Twelve new projects will reach Conestoga Valley students from preschool through senior year, and some of the news was delivered in person.

On Monday, October 26, members of the Conestoga Valley Education Foundation (CVEF) team walked into several CV schools with good news for the teachers inside. Teachers were quick to round up students and colleagues involved in their projects for photos, and several said the surprise made for a great Monday morning.  One of the people we surprised was a student: Karaline Berkey, a CV High School student whose own research is now becoming a grant-funded project.

The surprises followed CVEF’s October 23 meeting, where the board approved $58,551.58 in grants for the 2026 fall cycle. Here’s what’s coming to CV classrooms.

Student-led and hands-on learning

Waste to Watts: A Student-Designed Thermoelectric Lab for Grades 6-12 (Karaline/HS & GHMS): A unique student grant, Waste to Watts turns CVHS student Karaline Berkey’s original thermoelectric generator research into classroom kits. Students in grades 8-12 will use these kits to convert a temperature difference into measurable electricity and collect their own voltage data. The kits supplement existing physics and earth science units and rotate across the middle and high schools for hands-on energy conversion experiences. This benefits an estimated 325 students in AP chemistry, eighth grade middle school science, and potentially AP physics classes.

 You ARE a Math Person: K-5 Math/STEM Engineering Centers (Laura Gingrich/Brownstown): This grant supports a collaborative project led by Brownstown’s Math Specialist, ESL teacher, and a fourth-grade classroom teacher at Brownstown Elementary. The grant will provide multilingual learners with weekly, small group problem-solving challenges designed to build mathematical reasoning, communication, and collaboration. Students will engage in hands-on engineering challenges and will come to see themselves as capable mathematicians who can use mathematics to design solutions, solve problems, and make a difference.  

ArmorGlide Jointer (Hatsady Phongxaysanith/HS): This grant impacts every student who takes a woodworking course at CVHS.  The machine incorporates several different advanced technologies for precise and efficient cuts and is built for years of heavy-duty use. The ArmorGlide Jointer gives students the opportunity for hands-on learning with an advanced technological device found in the woodworking industry.

Music, creativity, and belonging

Adaptive Music: Making Music Through Magic (Danielle DiNicola/GHMS): This grant creates an adaptive music class at the middle school in conjunction with the music department for students in the building’s autistic support classroom. Items covered by the grant include recorders, steel tongue drums, wood rainsticks, and more.

ACA-LLABORATION: A Collective A Cappella Experience (Elizabeth Carney/HS): This one-day workshop is for CVHS singers enrolled in choral ensemble classes and the high school’s extracurricular ensembles. Students will participate in an improvisatory circle sing with body percussion and learn a contemporary a cappella ensemble arrangement. Dr. Spencer Camaro, Instructor of Leadership and Music at West Chester University, will serve as the facilitator of the workshop. 

Student Artists in the Community: An Exhibition-Based Learning Experience (John Myers/HS): This project allows for an ongoing exhibition-based learning experience in which CVHS students learn to curate, install, present, document, and reflect upon their own artwork. Two mobile Screenflex exhibition systems allow students across multiple visual arts courses to create professional-style exhibitions throughout the school year, bringing student creativity and achievement into the larger school community. The reusable exhibition system provides a lasting resource that will support hundreds of student exhibition pieces.  

Ripple Creators: Using Music and Poetry as a Bridge to Social Competence (Corey Clark/HS): This grant provides students in the high school’s emotional support class the opportunity to collaborate with Ripple Hub through the Ripple Creators program. This eight-week multidisciplinary experience allows a cohort of 12 students to write, record, and produce an original song and music video. This project bridges creative arts with social-emotional learning and enhances student engagement, academic growth, and personal development.

Adaptive Physical Education Equipment (Ruth Costanzo/Leola): With the addition of an autistic support classroom at Leola beginning this school year, this grant allows for the purchase of specialized equipment for physical education classes for these students. Students will explore and master new ways of moving and become empowered to be communicators who learn to respectfully interact adapt their expression across varied nonverbal and physical settings. The items purchased will include – but are not limited to – silent basketballs, adapted tricycles, mini trampolines, and more. 

Reading, families, and early learners

Reading Bridges: Family Book Bags (Amanda Schlee/Smoketown): Reading Bridges is a book lending library that sends home context-rich texts that support grades K-5 Modern Learning ELA units. The books are paired with short, book-specific family guides so that families know exactly how to support their child’s understanding of core content and vocabulary. As each classroom moves through its ELA units during the school day, students will bring home a text connected to that unit’s topic, theme, or content focus, along with a bookmark guide highlighting key vocabulary, background knowledge, and simple conversation prompts tied to the specific text. This pilot program has the potential to expand to CV’s other elementary schools.

Dolly Parton Imagination Library (Karen Sullivan/Early Childhood Education): This grant is the continuation of a previously approved CVEF grant. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides free, high-quality, age-appropriate books each month to children from birth through age five who live in the Conestoga Valley School District. Since the program began, CV children have received 2,241 books, helping families build home libraries and establish a strong foundation for early literacy and a lifelong love of reading. This 2026 grant provides additional funding to continue running the program.  

Supporting teachers and meeting the moment

Elevating Elementary Tier 1 Instruction: Evidence-Based Instructional Coaching via Jim Knight’s Coaching Institute (Kelly Galbraith/District-Wide): CVEF is partnering with the district to fund half of the tuition for nine key instructional leaders to complete the 16-week Jim Knight Intensive Instructional Coaching Institute. This coaching and instruction will provide formal methodological training to all eight elementary specialists as well as the Director of Curriculum & Instruction. This is a strategic, one-time investment in building the internal capacity of the district’s specialists.

Cell Phone Pocket: Prepping for New State Regulations (Matt Fox/HS): This pilot grant allows for the purchase of 100 secure, lockable device pouches for students to store their cellphones and other personal mobile devices during the school day. With new state legislation that bans the use of cellphones during the school day, this grant allows for the testing of pouches that provide a safe place to store cellphones during the school day and reduce device-related distractions while increasing opportunities for students to be engaged in learning, communicate face-to-face, collaborate with peers, and develop healthy and responsible technology habits.

CVEF supports the people and ideas that make CV schools special, from a toddler’s first book in the mail to a senior’s research project. Our grants give teachers the chance to try something new, give students tools and experiences their classrooms might not otherwise have, and give our community a direct way to invest in the kids and educators down the road. CVEF will award a second round of grants in the spring of 2027.