By Kristen Evans, VP, Public Relations, The Bronxville School Foundation

May 29, 2020: The Bronxville School Foundation announced its 2020 grant awards, giving $1,009,166 in resources to benefit the Bronxville School’s K-12 student body.

The grant requests came from teachers, administrators, coaches, parents and students. This year’s grants continue to reflect the school’s work toward creating a sustainable model of excellence, aligned with the district’s goals of delivering the best possible curriculum and instruction, integrating new technologies, and providing improvements to school facilities and equipment that best support the current and future learning needs of students. After careful consideration from the grants committee and the board of directors, grants were awarded to all areas of the school.

“Like every other organization, the Foundation’s board did a thorough assessment of what was feasible for this year’s awards. The pandemic forced us to postpone some very worthy grants which were simply not practical in the current environment. However, the grants we were able to approve will enhance The Bronxville School by providing exciting new resources, training, technology and wellness programs to students, faculty, and administrators. We are particularly pleased to approve four grants submitted by students. Their interest in bettering their school really shows The Bronxville Promise in action.” said Eileen Marshall, the Foundation’s vice president of grants. 

Foundation chair Eddie Sulimirski added, “The Foundation is grateful to our donors for their generous and continued support. We received many donations, even post quarantine, which is a testament to the spirit of the Bronxville community. We also appreciate the teachers, administrators, parents and students whose ideas, talent, and energy bring about important new programs, curriculum initiatives, technology, facilities, and other resources to our children. Together, we all make The Bronxville School a better place.” 

The following is a complete list of the approved grants for the 2020-2021 school year:

Program and Curriculum Development:

ES Diversity Book Club Visit from Author Grace Lin 

Canine Integrative Therapy for ES & MS Special Education

First Grade Math Curriculum Updates

Hadestown the Musical: 8th Grade Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies

MS & HS Book Club

HS STEM: Interdisciplinary Curriculum Pilot

HS World Language Fellows – Inquiry Based Projects Program

HS Project LUSY: Seed Money for Entrepreneurship Classes

HS International Thespian Society Troupe – Year 2

Facilities:

Design & Innovation Center

Innovative Designs for Education: Classroom Redesign Phase III

MS Art Room Renovation

Equipment & Materials:

3-D Printer for MS Science

Unruly Splats: ES Coding & Active Play

Bronco TV Studio Consultant & Equipment

iPads, Headphones & Milo Robot for ES & MS Special Education Classes

VEX V5 Robotics Kits for MS Technology Class

Acoustical Shells for MS and HS Music & Performing Arts

Upgrade Moving Lights for Auditorium

Local Live – Live Stream Sports and Special Events

Blended Learning – New ES PE Audio Visual Equipment

Portable Recording Studio for Performing Arts

ES Sensory Path Hallway

HS Sports Vertical Jump/Speed Training Equipment

Wireless Sound Systems for Indoor/Outdoor School Events

Professional Development:

Leadership Development Learning for Curriculum Leaders

MS & HS Voluntary Reading in World Language Classrooms

Health & Wellness:

HS Portable Meditation Cart

One Love Curriculum for HS & MS

HS Social Issues Awareness Club Speaker: Kevin Hines

Wise Corner Mindfulness Pilot for 4th Grade & Resource Room Classrooms

The Bronxville School Foundation depends upon contributions from school families and the community. If you would like to learn more about the Foundation, please contact the Foundation’s executive director, Helena McSherry, at 914-395-0515 or visit the Foundation’s website at www.BronxvilleSchoolFoundation.org. 

Pictured here:  Elementary School students at The Bronxville School.

Photo courtesy The Bronxville School Foundation.

A group of Bronxville High School students – freshman Jack Evans and sophomores Rowan Baror, Mia Berkolayko, Olivia Cevasco, Zana Gjoni, Olesya Gorbunova, Avery Jones and Julia Narkaj – have advanced to compete at the national level of the 2020 National History Day (“NHD”) competition. 

“Our students competed against the best ninth through 12th grade history students, from the best schools across New York State, and were awarded the top honor of competing nationally,” said teacher Christina Reidel, who co-facilitates the program along with fellow teacher Dana Landesman. “This is an extraordinary achievement. We are extremely proud of the way they represented themselves, the Bronxville School and the historical past.” 

Over the last several months, the students have been conducting extensive historical research on a topic of their choice on this year’s NHD theme of “Breaking Barriers in History.” Students’ work is displayed in one of five ways – paper, website, documentary, performance or exhibit.

Evans will compete in the Individual Exhibit category with his project, “Martin Luther: The Original Whistleblower.” Cevasco and Baror will compete in the Group Documentary category with their project, “Mercury 13: Breaking Barriers for Female Astronauts at NASA.” Berkolayko, Gjoni, Gorbunova, Jones and Narkaj will compete in the Group Exhibit category with their project, “Let My People Go: The Refuseniks and Fighting for Their Freedom.” 

