Little Silver PTO Grant Program

The Little Silver PTO is currently accepting grants requests for the PTO Grant Program.  Grants are available to all teachers and staff at Point Road School and Markham Place School or to district employees for the benefit of either or both schools.   

Purpose of the PTO Grant Program

The mission of the Little Silver PTO is to support and enhance the educational experience of students and augment the goals of the Little Silver Public Schools in collaboration with students, parents and district employees.  

In line with this mission, the purpose of the PTO Grant Program is to provide funding to support and enhance the educational experience of Little Silver students, to support teachers in their creative and innovative thinking and to provide a critical connection between the PTO and the faculty/staff of our schools.  

Grant Funding

The Grant Program is made possible by the generosity of our families and the fundraising efforts of our volunteers.  For the 2020-21 academic year, the PTO has approved grant funding of $15,000.  

June 2021 Update - Funds remain available from the 2020-21 budget.

Grant Criteria

1. Requests will be considered in totality to allow decisions based on equity among schools, grades and classrooms.
2. The goal of the Grant Program is to benefit as many students as possible.  Preference will be given to proposals that benefit students in multiple classrooms or students in the same classroom over multiple years.
3. Grants will not be awarded for projects or materials that are provided by the District.

Grant Process

1. Grant requests may be made individually or collaboratively but each staff member is limited to a maximum of $500 in total requests per grant cycle.
2. Requests will be accepted at any time and will be considered at the next scheduled PTO meeting.  

Deadlines will be posted with 2021-22 meetings have been scheduled.

1. Requests must be submitted using the from on the PTO website:   www.littlesilverpto.org/grants
2. Requests will be first reviewed by the Director of Curriculum and both Principals to determine if alternate funding sources are available. The Little Silver PTO Board will then vote to approve, defer or deny all active requests.  

Grant Terms and Conditions

1. All items purchased through the PTO Grant Program become the property of the Little Silver School District.
2. Grants will be paid in one of two ways:
3. Items will be acquired via Purchase Orders (POs) generated by the LS Board of Education.  This will enable us to take advantage of approved vendors, sales tax exemption and reduced shipping.  The PTO will reimburse the Board of Education. 
   1. If the Grant is for a service or item not sold by an approved vendor then the Little Silver PTO will order or contract for the item or service.
   2. Funds that remain unspent or unawarded at the conclusion of the academic year will be rolled into the Little Silver PTO Grant Fund for the 2021-22 Academic Year.
4. The PTO looks forward to celebrating, promoting, and publicizing the efforts of the grant recipients and their accomplishments with the grant program.  After Students have benefited from the Grant (or begun to benefit in the case of an ongoing program), grant recipients agree to submit a brief report to the PTO.  The report can be a written description and/or photos that describe the project or activity and explain how the teacher utilized the grant funds and how the students have benefited from the grant.   Information from the reports and any other submitted materials may be used in the PTO newsletters, the PTO website, the PTO social media channels and during appropriate school events.  The more that parents and teachers are made aware of the benefits of the PTO grant program, the greater support it will have in years to come. 

Grant Application