The Peabody Education Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of Best Bet Awards for 2011-2012.  The Best Bet Committee received 89 applications totaling nearly $67,000 in requested funding; upon reviewing the grants, the Committee was ultimately able to award 47 grants for a total of $24,593. Each of the city’s ten public schools received grant money, and the proposed programs will impact students from grades K-12.

Some of Peabody’s students will be traveling to new and exciting places thanks to Best Bet funding: approved grants included trips to the Peabody Essex Museum, the Lowell National Historical Park, the Museum of Science Planetarium, the Ipswich Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Arts of the Americas Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts. Other students will experience in-school presentations such as Holocaust Legacy Partners, author Yoko Kawashima Watkins, and Indonesian Gamelan & Puppet Theater. Best Bet grants will also provide learning materials that will complement the existing resources in Peabody’s classrooms, including News-2-You weekly news publications, Kids Discover Magazines, and Literature Circles. The diversity and originality of this year’s Best Bet applications made it very difficult for the Committee to decide which programs to fund, but it’s clear that each of the programs chosen will have a positive impact on students.

Teachers have been notified of their grants, with programs anticipated to start as early as December and continue through the remainder of the school year. The winner of the Peter A. Torigian Best Bet Award, given to the most innovative program each year, will be announced in May 2012. For a complete list of funded 2011-2012 Best Bet programs, please click here. Congratulations to all the teachers who received a Best Bet grant!