“This is the largest cohort of students from the district to be selected for the national competition, and the first time we have had a ninth grade student move on to the national competition,” Reidel said. 

To prepare for the nationals, the students have been meeting virtually with their history teachers and revising their research projects based on the judges’ feedback from the state competition. Similar to the regional and state competitions, the national competition will be held virtually. Students are required to submit their work by May 22 before they are judged by professors and scholars.

The Bronxville School Foundation has provided important support to help pave the way to this wonderful accomplishment.  The Foundation funded the teachers’ attendance at the National Social Studies Conference, where they first learned about National History Day.  In addition, the Foundation funded work with renowned performance coach Karen DeMauro who has given students individualized strategies and targeted feedback to help enhance their presentation skills.

Perfect synergy: two new high school classes were seeds of Foundation grants and a BHS alum provides important insights for our high school students.

One of the dispositions of the Bronxville Promise is to challenge our students to “engage the world around you and make it a better place”. A new social studies yearlong elective class, Global Leadership Seminar, has our students exploring issues of race, gender and identity through the lens of service learning. The class came about as a result of a Foundation grant. In the summer of 2019, two Bronxville High School juniors and a BHS teacher had the opportunity to attend the Student Global Leadership Institute (SGLI) at the Punahou School in Honolulu. Our students joined approximately 70 of their peers, representing over 20 schools and 10 countries to collaborate on examining global issues, formulate solutions, engage the world and develop as leaders, thru participation in workshops, field trips, and seminars to understand the Institute’s 2019 theme of Moral Courage from multiple perspectives.

One of the requirements of the Institute was for participants to share the insights they learned to their high schools and to lead an initiative related to this theme. These seniors, Sabrina Mellinghoff and Chloe Slater, who are among those enrolled in the BHS Global Leadership Seminar, proposed the topic Moral Courage to the class for consideration for a project.

Piece #2 fell into place, last June Matt Behrens, BHS ’14, spoke to our senior class; his words were so meaningful that members of the junior class heard about his presentation. Those in the seminar elective class felt Matt’s views were a good example of moral courage in coming forward to speak about gender bias, gender inequity and sexual harassment.

December 2019 the students organized a High School Assembly with Matt Behrens BHS ’14 as the featured speaker. Matt’s presentation inspired seniors Eileen Marshall & Emma Estes to create a documentary.

Piece #3 falls into place as Eileen & Emma are students in the Bronco TV Class elective. Thanks to a Foundation grant for Bronco TV, (4t​h​ floor Studio B was converted into a TV studio with first rate lighting, cameras, teleprompter and news desk) students now have an opportunity to learn TV and Film production and are inspired to create in a state of the art studio.

Eileen and Emma entered the film documentary into the Girls Impact the World Film Festival (GITWFF). This organization provides the opportunity for high school and college students to submit original short films focused on critical women’s issues such as girls’ education, ending violence against women, poverty & economic independence, and authentic beauty/body image.

Congratulations to BHS Seniors Eileen Marshall and Emma Estes. Their documentary “Be a Man” with Matt Behrens BHS ’14, is up for an award in the “Girls Impact the World” film festival.

Please take a moment to watch the work of these talented students in ​“Be A Man” https://gitwff.org/watch/.

This synergy of opportunities and connections both in the classroom and throughout the broader community in large part owes its origins to the original support of the Foundation.

A grant from the Bronxville School Foundation is funding new elementary school curriculum focused on diversity. “The Diversity Book Club” provides K-5th grade students the opportunity to learn about the ways in which religion, race, gender, and physical abilities affect their lives and the lives of others. The teaching is done through the context of children’s’ picture books. The books are read and discussed in the classroom, then sent home with a guide that includes questions for parents to use as prompts for family discussions.

This curriculum is the result of work done by the Elementary School Diversity Think Tank. The Think Tank began in 2017 and is comprised of 28 teachers with an interest in exploring issues of empathy, equity and culturally responsive teaching. The impetus for starting the Think Tank stemmed, in part, from students who expressed feeling of exclusion. In summer 2018, fifteen teachers attended an on-site training session, Talking About Race in the Classroom. In the summer of 2019, the Foundation funded a grant that sent educators to study at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.

The Foundation is funding work with Paul Gorski, of EdChange a leader in scholarship in the field of equity literacy and culturally responsive teaching and learning. Gorski is a world-renowned expert on racial, poverty, and class equality.

Fifth grade teacher Claire Hollocou says “We have made great strides in this work! Because of the ‘Diversity Book Club’ we provide space and time for conversations in which every student feels safe and that they have a voice in the classroom. This promotes multicultural competence, which is a top skill for college and work environments. Teachers feel really empowered when we see the beauty it brings to the students’ experience. I feel it when I walk into my classroom. We have the ground rules set in place to have the conversations that, in the past, would have been uncomfortable. The impact that this is having is huge.”

