Accomplishments
HEF Intensive Study
Grants for Teachers
(Awarded in 2025)
"Makerspace Upgrades and Training Tools" $1,000 to provide more developmentally friendly activities in the Placentino Makerspace Room for youngest students emphasizing a STEM model for the students. By Kristin Marino
"Teacher Training with Institute of Multi-Sensory Instruction Morphology Course." $2,000 to provide 30-hour course to support all learners and share with teachers at Miller School-particularly in reading fluency and comprehension. By Ashley DeRoy and Caroline Johnson.
"Tools to Support MLL Students." $475 provided to purchase translation tools for teachers to translate reading materials from second language into English for instructional assistance at Miller. By Erin Acker.
"Special Education - Social Emotional Teacher Enhancements." Provides $1,500 for enhancement of Miller's Chill Zone and social emotional classroom support to manage student stress and provide a sense of safety and calm during school days. By Kristina Kern.
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"New CPR Teaching Tools." Provides $545 for wellness programs at RAMS for CPR training with model Annie manikins and model AED displays. By Alan DeAngelis.
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Example Grants for Teachers
(Awarded in 2022 - 2024)
The purpose of an Intensive Study Grant is to:
​Enrich and Innovate - Look for specific ways the Intensive Study experience will transfer into the classroom (such as innovative aspects of curriculum and/or new methods of instruction) and seek potential for direct impact on students.
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Connect and Broaden - Will there be an opportunity to broaden the Intensive Study experience through sharing/instruction with other faculty/staff in the Holliston Schools?
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Provide educators with the knowledge and tools to innovate and create new content for their students through workshops, conferences, specialized training, new concepts, and novel educational approaches.
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2023-2024 HEF Grants - Design Camp for Educators and School Redesign in Action:
Two high school teachers were able to attend "Design Camp" in 2023 to learn techniques towards building community through design thinking and innovative strategies. They brought back their knowledge to Holliston High School and implemented new course content and experiential learning methods. Their findings were shared with their colleagues to widen the impact of this experience.
In 2024, the same team attended the conference "School Redesign in Action" in Providence RI in order to bring more new ideas to Holliston and teaching approaches for classrooms.
2023 HEF Grant - Rozy the Placentino Comfort Dog
Rozy is a school support Dog at Placentino who needed to complete training as a therapy dog in 2023. HEF provided a $1,000 grant towards this goal. She is now the Placentino therapy dog, providing comfort to students managing strong emotions, life changes, school refusal, trauma, grief and more. She helps students feel confident as they develop and practice social and emotional skills and take academic risks. ​Would you like to support the great work of other dogs like Rozy by making a donation today? If mailing a check, send it to:
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Golden Opportunities for Independence
323 High St., Walpole, MA 02081
2023 HEF Grant - Training for Montessori Teachers
HEF provided a grant to support 3 elementary teachers attendance to the 2023 American Montessori Society conference in Boston this year. There are many workshops that aligned with Holliston district standards this year including "Science of Reading - adapting Montessori language lessons to meet the needs of all learners"; "Incorporating Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Montessori Environment"; "The Essential Tool to Foster Democratic Communities." Our teachers will bring back Montessori inspiration and new teachings to their classrooms of 144 elementary Montessori students.
2024 "All Learners Network" Training for New Elementary Math
