The Bank of America Incubator Grant program gives a select group of previous Teach for Excellence grant winners the opportunity to expand their original projects to multiple classrooms.  The 2007-2008 school year is currently open for teachers. 

Teachers competed for the available awards and submit extensive grant applications during their summer break.  For their efforts, they received personal honorariums.  Additional awards are given during the course of the school year upon a mid-year site visit and an end-of-year 1:1 formal evaluation.  Among the judges are community and business leaders as well as educators and school administrators.

The 2006-2007 winners were:

Beth Griffin from Lakeview Fundamental Elementary School. She is conducting a $9,000 project entitled, “Aha! Eureka! Satori!” featuring creativity boxes.  She is expanding her Teach fo Excellence Grant to include 15 classrooms with 285 students to think creatively, work collaboratively and develop new high level thinking skills.

Michael Meilak from Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School will be receiving $9,000.  He will be conducting a Weather Link project featuring high technology in various classrooms using GPS systems and real-time weather data linked to teachers and students.

Holly Roush from Pinellas Park Middle School.  She is implementing a $10,000 Healthy Hearts project for more than 500 students.  It is a cross-curriculum endeavor featuring health, science, social studies and computer classes. Below, in Health class, a student keeps his balance while others ride bicycles to video games and yet others perform dance moves to music.

The 2005-2006 winners were:

Robert Sinibaldi, Ph.D from Walsingham Elementary School.  Robert received $8,860.41 for his district-wide project entitled “Adapted PE Loan Center” involving up to 350 exceptional education students in mainstream or inclusion physical education settings.  This grant will expand the three loan centers currently in Pinellas County with adapted PE equipment designed and purchased for students with orthopedic impairments, severe visual and hearing impairments, students in wheelchairs, and students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Items purchased should last for 20-30 years to benefit future generations who need them.

Barbara Gurian from Plumb Elementary School.  Barbara received $9,993.65 for her project “Plumb Scientists Soar” involving 850 elementary students.  Barbara's science committee created their own inquiry-based science experiments geared at the requirements for each grade level. Projects were housed in a separate building used exclusively for this grant. 

The 2004-2005 winners were:

Marilee Palot from Plumb Elementary School.  Marilee received $9,995 for her project “Audiobooks: Building Blocks to Literacy” involving 840 struggling readers in all elementary grade levels.  Kathleen Hagan from Fuguitt Elementary School.  Kathleen received $9,324 for her project “Blending Content and Literacy in the Elementary Classroom” involving 130 elementary students in grades 3,4,5.  Veronica Reese from San Jose Elementary School.  Veronica received $3,784 for her project “Understanding Simple Machines” involving 250 students in grades 3,4,5.