Fort Dodge
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Driving for education: Fort Dodge Ford’s Drive 4 UR School

Originally published Aug. 11, 2018 in The Messenger.

By Olivia Hanson

Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota will host the Ford Drive 4 UR School event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 18 at the dealership at 2723 Fifth Ave. S.

Ford Drive 4 UR School is an event that supports education at the Fort Dodge Community School District.

At the event, any community member is able to come and test drive a car. For every unique test drive, $20 will be donated to the Fort Dodge Community Schools Foundation. Read More

ESSA funding
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District approves request for PE HRMs through ESSA funding

In her search for funding to add heart rate monitors to all eight of the Irving Independent School District’s middle schools, Sandi Cravens learned a valuable lesson: requests never made are rarely granted.

In January, Cravens, Irving ISD’s Health and Physical Education Coordinator, received $35,000 from the district’s Every Student Succeeds Act’s Title IV-A funding allocation to purchase sets of IHT Zone wrist heart rate monitors to be used across her district. If not for some quick thinking by a new administrator, Cravens might not have even made the request for ESSA funding.

“I was familiar already with Title IV but I didn’t pay too much attention to it because I assumed the money would go to another group of people in our district because that’s usually how it works,” she said.

That feeling dates back to the reality of the No Child Left Behind Act, where schools focused primarily on the core subjects of math, English, science and social studies, leaving little time and even fewer funds available for electives such as art, music and physical education. Read More

Funding
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PE teachers leave no stone unturned in quest for new funding

Funding for new school initiatives including technology can be challenging, but creative teachers continue to find ways to help raise money by advocating for their needs, including staging community events that bring stakeholders together for a common cause.

Last year, IHT launched the IHT Spirit FitFest. FitFest is a “fundraiser in a box” program that helps schools host community-wide events designed to raise awareness for the physical education program and, more directly, money to purchase PE technology including the IHT Zone wrist heart rate monitor.

“IHT helps you every step of the way,” said Indian Springs Elementary School PE teacher Tracie Hammond, who organized a FitFest event at her school in 2017. “They set you up with all of your supplies, everything you need to have a successful event.” Read More

funding
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5 Places to Seek Out Funding for PE

From direct budget allocations to accessing federal funding, educators look anywhere they can to obtain funding for their physical education programs. Here are five success stories of teachers and administrators finding funding to purchase heart rate technology for their physical education program.

School District budget

In West Des Moines, Iowa, Brian Rhoads found funding in the district’s curriculum budget. As a physical education teacher-turned-administrator, he knew that the funding existed but that P.E. had missed out on it for several cycles. He drafted a data-rich proposal to implement heart rate monitors into the district’s P.E. curriculum and the administration granted the funding.

“Physical education has been left out of those funds for many years – no one knew to ask for it,” he said. “Well, I asked for it. It was perfect timing because we were in our curriculum adoption process, so the district simply allocated what we needed. A lot of money has gone unused because people weren’t tapping into it.” Read More