Over the last 4 years, the CAPS grant process has evolved. We are happy with the way it works today and will most likely make fewer changes.

Currently the “window” for writing grants is in the fall -  after the fund raising event.  We announce how much grants can be written for (this has varied from $2500 to $1000) and how much funding each school is eligible for.  The district has approximately 5000 students. We divide the total raised by 5000 and that tells how much is "available" per student - we then multiply that by the number of children at each school site and that tells us how much each school "qualifies" for. This is an attempt to spread the funds equally district wide. It does limit the really small schools (Creston and Carissa Plains), so we have tried to be a little extra generous to them.

Teachers are notified of the grant window. They have 2 weeks to get their grant written and turned in. All grants come to our PO Box.

When the grants come in, they are sorted by school, etc. Teachers submit 3 things - the grant (the form is really simple),  a blind page that just lists the name of the grant, their school and grade, and a place for their #, and a page that lists their name information. Each grant is numbered.

The grants are sorted by school and grade and then xeroxed. The forms are then distributed a day or 2 in advance to the grant readers so they can skim through them. These are  blind copies - the grant readers do not know the names of the writers - only the grade level and school.  On grant reading day the grant requests are read  school by school. The readers know the dollar amount that the school qualifies for and they try and be really fair. There is  an "advisor" who opens and sorts the grants and thus knows  who wrote them. That way if a principal needs to be called or a question asked in advance, it can be done. The advisor does not vote on whose grant gets chosen.  Our grant readers are retired AUSD teachers - we try to have a reader from elementary grades, a JH reader and a HS reader. The readers can provide expertise and answer questions about programs or  other things relevant to the age group.

We have tried to give grants to the most creative and interesting writers when possible. We try and spread the grants among the grade levels at each school site. One of the "rules" has been is that the grant should not be for  projects that would normally be funded by the school or district regular budget.

Once the grants have been read and the grantees chosen, we attempt to fill their requests immediately.