Latest Grants Awarded

ZEF 2025 Spring Grants Announced

The Zionsville Education Foundation (ZEF) is excited to announce $75,068.33 in its largest grant cycle to date. Nineteen grants were awarded to 45 Zionsville Community Schools (ZCS) educators impacting students in all nine schools. This combination of ZEF Classroom and Imagine Professional Development Grants will provide unique learning opportunities for both teachers and students.

Thank you to the Barth Family Fund for their support of this grant cycle and many others. Their donation combines with the incredible support of our event sponsors and individual donations to provide grants like this to our schools.ZEF has awarded more than $1.9 million in support of ZCS since its founding in 1995. ZEF Classroom Grants are awarded twice a year in the spring and fall; ZEF Imagine Professional Development Grants are awarded each spring.

2025 Spring Classroom Grants

The Race to Read…More Books! ($4,279.50)
Brooke Dobrovodsky and Laurel Pilcher – Union Elementary School
Books purchased will fuel volume reading, genre challenges, and game-style competitions, inspiring students to explore diverse texts, build skills, and develop a lifelong love for reading. The books will support the genres explored each quarter: poetry, adventure, historical fiction, and myths. Classroom activities will encourage critical thinking, teamwork, and deep engagement with texts, motivating students to read more and develop stronger analytical skills.

Tuners for Zionsville Middle and West Orchestras ($974.35)
Keegan Lammers, Megan Brenton, Maddie Edwards, Ashley Murray, Sarah Wright – Zionsville Community High School, Zionsville West Middle School, Zionsville Middle School
A class set of tuners will be provided to each middle school orchestra program. Tuners allow students to undertake an authentic, important musical skill independently, and they help students understand an aural concept through visual information. With this visual aid, students have multiple pathways to understanding the concept of playing in tune. This technology will also improve classroom procedures and allow for curricular alignment in 5th-12th grades; high school students use these tuners every day, and having tuners at the middle school aligns tuning procedures.

Lifelong Fitness at Z-West ($4,988.41)
Trisha Smart, Kristina Comer, Steve Simmons, Whit Keadle – Zionsville West Middle School
The addition of fitness equipment including kettlebells, medicine balls, dumbbells, and fitness spots to the Zionsville West Middle School PE department will lead to lifelong fitness skills for students in grades 5-8. Teaching lifelong fitness to middle school students can have a profound and lasting impact on their physical, mental, and emotional well-being by building healthy habits.

Computer Science and 3D Printing ($3,378)
Molly Seward – Trailside Elementary School
The introduction of 3D printers at Trailside will transform the learning experience by promoting collaboration in the design process. This technology connects classroom content with STEM education. Students will learn to create and design models that reflect classroom topics such as specialty animals, human organ models, and main characters from literature or their own narratives. This iterative design process encourages creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking, while inspiring young learners to pursue further opportunities in the field of computer science.

Set the Scene: Act 2 ($10,457.50)
Isaac Spillman and Samuel Chenoweth – Zionsville Community High School
This project expands upon the 2022 grant, “Set the Scene: Constructing Scenery for ZCHS Performances.” Between 2022-2025, there has been substantial growth in the utilization of scene shop space and tools for both curricular and extra-curricular activities. In that time period, enrollment in the Tech Theater class has grown from 8-10 students to its current 27 students. Just this year, groups using the shop have included indoor percussion, show choir, fall musical, drama club, spring play, Mr. Zionsville, and it has supported ZCS events such as the 8^th-9^th grade transition night by building custom signposts to help with wayfinding. This grant will expand the quantity and types of scene shop tools along with several safety-oriented improvements.

ZMS New Pickleball Equipment ($500)
Stephen D. Imel II – Zionsville Middle School
New pickleball equipment will enhance student experience and expand the number of students able to play during a class period. Playing pickleball gives students the opportunity to grow and learn from the many physical, social, and cognitive benefits it provides.

Photography in Robotics and Bringing It to Life ($747)
Karen Stillions and Stephanie Compton – Pleasant View Elementary
A new digital camera and printer will enable robotics students to more easily and accurately keep and complete an engineering notebook. Notebooks depicting the scientific process throughout the season are judged and evaluated during competitions, tournaments, and Zionsville Leagues.

Feelings and Emotions ($278.95)
Amber Dawson – Universal PreSchool 3-4 Class at Pleasant View Elementary
ZCS’s youngest learners will have access to books about feelings and emotions. Students will learn about the different types of emotions and feelings, how to recognize them, and how to help themselves become more regulated.

