Abilene ISD -

Abilene High School teacher Donna Saffel had never written a grant proposal seeking Abilene Education Foundation funds to make her classroom everything she wanted it to be for her students.

Until this year.

With the support of her colleague, Jennifer Jordan, she secured a grant of $1,287.62 from the AEF. This generous gift, received during the Star Grant Prize Parade, will transform her ADAPT classroom into a serene and conducive learning space for her students. 

Abilene ISD’s ADAPT program provides a self-contained learning environment to serve students with special education and medical needs. In her third year as an ADAPT teacher at Abilene High, Saffel teaches seven non-verbal students, four of whom utilize wheelchairs and two of whom have autism. While some students learn through academics, others learn using sensory items. Saffel’s grant will enrich her classroom with curtains to cover the windows, a free-standing swinging egg chair, and numerous sensory items.

“Our campus works hard to meet the needs of all our students,” Saffel said. “The items purchased will enable me to help my students reach their highest potential and their Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals and keep them comfortable. Meeting each student’s needs is crucial to me. They don’t learn as other students do, but they have the right to be taught in a loving environment, meeting every need they have as best as I can. 

Other items Saffel will purchase include art supplies, bibs and printing supplies, color ink, Velcro, and laminating pouches to help her make adaptive books and to make errorless activities more accessible to her students.

“All my students use sensory items; the ones who benefit the most are my visually impaired students,” Saffel said. “It is essential for them to feel things during class. Because all my students are non-verbal, the answer buzzers help them communicate. These buzzers will help them say ‘good morning,’ ‘goodbye,’ ‘thank you,’ and ‘please.’ ”

In addition to the grant Saffel received, the AEF awarded several grants for reading and language arts projects at AISD elementary schools. At Martinez Elementary School, first-grade teacher Shawna Sampson was awarded two grants, one for a maximum of $1,500 and the other for $1,463.81, and another first-grade teacher, Alicia Castro, was awarded a grant for $1,500. Nearly $4,500 was requested for the Pattern of Wonder books, focusing on different writing aspects.

Learning about the elements of writing and story-telling will be significant because the grants will go toward publishing a book later in the year. Each first-grade class will write a book for publishing with binding, artwork, and all the details of a professionally published piece of literature.

“We want to celebrate every student with this process, so this grant will be used to make sure every student receives a book,” said Sampson, who said families can purchase additional copies. “We will use any other money to purchase shirts that say ‘I am an Author’ for each student. When the books are returned, we will have a celebration and signing day where students can read their page in the class book and sign books, just like real authors.”

Those grants were part of 60 awarded by the Abilene Education Foundation over two days (Sept. 26-27) during the annual AEF STAR Grant Prize Parade. AEF personnel and AISD administrators visited 20 campuses during the parade, handing out more than $63,000 in awards.