Guidelines
Types of Grants
Who's Eligible?
Deadlines
Restrictions
Final Evaluation
Grant Making Process
How Proposals are Evaluated

Guidelines   (top)

The grants provided by the Ujeni Grants for Advancing Public Education Fund are for educational opportunities that achieve student success through innovative learing and creative enrichment and real-world experiences across the board. Proposals should indicate they are above and beyond what the normal school budget provides.

Ujeni Grant proposals should demonstrate many of the following qualities:
Literacy focus for grades Pre-K through 3
Student-centered activities
Novel instructional strategies
Active student learning
Creativity and excitement
Engaging students in positive and challenging learning experiences
Clear rationale that the project is above and beyond the district budget
Real-world experiences
Development of skills for future use outside of the school building
Active involvement of at risk/minority/special education students
Utilization of the community and/or local industry/commerce
Strong commitment to increasing student achievement/success for life-long learning
Create skills/awareness for becoming a positive contributor in Today's society
Project is above and beyond school/class normal budget
Create a product
Hands-on and Inquiry Based Learning

Some examples of broad ideas for proposals:
In-class or extracurricular activities that are inquiry-based/hands-on
Creating solutions to local community problems
Research projects involving collaborations between teachers and students
Independent studies supervised by faculty/staff members
Creative uses of technology/education equipment
Utilize local resources to create products


Types of Grants   (top)

1. The Teacher's Grant: A minimum of $200 to a maximum of $1,000.

Elementary teachers/staff for grades PreK-3 must have a literacy component in their proposal. The goal is to improve students' reading levels at an early stage as other aims are also pursued. Reading is a skill that should be incorporated into all content areas. Individual teachers/staff members may utilize the teacher grant for improving instruction in the classroom. The key is to increase student participation, motivation, and success at a specific task. Teachers should design curriculum that engages the students in positive and challenging ways that are related to real-world experiences.

2. The Group Grant: The award is up to $2,500.

This grant can be implemented by a department or grade level team to carry out interdisciplinary projects. Utilize mutidisciplinary or interdepartmental ways of creating real-world experiences for students. Or develop ways to access community members and other local resources as experts to stimulate growth in student learning. Connecting content areas allow students to see how interelated topics can be and all content areas are needed for success beyond the classroom.

3. Large Project Grant: The award has a limit of 10,000.

Large grants may be used to provide program and instruction for larger groups within the district. This grant may also be used to create district wide projects and learning opportunites for students at a wide variety of grade levels and skills. Students targeted should be across grade levels and/or school buildings.

***All grants call for curriculum designs that engage students in positive and challenging learning experiences, tap into their natural curiosity, enable students to answer their own questions, and utilize the local community as a classroom.


Who's Eligible?   (top)

At this time, any Faculty or Staff member of South Seneca Central School District, Trumansburg Central School District, or TST BOCES. Look for updates in the next couple of years.

Deadlines   (top)

August 1st and February 1st of each academic school year.

Restrictions   (top)

The Ujeni Fund will not contribute to general operations, capital projects, endowments, conferences, fund raising events or similar activities. Religious or political causes will not be supported. Organizations that discriminate on the basis of sex, race, age, disability or religion are not eligible for funding. No grants will be made to individuals.

Salaries, stipends, per diems, facility maintenance, textbooks and resources generally covered by the school's budget will not be funded.

Items generally keeping with the day to day operations and upkeep of the school district will not be funded. The fund is specifically for projects that are above and beyond the general school budget. It is not to replace school funds.

If in doubt, please email questions about equipment requests.

Final Evaluation   (top)

Recipients of Ujeni Grants have up to one year from the receipt of the award to complete the project. Once the project is completed, recipients will have 30 days to submit a final report. The final report must include a financial accounting of all funds and the educational outcomes for the project.

Click here for the final evaluation format to follow.


Grant Making Process   (top)

The Fund will make every effort to acknowledge applications by mail within two weeks of receiving them.

Proposal review is generally completed within two months of the deadline. If you have questions about the status of a pending application please feel free to contact the Ujeni Fund.

There is a committee of five experts in the field of education who will be reviewing applicants. Applications accepted by the committee are then submitted to the Community Foundation of Tompkins County for review and final approval.

If your proposal is declined, and you wish to resubmit, please call the Ujeni Fund for information about why your original proposal was not funded and for ideas you may wish to consider before preparing a new application.

Approved proposals will be sent a letter of confirmation by the Community Foundation. A letter of Agreement will be sent stating the grant requirements and procedures for accounting for all funds. This letter must be signed by the recipient. Upon receiving this letter of Agreement, the Community Foundation will send a check for the grant amount to the school’s business office, for the recipients use.

Click here for a sample copy of the Letter of Agreement.

Recipients of awards should be ready to initiate projects upon receipt of grant funds.
How Proposals are Evaluated   (top)

A rubric and scoring guide have been created to rate proposals. There are five categories, each earns a maximum of 5 points. The categories are as follows:
Innovation
Budget/Rationale
Methodology
Goals/Purpose/Outcomes
Impact/Evaluation

Click here to see the actual scoring Rubric.
In addition, the committee has a clear set of questions for each category.
Click here to see the questions the committee is looking for answers to when scoring proposals.