The Bronxville School Foundation has appointed Helena McSherry as its new executive director. McSherry is excited about her new role “With my two children away at college next year, I am really looking forward to being able to contribute my time to fostering the Foundation’s mission, which will allow me to maintain a special connection with the School and many of the faculty and parent volunteers in town, whom I have come to know and respect over the years.”

McSherry comes to the role with an impressive record both professionally and through her work at the Bronxville School. She attended Boston College and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Finance from the Carroll School of Management in 1992. McSherry attended Fordham Law School and after graduating in 1995, worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Charles L. Brieant, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Before moving to Bronxville in 2001, she worked as a litigation associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel and as a staff attorney with the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange commission.

McSherry and her husband, John, have two children, one a recent graduate and one attending the Bronxville School. Helena has volunteered in numerous capacities at the school. She served a six-year term on the Bronxville School Foundation board working on numerous committees including Public Relations, Grants, and Nominating. In addition, McSherry has worked in various roles on the PTA Council including the Hospitality, Character Counts and Apparel Committees.

McSherry succeeds Peggy Benziger Williams who is retiring after 16 years of dedicated service to the Foundation. Eddie Sulimirski, 2019-2020 Board Chairman said, “We knew it would not be easy to replace Peggy, but were incredibly impressed by the broad and very accomplished slate of candidates who applied for the role.  We were particularly impressed with Helena who brings a wealth of institutional knowledge, professional experience and relationships with both the school and the community. We are thrilled to have someone with her drive, vision and dedication to lead the Foundation into the next decade.”

The Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enhance quality education and sustain excellence in academics, arts, and athletics at the Bronxville School. Since its inception in 1991, the Foundation has awarded grants totaling more than $10 million to support facility design and renovation, faculty training and professional development, state of the art technology and equipment, and pilot programs and new curricula. The impact of these grants is felt by each student across the school, every year through the years.

The Bronxville School Foundation announced its 2019 grant awards, giving $361,000 in resources to benefit children in kindergarten through 12th grade at The Bronxville School.

The Foundation grant requests came from teachers, administrators, parents, and students. This year's grants continue to reflect the school's work toward creating a sustainable model of excellence, aligned with the district's goals of delivering the best possible curriculum and instruction, integrating new technologies, and providing improvements to school facilities and equipment that best support the current and future learning needs of students. After careful consideration from the grants committee and the board of directors, grants were awarded to all areas of the school.

"Thank you to the students, parents, teachers and administrators who submitted grants this year.  The grants awarded will continue to enhance the Bronxville School Community by providing additional resources throughout the school,” said Eileen Marshall, the Foundation’s vice president of grants.

Foundation chair Romy Coquillette added, “The Foundation is so grateful for our generous donors for their continued support. We value the collaboration of the community whose ideas, talent, and energy bring exciting new programs, curriculum, technology, facilities, and other resources to our children. Together, we all make The Bronxville School a better place for our children.”

The following is a complete list of the approved grants for the 2018-19 school year:

Program, Curriculum Development

• TV Studio Technical Training
• Fifth Grade Video Creation:Navigating Social Media
• Middle School Video Creation: Healthy Eating Initiative
• High School Mandarin Courses
• International Thespian Society for High School
• National Orchestra Festival for High School Music Students
• "Winning Mindset" Training for Athletes
• Technological Education Conference
• Puppet Building Workshop for High School Musical

Facilities

• Innovative Designs in Education: Classroom Redesign Phase II
• Auditorium Audio, Spotlights and Moveable Lighting
• Inflatable Batting Cages and Hitting Turtle for Baseball Team
• Additional Classroom Seating and Portable Desk Cushions
• Acoustic Technology for World Language Classrooms

Equipment and Materials

• Headsets for Second Grade Literature Program
• iPads for the Elementary Music Program
• Elementary School Archeology Pit
• iPads for K-12 Visual Arts Program
• Materials for High School Robotics
• Skeletons for High School Science Classes
• New Computers for App Design in the High School
• Football Helmet Program

Professional Development

• Middle School National Social Studies Conference
• Design Thinking on High School Experience
• Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning

The Bronxville School Foundation has supported our school for 28 years. The Foundation's fundraising had strong results this year: our community understands the important role the Foundation plays in enriching the school's programs and providing a first-rate education for our children. Thanks to the generosity of our community, all of your donations go directly to our grant program.  The Bronxville School Foundation depends upon contributions from school families and the community. If you would like to learn more about the Foundation, please contact the Foundation's executive director, Peggy Williams, at 914-395-0515.