The Bette Marschall Memorial Education Fund (BMMEF) of The Columbus Foundation has awarded 11 grants totaling $2,833 to individuals in the Westerville City School District, as follows:
- $496 to Juls Rathje, visual art teacher, to provide a guest artist at Hanby and Emerson as part of a Zentangles and Tiles project;
- $200 to Debra Fulmer, Reading Intervention Specialist at Hawthorne Elementary, to help with tuition for a course in Bringing Reading Instruction from School to Home;
- $194 to Katie Stuhlfauth, speech therapist at Heritage Middle School, to purchase materials for providing direct instruction in communication and other social skills;
- $190 to Debbie Pellington, gifted facilitator at Genoa Middle School, to purchase materials for a Challenge Yourself project;
- $400 to Susannah Lee, Aaron Starkey, Natalie Barrett, and Jodie Brown, teachers at Westerville Central High School, to purchase a school membership to IEarn (International Education and Resource Network), enabling Central students to participate in global projects, which align with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals;
- $295 to Aislynn Valentine, teacher at Westerville South High School, to cover costs for a field trip to the Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park for her AP Environmental Science class;
- $200 to Aislynn Valentine, teacher at Westerville South High School, to help pay tuition for a Future of Learning and Technology course;
- $198 to Jennifer Kirk and Damon Mollenkopf, teachers at Westerville North High School, to participate in an online study to develop Project Based Teaching;
- $225 to Mary Fuchs, teacher and newspaper advisor at Westerville South High School, to purchase a school membership to Ohio Scholastic Media Association, and to cover fees for 15 students to attend an OSMA conference;
- $147 to Emily Jo Mills, school counselor at Alcott Elementary, to purchase a Calm Classroom kit and pre-K $ K manual;
- $288 to Debbie Pellington (gifted facilitator) and Jenn Cole (teacher), Heritage Middle School, to purchase a class set of books for their Global Design for Change project.
Family and friends of Bette Marschall, who was a respected elementary school teacher and principal in Westerville City Schools for nearly 20 years, established the BMMEF to make monetary grants available to Westerville teachers, students, administrators, and non-teaching staff to achieve goals in one or more of the areas of Bette’s interests. It supports those who believe education should be child-centered, based on developmentally appropriate standards, curriculum, and practices. The fund is meant to promote practices in public education that educate the whole child − mind, body and spirit − and that result in citizens who think critically and act in good conscience.