$20,000 grant from the Gilchrist Foundation to Enhance Hunt A+ Elementary Arts Curriculum
The Sioux City Public Schools Foundation recently received a grant from the Gilchrist Foundation for $20,000. The grant will be used to address the unique art-focused curriculum needs of Hunt A+ Elementary.
The leadership team at Hunt A+ Elementary school will use the grant funds to coordinate year-long curricula, which will culminate in an all-school staged musical performance. The classroom teachers will collaborate with experienced professionals at LAMB Theatre to produce the spring theater performance. Students of Hunt will experience set design, lighting, makeup, acting, singing and live performance instruction during the build up to the live performance.
“We are incredibly grateful that the Gilchrist Foundation is providing these enhanced opportunities to our students at Hunt Elementary,” said Dr. Paul Gausman, Superintendent of the Sioux City Community School District. This experience will cultivate students’ communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills through a fun, hands-on approach.”
Hunt A+ Elementary is one of five specialty elementary schools in the Sioux City Community School District. As the only A+ (arts plus academics) school in the state, educators at Hunt interweave the arts (dance, drama, music, and visual art) into the curriculum. Staff follow district and state Common Core standards in all subject areas, however, the curriculum is taught within the overall theme of the arts.
The mission of the Gilchrist Foundation is to further the philanthropy of its founder, Jocelyn Gilchrist, and her family, who had wide interests that embraced wildlife, conservation, the arts, public broadcasting and disaster relief. The Foundation provides incentives and funds to pre-selected non-profit organizations that further these goals. Therefore, Hunt’s “arts plus academics” focus fits seamlessly with the Gilchrist’s mission of embracing the arts.