination. The literary staff, all students, selected and edited the written pieces, which were then illustrated by an art staff. Students Emily Koh and Lauren Reed served as the literary editors-in-chief, working with a staff of 24 students; another 24 students worked on both literary and artistic staff. Seven students devoted themselves to working solely as art staff members.

Journal 2001 is a handsome collection of poetry, short stories, descriptive writings, single paragraphs addressing homelessness, and even music, all accompanied by illustrations that seem to expand the definition of what is expected from middle school students.

Last year’s Journal was entered in the annual National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines and placed in the Superior division. It was the only middle school magazine to reach that level, which is comparable to a first place award. The eight additional magazines named Superior last year were all created by high school staffs.

In the past, issues of Newtown Middle School’s Journal have placed as Highest, which is similar to a Best in Show category — Highest ranks even higher than Superior; judges have to recommend that a magazine be considered for Highest when they are judging the literary magazines. Journal 2001 has been entered in this year’s competition, although Mrs Mitchell mentioned last week that the school doesn’t expect to hear any results from NCTE before next spring.

When Claudia Mitchell first learned of SHOPA and its grants, she began talking with her friend Diane Dutchick, one of Newtown High School’s art teachers, and encouraged her to also apply for a grant.

“SHOPA looks for multiple applicants within regions so that it can make even more of a difference with its grants,” Mrs Dutchick explained.

Mrs Dutchick had been instrumental in creating The Gallery at Newtown High School last year. The gallery and its collection were established with funding from the student government, for the purpose of showcasing selected student artwork for a permanent collection within the school building. That seed fund allowed Mrs Dutchick to come up with 12 works of art by students that were matted, framed and hung during the 2000-01 school year.

This spring, thanks to the SHOPA grant, another 18 works were added to the collection. The works were professionally matted, and then the students handled the arrangement and placement of the art (a mandate of the grant). The grant also helped pay for plaques for each work. Attached to the lower border of each frame, the plaques bear the student’s name and graduating class.

Mrs Dutchick and Joyce Hannah, another high school art teacher, worked with four students as the Selection Committee. The committee had to narrow 150 initially selected works down to the final 18 that were added to the school’s collection. The artworks are on view in the first floor corridors, with one just inside the Guidance Office.

Teachers in Connecticut must visit an Ames store in order to obtain an application (they are not available online, although a lot of information concerning the foundation and the Kids in Need programs/grants is available at www.shopa.org). Applications for the 2001-02 academic year were made available beginning June 18.

 To contact SHOPA, write to 3131 Elbee Road, Dayton, OH 45439-1900; call 800-854-7467 or 937-297-2250; or send email to Carm Crawford, at carmc@shopa.org.