The Conestoga Valley Education Foundation (CVEF) awarded $69,030 in grant money during its 2025 spring grant cycle. CVEF officially approved seven grants at its April 25 meeting.

One grant will fund a reset room at Gerald Huesken Middle School (GHMS). This will provide students a space to go when they need to reset, take a pause in their day or receive behavioral intervention. This space will also be used for restorative conferences and behavioral intervention. Eight middle school staff members received training from an expert in reset rooms and determined the necessary items to best equip the room, ranging from stationary bikes and weight blankets to stress balls and more.

Also at GHMS, a grant will be used for Wipebooks, which are portable, reusable whiteboards that provide flexible, non-permanent surfaces where students can work collaboratively on problem-solving tasks. Wipebooks have been used at the elementary level (also funded by a previous CVEF grant) and have been well-received, leading the middle school to apply for its own grant to purchase Wipebooks. The Wipebooks also help reduce paper waste while promoting an eco-friendly, hands-on approach to learning.

An elementary-wide grant will allow for the purchase of Nuvo Recorders for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students in all four elementary schools. Nuvo Recorders are easy for students to play successfully, especially those with special accommodations, including varying motor skills. Playing the recorder is a key component of the Conestoga Valley (CV) School District's music curriculum for grades three to five.  

Another grant will equip the Conestoga Valley High School (CVHS) aviation program with updated drones and a flight simulator. Flight simulators allow students to interact with a real flight environment setting and better prepare students for careers in the aviation field.

A grant for GHMS will fund "Class VR: Empowering Special Education Students with Virtual Reality," a program designed to integrate virtual reality technology into support programs for individuals with more complex disabilities. This technology provides a safer, more controlled environment for students to gain real-world experiences in social interactions, life skills, emotional regulation and problem solving. Students are able to practice and experience real world scenarios in a virtual setting.

A school district-wide grant will help enhance the district's First 10 initiative, which is intended to bring together school districts, elementary schools, early childhood programs and community agencies to improve the quality and coordination of education and care for young children and their families. This grant will allow for the purchase of numerous puzzles to be placed in all of CV's prekindergarten classrooms.

Another school district-wide grant will provide families of newborns with welcome bags that will contain items such as board books; teethers; a CV Baby Buckskin bib; and information promoting early learning, including materials on The Basics campaign and Young Mathematicians, both First 10 initiatives. Families will also receive a registration for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library so that they can begin to receive one free book per month until their child reaches the age of 5. The Imagination Library was also a previous CVEF grant.

CVEF will begin its next grant cycle in the fall. The foundation awards grants twice per year, in the fall and spring of each school year.