Annual Update
Board of Directors
Tom DenHerder, President
Sabina Otteman, Vice President
Sam Vriezema, Treasurer
Jackie Curtiss
Sara Donkersloot
Gary Feenstra
Leslee Lewis
Brandi Mendham
Chris Pollack
Jim Schoettle
Sara Stevens
Catherine Wasson
2013 - 2014
President’s Message
The Zeeland Education Foundation originated in 2005 with
a $10,000 founding gift and one simple task: offset
the funding gaps created by our state’s weakening economy.
Developed with purpose, the Foundation set out to make
quality education a lifetime gift and enhance the academic
offerings for the students and staff of Zeeland Public Schools.
Upcoming Dates
September 24, 2014
Conversations with Cal
October 28, 2014
Fowl Play Dinner
Since its inception, the Foundation has grown to nearly
$668,000 with the bulk of investments held at the Community Foundation of Holland & Zeeland. While autonomous
in organization, the Foundation holds a fiscal responsibility
to the District and a dedication of service towards Zeeland
Public Schools’ Board, administrators, teachers and students.
October - November 2014
Annual Fund Drive
We are honored to have provided over $177,000 in grants to the staff of Zeeland Public
Schools to incorporate innovative ways of teaching and learning. Such funding includes
a recent $18,000 gift to the District to roll out the new Spanish Immersion program.
February/March 2015
District-wide Phone-a-thon
March 11, 2015
Conversations with Cal
Development Director
We are a committed board. We see the future of the Foundation as an important
financial avenue for Zeeland Public Schools and look forward to providing additional opportunities in the years to come. As we grow, we hope you will grow with
us. Your gifts make a difference at ZPS!
Mary Beth Timmer
Sincerely,
Calvin De Kuiper
Superintendent
Wendy Rebhan
Development Coordinator
Tom DenHerder, President
Zeeland Education Foundation partners with local
business to impact children with speech difficulties
Every day students with speaking
difficulties, known as articulation
delays, struggle within their classrooms. These students can be as
young as three years old or as old
as high school seniors. Those with
significant impairments often have
difficulty learning to read as they
are unable to speak the letter sounds
correctly to themselves. Many
times they struggle to form friendships, are bullied and struggle with
self-esteem issues. Traditional speech therapy is successful with
most students but some, even with years of therapy and hard work
continue to struggle with speech and language issues. Currently
Zeeland Public Schools has over 300 students afflicted with speech
and language disorders.
The Zeeland Education Foundation awarded the speech staff a grant
to fund the Complete Speech Smart Palate program. This is a new
and innovative biofeedback device that allows student to see their
December 10, 2014
Conversations with Cal
March 31, 2015
Grant Application deadline
May 2015
Grants awarded
Grant Recipient Breakfast
June 10, 2015
Conversations with Cal
tongue movement on a computer screen and learn to adjust them to
match a correct model thereby correcting the speech issues.
Each student who is part of this program needs a specialized mouth
piece that normally cost about $300 each. Zeeland Family Dentistry
has partnered with us to make these for only $25 per student so they
are affordable for all students involved. The students involved in the
pilot for this program have shown amazing amounts of progress, in
such a short amount of time. Results like these have never before
been experienced by any speech-language pathologist with Zeeland
Public Schools. In the process it also appears to boost student confidence. This was a wonderful unforeseen benefit.
“Sound errors like these have been known to take two to three or
more years to remediate. We found success after 20 sessions. Such
success would not have been possible without this grant from the
Zeeland Education Foundation and the partnership of local businesses” was the enthusiastic comment from one of the Zeeland speech
teachers.
Your donation to the Zeeland Education Foundation is making this
possible!
visit us online at zeelandeducationfoundation.org
Annual Update
2013 - 2014
Grants, Programs and Project Support Awarded
Grant Awarded – Spring 2014Requestor/SchoolAmount
Lego table
Sherry Schrotenboer/Quincy
Duplos Legos for creative play, fine motor development, math lessons, and social studies units.
$500
Apple TVSpecial Ed Team/New Groningen$956
Maximize the use of iPads, develop a deeper understanding of the curriculum and create an engaging learning environment.
