PTSA Mini-Grants in Action
Dr. Da Silva’s newsletter on 10/3/25 featured a great shot of RHS students jamming in Chef T and Mr. Cerniglia’s FLEX class. Fun fact: those guitars were bought with PTSA mini-grants back when FLEX first launched—and they’re still rocking years later!
RHS PTSA awarded a mini-grant in spring 2025 to the RHS Health Department to help elevate student learning. The funds purchased 20 Bluetooth clip-on microphones, enabling 9th-grade students to record high-quality podcast episodes for their final health project. These microphones helped students gain experience with media production and technology as they practiced their public speaking skills.
The smartphone-compatible microphones will be reused annually for Health classes and can be shared with departments like English, Social Studies, and World Language for multimedia and oral presentation projects, benefiting the entire school community.
We’re proud to support our teachers and students innovative work—stay tuned for more!
We’re delighted to spotlight a hands-on project made possible by a PTSA minigrant: a collaborative effort between students in the RISE Program and the General Education Program to construct and paint Adirondack chairs for the courtyard.
Led by teachers Mr. Cerniglia and Ms. Hardman, this project brought students together to practice teamwork, communication, and problem-solving—while having fun along the way. The finishing touch? They painted the chairs in RHS’s school colors to add a pop of pride and school spirit to the courtyard!
We’re proud to support initiatives like these that build both skills and community. Your membership and donations make it possible.
Chana and Gigi
This next featured mini-grant is one for a student-led club that’s all about creativity and community. The Arts and Craft Club provides a place for its members after school to unwind and to discover the joys crafting. All crafters and beginners are welcome! The club requested funds to purchase paint, yarn, and crochet supplies for this school year, and we were more than happy to fund their efforts.
Club members Aidan, Colbie, Lily, and Ashwika are working on their ideas. The club advisor is Ms. Kimberly Davis.
Last spring, Ms. Housen represented RHS at the 2024 Fulbright Teacher Alumni Conference in Washington, DC. In recognition of her work, she received a special award—artwork by Alisa Singer from EnvironmentalGraphiti.org. This print transforms real-world data from the World Meteorological Association into an abstract representation of global temperatures from 1950 to 2023.
Ms. Housen’s goal? "…to share this art with students, to model how math and science can be more than numbers, equations, and formulas; it can be the inspiration for art! I’d like all students, and especially those who feel math is not their personal strength, to see the connections between math and the world around them. Every modality in which I can present this is one more way to coach an appreciation for mathematics from all of our students.”
To bring this vision to life, she applied for a PTSA mini-grant to matte and frame the artwork for display in her classroom.
We love seeing creativity and education come together like this!
