The School Committee and Superintendent Thomas Geary listened to a presentation about the Lynnfield Educational Trust from Co-Presidents Erin Howard and Kathryn Price.
“LET is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization. It was created by a group of parents back in 1990. Essentially, we raise money to fund projects that are outside the regular school budget,” Howard said.
Educators and staff submit grant applications to LET, which reviews and funds projects.
“Always we’re looking to our educators and just how creative and how excited they are to get their students more engaged and develop and strengthen them as both learners and people,” Howard said.
The Board meets twice each year in the spring and fall, where they review the applications and fund as many as they can. Since the fall of 2023, LET has funded over 35 grants across the district, from the public preschool to the high school, for a total of $55,000.
Some of the mini-grants funded, which are all $500 or less, by the group in the 2024-25 school year were for Finn the therapy dog (Lynnfield Middle School), math and critical thinking math games (Summer Street School and Huckleberry Hill Elementary), METCO Mentors (Lynnfield Middle School), “Hero Art” Mascot Project (Huckleberry Hill Elementary), and more.
The biggest grant from LET so far was an $8,998 grant to fund virtual reality headsets for all the schools, adding 16 kits to the existing 32 in use.
Price then read off the grants that are being funded for the fall of 2025.
The first mini-grant presented was for a Toniebox Station for $500. A Toniebox is a digital audio player that can read stories using collectible figurines of characters.
Another mini-grant was funded for decodable high-interest chapter books for the Summer Street School for $453. Three sets were funded for use by the Special Education team.
The Summer Street School also proposed a mini-grant for an “Ignite The Spark” reading initiative for $499. It would include traveling book bags for each classroom and a “Masked Reader” read-aloud series, which would end with an all-school assembly to unmask the readers.
“It’s meant to kind of reignite interest in reading at Summer Street and something new and different,” Price said.
A grant going to Lynnfield Middle School is to start up the Best Buddies program for $1,500. LET wasn’t able to fully fund the program, which is $2,989, but it focused on supplies that will promote interactions with the students.
The program, which is a global organization, is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development, inclusive living, and family support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to its website.
LET also made another contribution of $2,000 for the 5th-grade Freedom Trail field trip, matching what they gave last year.
A grant of $2,029 was also provided to Lynnfield Middle School to fund a mobile guitar rack and additional guitars for 7th and 8th graders enrolled in the New World Music program. The Lynnfield Cultural Council also funded this.
LET funded the development of visuals for positive behavioral interventions and supports display for $1,230 at Huckleberry Hill, which would be used to help promote a positive school culture.
Lastly, LET funded two sessions of the Pyramids and Pharaohs program for $825 for 6th graders.
The Committee thanked Howard and Price for the work they and LET do to fund the schools.
