PAFE wins state honor

SANDPOINT — A few years ago, after some deliberation, Tom Pagliasotti decided his high school algebra students could benefit from graphing calculators.

The high-end, handheld think tanks cost more than a hundred bucks, and he knew that for the majority of his students at Lake Pend Oreille High School, the district’s alternative school, the cost was prohibitive.

“That’s nice material,” Pagliasotti said. “But given the economic state of our students it was unrealistic to think they could put down $130 for a calculator.”

He knew that Panhandle Alliance for Education funded school programs on the merit of the requests it received, so he petitioned for a small grant.

“They gave us over $2,500 for those calculators,” said Pagliasotti, who teaches math and physics at the alternative school.

After learning more about PAFE, and seeing firsthand the group’s impact on local education, Pagliasotti nominated the group for a prestigious award  from the Idaho Education Association.

PAFE joined a solid list of organizations and individuals including former Gov. Cecil Andrus, the Albertson Foundation and Barbara Morgan, the teacher astronaut, when it was recently chosen to receive the Friends of Education Award from the state’s teacher union.

For Marcia Wilson, PAFE’s executive director, the recognition is huge.

“There is nothing like being recognized by the people you are trying to serve,” Wilson said. “Having teachers nominate us, that is the biggest thank you we can hope for.”

PAFE has done more than a little bit of serving.

With a list of more than 350 donors and several annual fund raising events, PAFE has managed to serve up more than $100,000 in grants to local teachers and education programs annually in the previous three years.

Since its inception, teachers have received in excess of $750,000 in grants and PAFE has donated $400,000 for an intensive reading initiative. Its endowment has grown from $10,000 in 2003 to almost $2 million last year.

Among recent grants are an art and writing program at Washington Elementary School, which cost $1,000, robotics engineering curriculum at Farmin Stidwell for $1,046, a grant for a kokanee fisheries project at Sagle Elementary worth $1,850 and PAFE gave Clark Fork High $3,000 for an electrophoresis lab.

A wha ..?

“It’s a common lab practice these days,” Clark Fork High School science teacher Martin Jones said.

The equipment is used to break up DNA into small chunks and using an electrical current, push the chunks through a gelatin-like mixture. The pieces get hung up according to their size and leave an array of colors. The patterns are used to identify the DNA of different organisms.

“It’s a DNA fingerprint, like on CSI,” Jones said.

The price tag makes it difficult for districts to purchase lab equipment that is commonly used in the field, and would give a proficient student a jump on a career.

“With the budgets we have these days, you couldn’t do it,” Jones said.

Budgeting issues are a big concern for both the IEA and PAFE.

“Budget cuts are horrific, so we try to do what we can,” Wilson said.

What they can and have done got the attention of the Idaho Education Association.

The award is the IEA’s top recognition for organizations or people who go above and beyond in their support of public education, Gayle Moore, IEA’s communication director, said.

“It’s the highest honor IEA gives each year,” Moore said.

Last year the award went to the Nez Perce Tribe in Lapwai.

The award will be presented at the IEA delegate assembly luncheon, April 16 in Boise.

Pagliasotti, who served a couple years as a local IEA delegate, is pleased with the Kudos that teacher’s association afforded PAFE.

“They have definitely been generous in their support of education,” he said.