3D PrinterMarnie Assink/ Zeeland East HS$3,100
Technology that will turn a digital file into a 3D product; this turns passive consumers into active creators.
Sensory Integration Therapy room
Angela Lloyd & Megan Holman/New Groningen
$1,604
Offers sensory integration activities to assist with regulating behaviors in order to improve classroom performance.
Bilingual Leveled BooksEmily DeKock/New Groningen$1,000
These books will be used to show value for a student’s first language, teach English, and teach grade level content.
Electric Instruments
Marie TenElshof/Middle and High Schools
$1,550
These will increase student engagement in orchestra, enhance performances and extra-curricular music events.
UkulelesJennifer Russell/Quincy & New Groningen$1,410
These will be used to create a powerful learning experience for elementary 3rd-5th graders.
Flexible classroom environmentPete Goers/Quincy$675
Will allow the classroom to move away from the lecture based teaching model to a project focused curriculum delivery.
Interactive Wacom tablets
Debra Kemppainen/Zeeland West HS
These tablets are an intuitive multi-touch tool for students to learn and create with precision and control.
$2,250
Non-fiction Just Right LibraryAmy Zuidema/Adams$950
These will be used both at home and at school to practice comprehension strategies and vocabulary development.
Classroom audio systemJill VanEck/Woodbridge$720
This will provide students with enhanced speech recognition and a much-improved learning opportunity.
Therapeutic tools for fine motor
Jennifer Meyering/New Groningen
Children of varying abilities will be able to develop skills to become successful across the curriculum.
$1,315
UkulelesRuby Bowden/Woodbridge$1,410
These will be used to give students an enriching and hands on musical experience.
Flexible classroom environmentJessica Kiwiet/Cityside MS$2,465
This will allow young people the opportunity to learn more than just course content; they will become effective communicators and collaborators.
Program/Project Support - 2013-2014
Spanish Immersion$18,000
Speech Palate$2,000
Smart Board for Elementary Special Education$3,400
Annual Update
Zeeland Education Foundation partners with
the AMBUCS to support Special Education
New technologies can have a huge impact on students with special needs. The tools available offer many differentiated learning
styles to positively impact students with many different limitations. One of the current technologies is called a SMART board
which allows students to have interactive educational experiences.
Zeeland AMBUCS partnered with the Education Foundation to
purchase a SMART board for Laura Wilson’s special needs class at
Roosevelt Elementary and the students have been using this tool
extensively. They now have a large visual learning tool that gives
them instant access to information and allows them to manipulate the information right on the screen with a simple touch of
their finger. The SMART allows the teacher to present lessons in
a way that is stimulating and easy for the sudents to understand.
This technology has ignited an excitement around learning and
doing in Mrs. Wilson’s classroom.
2013 - 2014
Spanish Immersion coming to Zeeland Public Schools
Zeeland Public Schools is very excited to offer Spanish Immersion to
our Kindergarten, first and second grade students, along with high
school freshman. Like any other new program Zeeland offers, Spanish
Immersion has been well planned and well thought out. The Zeeland
Education Foundation partnered with the school district to bring
add.a.lingua consulting firm in on this project. Add.a.lingua provided
ZPS with a solid base of knowledge and basic skills and curriculum
ideas to build off of. By working with this firm the ZPS Spanish Immersion program will kick off in the fall of 2014. A well thought out,
well organized program with a solid curriculum that meets all state
and district standards and provides students with an exciting and
engaging learning experience.
Development Director Update.... Wendy Rebhan
This past year has been an exciting one for the Foundation!
• We started with changing our logo to be consistent and produced
marketing materials to make ourselves identifiable in the district for the
present and the future.
• We updated our website and produced a video for marketing ourselves to the district community.
• We sent out an annual solicitation with our new brochure outlining
our mission and purpose. From this we received nearly $18,000 in gifts
and pledges!
• In the early March, we had our annual phonation with ambitions to
grow this in the future to reach more of our district’s families.
• This spring, after our grants were awarded, we honored the grant
recipients with a breakfast to celebrate their awards.
• Over the summer we are installing a display case in each of the
district’s buildings to showcase all the “grants in action” in the respective
building.
• And this fall we will be hosting our first annual fundraiser, Fowl Play
Dinner, to help us achieve further support for Zeeland Public Schools.
