This year, the Berkeley Public Schools Fund awarded Equity Grants to 35 educator-led projects across BUSD schools. These projects are rooted in equity and designed to support student success, from building inclusive learning environments to uplifting literacy, wellness, and belonging.
Click on any project title to read more.
| Grant Title | School | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone Has Feelings: Social Emotional Learning Pilot | Hopkins Preschool | $2,261 |
| This grant will pilot a new social emotional learning curriculum across preschool classrooms to improve students' emotional regulation, strengthen teacher-student relationships, and build a consistent SEL foundation across school and home settings. | ||
| Cragmont Sensory Room: Encouraging Student Emotional Regulation and Well-Being | Cragmont Elementary | $4,000 |
| Building a multi-sensory room that will provide a safe space for any Cragmont students who need access to sensory, emotional, behavioral and/or self-regulation support. | ||
| John Muir BEARS Family Dinner Nights | John Muir Elementary | $3,000 |
| BEARS Family Dinner Nights are designed to provide a space for families to connect, receive and share information and resources, and create a community in afterschool. | ||
| Strengthening the Malcolm X Community through Affinity Groups | Malcolm X Elementary | $3,000 |
| This project supports culturally relevant literacy development through the Brotherhood & Sisterhood, an after school affinity group for Malcolm X students. | ||
| Malcolm X Literacy Collaboration | Malcolm X Elementary | $9,591 |
| A Literacy Leadership Team at Malcolm X will collaborate to support the literacy curriculum adoption to be as successful as possible. | ||
| Educator Learning Community: African American Student Experience at Malcolm X | Malcolm X Elementary | $5,000 |
| Malcolm X School is implementing a three-year data inquiry to understand how implicit bias and structural and systemic factors impact African American students' experiences in school. | ||
| Oxford Family Literacy Nights | Oxford Elementary | $2,000 |
| Literacy workshops for Oxford families meant to build community, generate excitement about reading, and teach families how they can support their children's learning. | ||
| Books for the 13 Principles of Black Lives Matter | Rosa Parks Elementary | $750 |
| High-quality and diverse books for each of the 13 principles of Black Lives Matter to support enriching instruction for Kindergarten classrooms. | ||
| Afterschool Learning – Creating Student Leaders! | Ruth Acty Elementary | $5,000 |
| In an effort to close the school's opportunity/achievement gap, Ruth Acty has implemented the Afterschool Learning Program (ALP), which has been credited with bringing about student success. | ||
| Chicas Corriendo: Uplifting the Health and Wellness of Our Girls in Grades 3–5 | Sylvia Mendez Elementary | $2,495 |
| Chicas Corriendo is a bilingual running program led by 5 teachers of color and serves girls in grades 3–5. Our running club teaches girls leadership skills and provides skills to empower them. | ||
| Improving Addition & Subtraction Fluency in 1st & 2nd Grade | Thousand Oaks Elementary | $2,500 |
| Thousand Oaks math coach will work in collaboration with 1st and 2nd grade teachers, SPED teachers, and families to help students become more fluent in their addition and subtraction facts. | ||
| Making the Leap into Reading with JumpRope Readers | Washington Elementary | $5,815 |
| We give targeted reading support to our students in BEARS and those with IEPs using JumpRope Readers. JRRs align with our new ELA curriculum and reflect students' cultural and linguistic diversity. | ||
| Building Equitable Reading Incentives for Black & Brown Students | Longfellow Middle | $7,000 |
| Student affinity groups collaborate to design and implement reading programs that reflect their authentic interests by incorporating quality incentives. | ||
| Equity Family Nights | King Middle | $7,000 |
| Equity Family Nights are community-building events for King BIPOC families, LGBTQIA+ families, and families with IEPs and 504s. This event is offered free of charge and includes dinner, resources, connection, and childcare. | ||
| Diversity Awareness Month Books for Advisory Period | King Middle | $1,000 |
| Students will read YA books that are rooted in the cultural heritage months during advisory independent reading time. | ||
| GASA, A place of Social Justice, Support, and Activism | Willard Middle | $1,250 |
| Willard's GASA is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people and their allies. It is a student-led group where we learn about news and issues in the Queer community here and around the world. | ||
| Headsets for Language & Reading Fluency | Willard Middle | $500 |
