SANDPOINT — Since 2003, Panhandle Alliance For Education has awarded $1,676,418 to 691 local teachers.

Fifteen years later, the tradition continues as 34 teachers in the Lake Pend Oreille School District received a total of $102,950 in grants from PAFE during the May 17 award ceremony.

"Thank you for going the extra mile," Marcia Wilson, PAFE executive director told the grant recipients as the ceremony came to a close. "The extra mile is a lot of work — we know this and we appreciate it." 

In choosing the recipients, PAFE's grants committee members score each applicant on their project purpose and goal, student involvement, collaborative model, evaluation plan, likelihood of timely completion and cost-benefit ratio. The 34 recipients were chosen from a total of 43 grant requests using this rubric.

Though it is only a small sample of the recipients, three teachers are chosen to talk about their projects during the award ceremony each year. This year's featured speakers were Jake Peterson, Ann Dickinson and Melinda Rossman.

Peterson, a physical education teacher for several schools in the district, was awarded $4,000 for 30 Heart Smart heart rate monitors that will track students' individual physical activity level and provide instant feedback to the teacher and the student. Peterson said the monitors will teach them how it feels when they hit the aerobic state, and will eventually be able to internalize that information and will know, with or without the monitor, what level they are at during exercise.

"I will most likely sell it to the kids as, 'you are in a video game, and this is what number you need to get to — you are the player, here is your score," Peterson said.

With his time limitations working at three elementary schools, Peterson said it will be a "powerful tool" to make sure the kids are getting a workout and allowing them to take control of their own fitness level.

Dickinson, a sixth-grade teacher at Washington Elementary School, received $5,500 to support the school's Design for Change program, which sent five of her kids to Spain last year as the United States ambassadors for the program's international conference.

This year's sixth-grade DFC students are continuing their predecessors' mission of suicide prevention in the community. She also partnered with Washington second-grade teacher Charlene Hitchcock to get the younger students involved in the program. The second graders spent the school year working on crosswalk and intersection safety outside of their school.

"Design for Change takes education to a higher level, by melding academics with empathy, problem solving and leadership skills," Dickinson said.

The grant will allow Dickinson to continue and expand the program next year, allowing students to "engage in meaningful activities and understand the power of bringing awareness to others," according to the grant description.

Rossman runs the Home School Academy, which opened in the fall of 2016 with students in grades K-8. Rossman said she expects to have 120 students as the school moves into a new building next year.

As she focuses on environmental education and the arts with her students, Rossman received a $1,227 for "Exploring Nature Connections." With the money from PAFE, Rossman said she is purchasing a professional-grade weather station and a professional-grade water quality monitoring kit for the school.

"Through adventure you gain knowledge, and through knowledge you gain wisdom," is the motto Rossman said she and her students "love" to use.

Rossman and Peterson were two of the four recipients of special recognition awards for grants that are "particularly leading edge and innovative," Wilson said. The awards are made in honor of donors who have set up an endowment fund with PAFE, making several grants possible each year, she said.

Peterson and Sandpoint Middle School teacher Mary Marienau both received the Dave and Laurie Wall Grant for Math and Science; Rossman received the Georgia Simmons Glass Slipper Award for Most Innovative, and Sandpoint High School teacher Jeannie Hunter received the Betty Ann Diehl Grant for the Arts.

PAFE is an independent organization formed to create and sustain an endowment to provide resources in support of effective teaching, learning and school management. All funds distributed to the teachers are donated by the community to "promote excellence in education," Wilson said.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.