We are excited about the future and look forward to your support in
joining us as we continue to promote the educational opportunities at
Zeeland Public Schools!
Wendy Rebhan
Development Director
Zeeland Education Foundation
Grantee Recognition Breakfast – May 14, 2014
This past May the Zeeland Education Foundation hosted a breakfast
to recognize ZPS staff members that received grants during the 2014
grant cycle. Grantees were commended for their creativity and innovative ideas to enhance the learning of Zeeland Public School students.
A total of $19,905 was given to 15 teachers.
We would like to thank the following donors to the Zeeland Education Foundation during the 2013-2014 years. Your gifts have
contributed to the academic excellence at Zeeland Public Schools and have provided extraordinary learning opportunities!
Individual Donors
Michael and Tina Ames
Melissa Bayn
Larry and Dianne Bekius
Corwyn B. Bergesma
Kathy Boerigter
Lyle Boerman
Christy Boeve
Stan and Janet Boyer
Krystal Bulthuis
Mr. and Mrs. Bunce
Michael and Wendy Cheek
Colbrunn Family
Brandan and Nicole Compagner
Shawn and Steve Compagner
Brent and Kim Converse
Kyle and Jackie Curtiss
Laurie Custer
Mike and Sue Dalman
Joel Davelaar
Gregory and Karen Deines
Cal and Beth DeKuiper
Tom and Sue Den Herder
Rick Dernberger
John DeWitt
Marlies DeWitt
Neal and Gina Dobbin
Jim and Sara Donkersloot
Gary and Stacey Dozeman
Chuck and Sue Drnek
Marilyn Elhart
Mary and Bill Elhart
Gary and Diane Feenstra
Dean and Jodi Ferrell
Geenen Family Foundation
Aaron Good
Jarold Groters
Mr. and Mrs. Scott Guernsey
Chris and Christy Guffey
Tim and Erica Hamilton
Katherine Hammond
Kenneth and Berniece Harper
Thomas Harsevoort
Timothy and Julie Haskin
Jack Heuvelhorst
Benjamin and Sarah Hondorp
Todd and Peg Housenga
Dawn and Doug Huizenga
Ford and Christine Kalinowski
Dan and Mieke Kender
Chad and Nikki Kleinheksel
Conrad and Barb Kleinheksel
Andrew and Leslee Lewis
Audrey Losey
Bill MacDonald
Christy McGeehan
Gabriella Cintora Mendez
Clarence and Mary Merrill
Jack Miller
Scott and Shari Moore
Pierce Neal
Sabina and Andy Otteman
Shelly and Dave Pohanka
Chris and Becky Pollack
Tom and Pat Postma
Gordon Raterink
Danny Rebhan
Kevin and Wendy Rebhan
Michelle Robinson
Kirk and Kelly Roedel
Chad and Kim Roetman
Ave and Kristen Roorda
Kevin and Kim Rosenau
David Roush
Jim and Janet Schoettle
Gary and Phyllis Scholten
Charles and Amy Schouman
David and Linda Shaw
Brad and Carol Slagh
Dawn Smith
Tirsha Snoblen
Ann Somero
Rick and Suzette Staal
Craig and Sara Stevens
Donors make a direct impact to
our district ~ Thank you.
Dave and Mary Beth Timmer
Aubrey Utting
Rick and Mary VanDer Meulen
Dick and Pam VanDorp
David and Barb VanGinhoven
Kurt Van Koevering
Mr. and Mrs. Richard VanOss
Marc VanSoest
Mitch and Deb Veldheer
Jon Voss
Sam and Kathy Vriezema
Catherine Wasson
Julie Working
Rick and Carol Zuverink
Business Donors
BJW Berghorst & Sons
GDK Construction Co.
Gentex Corporation
GMB Architecture & Engineering
Engelsman Greenhouse
Exit 76 Corp.
Haworth Inc.
Shoreline Sprinkling Inc.
Town and Country Group
Vander Meulen’s Fine Furnishers Inc.
Western Michigan Fleet Parts
West Michigan Hockey
Zeeland Ambucs
Above: students at ZWHS enjoy the new 3D printer - a recent gift from the
Zeeland Education Foundation.