Teamwork, Social Skills, and Fitness Fun with Outdoor Supplies! ($267.89)
Shannon Merrell – Trailside Elementary School
Kindergarteners will have access to outdoor supplies that will give them more options to explore, use their imagination, communicate with peers, and problem solve. They will have fun, stay active, communicate, and work together during outdoor recess.

Graphic Novels for English Classrooms ($1,013.21)
Lisa Geimer – Zionsville Community High School
The purchase of graphic novels for the English course texts will help Multilingual Learners, Special Education, and visual learners better understand the text. Two of each graphic novel will allow English teachers to use one in class and have another copy to loan to students.

Total 2025 Spring Classroom Grants Awarded: $26,884.81
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2025 Imagine Professional Development Grants

Julia Cassel, Katie Sarpa, Lisa Mueller, Chelle Smitson, Emily Sigmund, & Emily Parker – Trailside Elementary School ($8,932.32)
Arts Integration and STEAM Conference
A Trailside Elementary team of K-4 teachers will attend the Arts Integration and STEAM Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. They will learn new teaching strategies, bring back innovative practices for a positive impact on students, and share knowledge with their school community.

Christopher Hindsley – Zionsville West Middle School ($1,890)
Collaboration & Community: Attending the 2025 ACTFL Annual Convention & World Language Expo
Provides the opportunity for Christopher Hindsley to attend the American Council on the Teachers of Foreign Languages Annual Convention and World Language Expo held in New Orleans, Louisiana. He will have the opportunity to network with fellow world language educators, to further develop teaching techniques and practices, and to reflect on current teaching practices.

Laura Dyer and Avory Freund – Zionsville West Middle School ($6,000)
Innovate, Navigate, Elevate: Strengthening Our School Counseling Program
School Counselors Laura Dyer and Avory Freund will attend the American School Counselor Association annual conference to explore best practices, resources, and evidence-based materials for enhancing the school counseling program. This four-day event will provide opportunities for professional development, networking, and learning from industry experts.

Katie Gordon, Shawn Wooden, Ramsay West, Mitzi Macaluso, Craig Callahan, and Blair Williams – Zionsville West Middle School and Zionsville Middle School ($10,321.20)
Leading the Middle Way: Empowering Teacher Leaders for Student Success
Teacher leaders from both Zionsville Middle School and Zionsville West Middle School will participate in the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. This conference is the only one dedicated to advancing best practices in middle-level education. It will provide valuable opportunities to enhance instructional leadership skills, engage with the latest research in middle-level education, and bring back innovative strategies to support both schools and students.

Meagan Brown, Will Doublestein, Rebecca Hampton, Lauryn Tooley, Andie Wentz, Emily Zucker – All ZCS Elementary Schools ($9,040)
American Orff-Schulwerk Association Conference
The ZCS elementary music team will participate in the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) conference in Lexington, Kentucky to enhance elementary music education for all ZCS students in kindergarten through fourth grade. The conference will help deepen pedagogical knowledge, provide hands-on learning, give exposure to new resources, and advance team cohesion. By engaging with leading music educators, they will acquire new techniques and processes to improve instruction and maximize the use of their high-quality instruments and resources.

Susanna Outcelt – – Zionsville Community High School ($3,000)
Camryn Bader – Zionsville Community High School ($3,000)
Building Thinking Classrooms Annual Conference
Attendance at the Building Thinking Classrooms Annual Conference will provide these high school math educators the opportunity to learn more about desired instructional strategies researched in Peter Liljedahl’s book Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics. The conference includes many strands of professional development including sessions on fostering leadership and community, launch practices, cultivating leadership, and assessment practices in Building Thinking Classrooms.

Candi Granlund – Zionsville West Middle School ($3,000)
World Adult Wind Orchestra Project
This professional development project is a one-week immersive experience in the World Adult Wind Orchestra Project in Schladming, Austria. Ms. Granlund auditioned for the opportunity by submitting playing samples showcasing her skills on the bassoon. She will rehearse and perform alongside top conductors and musicians from around the world at the Mid-Europe Music Festival. The experience will help enhance her musical skills and participate in a group of musicians from diverse backgrounds and languages gathered to communicate and connect through their mutual love for music.

Sharon Davidson – Eagle Elementary ($3,000)
Immersed in Spanish
This grant provides the opportunity to participate in the Agualivar Spanish Immersion School, a full immersion Spanish language program and homestay in a small, rural town in Spain. The experience includes living with local teachers, 3 hours of personalized Spanish classes each day, and experiencing the cultural aspects of the area. Ms. Davidson will improve all aspects of her Spanish language, engage in authentic experiences in a small town, and gain perspective on how it feels to truly be immersed in a language and culture.

Total 2025 Imagine Professional Development Grants Awarded: $48,183.52