Ann Arbor Times

A teacher grant focused on promoting literacy was a topic of discussion during the Ann Arbor School District’s March 15 board meeting.

Andy Thomas, a former trustee of the school board for six years, was in attendance to discuss the Karen Thomas grant program. Administered by the Ann Arbor Area community foundation, the grant promotes avenues for students to read and funds elementary teachers who are seeking to purchase literacy materials and projects.

The program was established in 2009 in honor of Karen Thomas who was a writer and reading volunteer in the schools.

“I have to give a little bit of a commercial and asking all of you to support the Karen Thomas Fund financially. Reasons to do that. First of all, there's no marketing or salary expense. Everything that we do is on a volunteer basis,” said Thomas. “All the money that comes in goes directly to the classroom. We're targeting our most vulnerable students. It helps even out some of the inequities in resources among our schools.”

Thomas added that they promote reading across different genres, especially nonfiction books, and teachers would dictate what books are needed for their classroom.

Since its inception, the program has given over $100,000 in grants to educators, and has grown to be supported by commercial entities like Comerica Bank and Wacker Chemical Company. All of their funding comes from private donations. The organization is focused on ensuring the grants go to support classrooms with diverse populations and those with minority groups, either ethnic or religious, to help address learning and achievement gaps.

Recipients of the 2022 grants also shared with the board how the funds impacted their classrooms. Emily Wark, a literary coach at Abbot Elementary, was able to get a decodable text through the grant to help her younger students work through building their foundational reading skills.

Dana Friedman, the librarian at Abbot Elementary, shared how they were able to get more diverse texts and authors to represent the very diverse student population at their school. Friedman said that they purchased 200 new books last year, including novels and graphic novels for the older students.