Dear AEF donors and community,
Despite the various challenges that our schools are facing this year, from district-wide issues to individual student needs, AEF is as committed as ever to enhancing public education in Arlington. To be honest, we’re off to a slower start than usual because everyone is just trying to take care of the fundamentals, like managing an entirely new schedule and keeping the air flowing in the buildings. But, have no doubt, AEF is open! and we are ready to respond to the needs of our schools.
In order to adapt to the current times, AEF has moved to a rolling submission policy for grants. When we get an application, we will review it ASAP. Similarly, we have decided to focus on spending our overall grants budget rather than be limited by the budgets we traditionally establish for different grant categories. To be clear, AEF will review, assess and vote on all grant applications as usual, but we are poised to be flexible and to consider a variety of ways that AEF can support teaching and learning in these unfamiliar times.
We are actively reaching out to the APS administration, school principals, curriculum leaders, and lead teachers to make sure they know AEF is here to support their endeavors to educate Arlington’s public education students.
As we all know, this is a particularly important time to keep public schools working, and AEF is doing its best to be part of that goal. Thank you for your support of and involvement with AEF. We are in this together!
Best,
Julia Schilling & Glendalys Gandhi
AEF Co-Presidents
