It’s imperative that education adapts quickly to a rapidly changing world. Since the beginning, the Issaquah Schools Foundation has prioritized listening to educators, directing donor funds to support their efforts to bring innovative approaches to classrooms, enhancing engagement, fostering equity, personalizing learning experiences, and making education more effective and oftentimes more fun for students. An investment in innovation is an investment in long-term student benefits including improved outcomes and better preparation for future careers.
Each year we fund two grant areas:
Classroom Enrichment Grants
These grants, awarded at up to $3000 each, allow educators to test new ideas on a smaller scale, whether in one classroom or one school.
Kateri Brow Grants
Awarded at $3001 to $10,000 each, these grants address compelling need for broader education innovation.
Congratulations to our 2025 Teacher Grant Award winners!
| School | Teacher | Grant Type | Grant Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beaver Lake Middle School | Karen Harmon | Arts/Music | Fire it Up! Ceramic Kiln purchase, installation and storage cart |
| Creekside Elementary School | Trevor Peden | Student Well-Being | Pedaling through Learning |
| Echo Glen | Jacob Crawford | Playground/Athletics | Recognizing student achievement in Physical Education |
| Gibson EK | Oliver Jones | STEM | Environmental Science equipment for citizen science work with local nonprofit conservation groups |
| Gibson EK | Oliver Jones | STEM | Gardening equipment with STEM for the Issaquah Food Bank |
| Issaquah High School | Jessica Turner | Arts/Music | AP Music Theory Textbooks for new course offering |
| Issaquah High School | Julie Irwin | STEM | Drive to Thrive: Enhancing Robotics Education with Swerve Drive Innovation |
| Issaquah High School | Leah Karpenko & Jen Cerasoli | Multilingual Learning | The Language of Inclusion: Translated Texts for Multilingual Learners |
| Issaquah High School | Tim Baynes | Student Well-Being | Growing Leaders with CharacterStrong |
| ISD High Schools | Dr. Dana Bailey | Future-focused | Expanding Equity in Access to College in High School |
| ISD Middle Schools | Julia Bamba | Inter-disciplinary Project-based Learning | Bringing Microschools to ISD Middle Schools |
| Issaquah Middle School | Boyd Cottom | Literacy | Scholastic Magazine Subscription for Engaging Non-Fiction Texts |
| Maple Hills Elementary School | Amber Bryant | Student Well-Being | Attendance Incentive Campaign |
| Maple Hills Elementary School | Darcie Kardong | STEM | Reimagining Purposeful Play: Maximizing Purposeful Play by Enhancing our Kindergarten Science and Math Curriculum |
| Maple Hills Elementary School | Hannah Dusenberry | STEM | Mathematical Thinking & Reasoning: Fostering a Love of Math Through Classroom Games |
| Maywood Middle School | Stephanie Tolonen | Humanities | Living Voices Performance: Bringing History to Life for Humanities Students |
| Skyline High School | Zoe Jiang | Technology | AI-Driven Innovation in Curriculum to Support SEL and UDL Practices |
| Special Services | Kristi Wakabayashi | Student Well-Being | Inclusive Behavior Support Program |
| Sunset Elementary School | Martin Merrill | STEM | Bringing High School Leaders to 5th Grade Outdoor Overnight Camp |