| Willard teachers support student reading by providing headsets that give students rich opportunities to develop oral language fluency. | ||
| CAS Affinity Groups | Berkeley High | $7,000 |
| Community Arts and Sciences hosts support groups for Latinx, Black, Gender-Expansive students, women, men, and students interested in advancing social justice. | ||
| Breaking the Silence: Elevating Student Voices Through Slam Poetry | Berkeley High | $4,000 |
| This Slam poetry workshop empowers Black students at Berkeley High School by breaking the barriers of silence, celebrating Black poetic traditions, and fostering self-expression. | ||
| Summer Intervention Training for Berkeley High's Universal 9th Grade Team | Berkeley High | $7,500 |
| Berkeley High educators will gather over the summer to be trained in and organize targeted literacy and math interventions for LEAP students in the Universal 9th Grade. | ||
| Berkeley High School Literacy Community of Practice (LitCooP) | Berkeley High | $7,500 |
| A group of BHS teachers across content areas and grade levels will form a Literacy Community of Practice to deepen their knowledge and skills in evidence-based adolescent literacy practices. | ||
| Student Encouragement Grants Us Excellence (SEGUE) | Berkeley Technology Academy (BTA) | $5,000 |
| The SEGUE grant is a tiered system of interventions and incentives. It's a vital tool to support BTA students in overcoming barriers to attendance, behavior, and grades. | ||
| Healthy Me/Saludable Soy in BUSD Transitional Kindergarten Classrooms | District-Wide Preschools | $2,700 |
| Healthy Me/Saludable Soy is a bilingual music and movement program that teaches Mindfulness, Social Skills, Nutrition and Healthy Living to all TK students (19 classrooms) in the district. | ||
| Updating BUSD School Libraries with Themes from New Literacy Curriculum | District-Wide Elementary Schools | $10,000 |
| Provide books for elementary school libraries that align with the themes of the new curriculum, specifically with struggling readers in mind. | ||
| No More Summer Slide | District-Wide Elementary Schools | $4,000 |
| Literacy Coaches at all sites send selected elementary students home for the summer with new high interest books so that their reading skills won’t slip before school starts in the fall. | ||
| Math Equity Collaboration across BUSD Elementary and Middle School Educators | District-Wide Elementary Schools | $12,000 |
| This ongoing professional development series will support teacher collaboration discussing equitable practices in math across the school district. | ||
| Summer Literacy Community of Practice | District-Wide Elementary Schools | $14,928 |
| BUSD educators from across the district come together for a deeper study and preparation of our newly adopted literacy curricula. | ||
| Rising Strong: BUSD Transition Support for 9th Grade Success | District-Wide | $5,000 |
| The goal of the African American High School Transition Fair is to provide timely, culturally responsive information, resources, and direct engagement opportunities with school staff, community-based organizations, and peer mentors to help students transition from middle to high school. | ||
| Latinx Family Engagement | District-Wide | $2,000 |
| The Latinos Unidos de Berkeley K-12 Parent Leads will collaborate with the Office of Family Engagement and Equity to help parent leads facilitate workshops for Latinx families engaging with BUSD. | ||
| Black History Oratorical Festival | District-Wide | $6,000 |
| The Black History Oratorical Festival is an annual district-wide competition that gives educators the opportunity to teach focused Black history in their classrooms and gives students the opportunity to perform poetry and spoken word. | ||
| BMuZ Summer Camp 2026 | District-Wide | $10,000 |
| Berkeley Public Schools Fund is proud to partner with BMuz, a program of the New Apollo Youth Symphony Orchestra (NAYSO), to broaden student access to their multi-day immersive music camps in Berkeley. | ||
| IAPP Wellness through Crisis Intervention Training | District-Wide | $4,000 |
| Instructional Assistants and other paraprofessional staff receive training in crisis management and behavior support. | ||
| Berkeley Pathway to Achieve Credentialed Teachers (BPACT) | District-Wide | $30,000 |
| BPACT is the district's classified-to-credential career pathway. We support classified staff who are earning a teaching credential. | ||
| Digital Equity: Chromebook Refurbishment | District-Wide | $2,000 |
| This grant aims to reduce e-waste by repurposing Chromebooks no longer usable in the classroom and transform them to Linux laptops for students and community members in need of an internet-enabled device. | ||
| Black Staff Collaboratory | District-Wide | $4,200 |
| The Black Staff Collaboratory is an affinity space for Black employees of BUSD to come together for support and collaboration. | ||