Tuesday, December 3rd is the nationwide "Giving Tuesday" event. In this season of giving, please remember to include SEF, or a favorite charity of your choice, in your year-end giving plans!
Fall Grants Update
Summit teachers and administrators submitted 64 grant applications by our grant application deadline of October 15th. The SEF Grants Committee will be meeting over the next several weeks to review the proposals and make funding recommendations to the SEF Board. For details on the comprehensive grant evaluation process that SEF uses,
please click here.
Grant Spotlight:
Students are all Ears!
Due to an SEF grant, the Summit School Nurses were able to purchase a MAICO Ero-Scan Otoacoustic Emission Screener for use throughout the Summit school district. The MACIO OAE is a portable, handheld device that quickly and effectively screens for both sensorineural and conductive hearing loss.
The new MAICO-OAE has greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of the district's auditory screening process, and has become an integral tool in identifying students who have developed hearing loss during the school age years, or who may not have been properly identified at birth. This is extremely important because precise identification and prompt referral minimizes the negative consequences that hearing loss may have on a student's academic performance, communication and psychosocial development.
Franklin nurse, Ann Zanelli shared that " I personally love the speed and accuracy that the OEA offers. Prior audio screening required the student to raise their hand up and down each time they heard a tone. Often a student would keep their hand continually in the up position, or not raise their hand at all due to distractions, and screening times would average 15 minutes or more per student. Because the OAE does not require a behavioral response (it obtains a reading directly from the inner ear), I am now able to obtain a 100% accurate result in under 5 minutes per student. This is especially useful when screening students who are non-verbal, have difficulty processing, or who are highly distractible."
In addition to improving Summit's hearing screenings, SEF funded a Spot Vision screener in Fall, 2017 that improved the accuracy and reliability of the vision screening process for Summit Public School students.
Partners Night Update
Over 150 "Partners level" donors and friends gathered at the home of Justin and Lee Sadrian to celebrate SEF's grants to the Summit Public Schools one evening in October. SEF highlighted several notable grants from the last year with a video that played throughout the evening while those attending celebrated excellence in Summit Public Schools. Thank you to all who were in attendance.
