Butler Area School District and eight other schools and educational programs were chosen by Remake Learning to each receive up to $70,000 in funds through the second phase of the Moonshot Grants program.

The Moonshot program supports “big, bold ideas in teaching and learning, ideas that address the challenges and the opportunities currently facing young people, educators and caregivers,” according to the Remake Learning website.

The program's first phase of funding in May awarded nearly $500,000 across seven schools for education projects, and received 90 applications. Butler Area School District is part of the second group of awardees, which were chosen from a pool of 64 total applicants.

Dorie Taylor, Remake Learning's Moonshot Grant manager, said the program is meant to inspire innovation.

“We ask for anyone submitting their 'Moonshot' idea to think about how they can collaborate on the idea, how their idea provides equity and justice, and also that it's just bold,” she said. “In previous years, funding has been more operational to support your operations and day-to-day programming. This (grant) allows the participants to dream a little, and to think about the future of learning.”

Taylor said the second wave of applicants took the idea of “boldness” to heart.

“The idea is, it's not just a continuation or extension of programming you already do, but a project that is reaching for the moon and is a little bit out of the box,” she said. “We definitely saw organizations and applicants really zero in on being bold and taking risks, and having something they want to prove that they can do this and make a difference in learning.”

Green Future

Butler Area School District was in the “Advancing” category for its “Growing A Green Future” program, which means it is eligible for up to $70,000 in funding.

The project is a two-pronged effort involving the creation of a produce garden and greenhouses at Summit Township Elementary School and the building of a community market at Broad Street Elementary School.

“In Butler County, there are many sections that are considered to be food deserts because of the lack of a grocery store,” said Brian White, Butler Area superintendent. “What we're doing at Broad Street, where a school is not just educating but also bringing the community together and being part of a solution to community issues, that's a big, bold step.”

The greenhouses at Summit elementary also fit into an existing agricultural focus at the school, said Dave Andrews, instructional coach for student engagement.

“The building blocks have been in place, and now that there is a funding source, we can really get it operational,” he said. “I want to make sure the kids are getting the most out of these spaces we are building.”

Students in grades K-4 will work together to help plant and cultivate produce that they will also market and sell through the community market.

“Particularly after the pandemic, kids were working from home,” White said. “Now, they'll get to work with their hands.”

Next steps

Butler Area School District and the other eight recipients of Moonshot grants, which include other school districts, community spaces and after-school programs, will meet as a group to share ideas and report on their project's progress over the course of the next year.

“It's a consistent check-in over the 12 months with others in the cohort, really learning and asking 'With this project, how is our work going to influence others in our position?'” Taylor said. “'How will what Butler Area School District does influence what another school district does, and how they see learning?'”

The cohort is less a collaboration between schools on the specific grant projects and more a chance to communicate ideas.

“Each participant has their own organization, and accountability to their own communities,” she said. “They have 12 months to flesh out the idea, and hopefully we'll be following them every step of the way to see what's working and what didn't work to turn something into a success.”

For Butler Area, the greenhouses and market are set to be completed by the end of the school year in May 2022, or potentially the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

Some components are already in place, including raised gardening beds, a pollinator garden and apple orchard at Summit elementary.

Plans are also in the works to potentially collaborate with students from Butler County Vocational-Technical School to help build the project.

The hands-on nature of the project is exciting, White said.

“We know this will go wrong at times — some plants will die. It's a live science experiment every day,” he said. “If students are able to be resilient and confront problems, that's how I would measure success.”