Students in Calvert County public schools will get remotely operated vehicles to explore oyster reefs, kindergarten tables they can write on, and a classroom introduction to nursing careers, all paid for by the Calvert County School Foundation.
The foundation announced $23,988.65 in 2026-27 grants for educators at the Calvert County Board of Education’s October meeting. Twelve awards, ranging from $578.48 to the program’s $3,000 cap, went to teachers and special education staff at elementary, middle and high schools. The school system’s liaison to the foundation, Dr. Marcella Gruver, read each recipient’s name and project aloud and invited them up for a photo.
The money is meant for things the regular school budget does not cover. The foundation says it provides funding beyond tax dollars for unique resources and innovative learning, and the ideas come directly from employees: any CCPS employee can apply for up to $3,000, and this year’s application window ran from June 1 to July 1, according to the school system’s instructional grant page.
Several grants put new equipment in the youngest students’ hands. Two kindergarten teams at Dowell Elementary were funded: $2,298.54 for fine motor and sensory task boxes and $2,915.86 for small group whiteboard tables where students can show their thinking and work together. Windy Hill Elementary received $1,203.32 to build interactive literacy spaces, and Mount Harmony Elementary received $1,500 for a project that brings women’s history to life through an immersive library experience. The special education department and occupational therapists were awarded $578.48 for pre-writing resources for early childhood, and a second special education award of $1,400 will create an Adaptive Innovation Station of tools that help students take part more independently.
Older students get hands-on science and career exploration. A $2,974 grant will let students use remotely operated vehicle technology to study oyster reefs. A $2,647.20 award for “Future Nurses of America” will introduce students at Beach Elementary, Calvert Elementary and Calvert Middle School to health care careers, and Patuxent High School received $3,000 for a civil engineering and architecture project on sustainable building design. Those projects fit the district’s wider push to connect classroom work to careers, which the Chronicle covered in a report on a $9 million grant for seventh-grade career plans.
Three of the awards pay for teachers to learn rather than for classroom gear. Two Northern High School teachers each received $1,643.74 to attend the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2026 conference, “Mathematics for a Changing World,” and a Mill Creek Middle School teacher received $2,183.77 to attend the National Council for the Social Studies conference. Gruver noted that this kind of professional learning extends beyond the person attending, because teachers bring strategies and resources back to colleagues.
The 12 awards add up to the full $23,988.65, which is more than double the $10,715.75 the foundation distributed to five schools in its 2023-24 round. The foundation, which was founded in 2017, awarded more than $30,000 in grants last year, according to the Chronicle’s coverage of a Calvert Education Association golf tournament that raised more than $17,000 for the foundation this spring. Fundraisers like that are how the grants are paid for, along with donations from individuals and community partners.
Gruver introduced the foundation’s board, which is led by a retired CCPS educator and includes representatives of Shore United Bank, Educational Systems Federal Credit Union and Constellation. She credited the board, donors and community partners for “helping turn good ideas into real opportunities,” and said what stood out was the variety of projects, from literacy and mathematics to environmental science, early childhood development and assistive technology.
The recognition opened a meeting that also took up a school construction federal grant of $2.36 million, a plan to merge the district’s strategic, Blueprint and efficiency plans, science test results and a plan to protect the high school swim season while the Hall Aquatic Center remains closed. Educators with questions about the program can email foundation@calvertnet.k12.md.us. Donations to the foundation can be made online through Chesapeake Charities, which hosts the fund.
