Impactful Experiences

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The Hillsboro Schools Foundation celebrated a successful partnership with Barnes & Noble through the Tanasbourne Bookfair, which provided lasting benefits to students across the Hillsboro School District for the 2025/2026 school year.

Thanks to generous community support, the bookfair contributed $2,291 for district book purchases and added more than 700 books to school library shelves. These resources continue to give students greater access to engaging reading materials and support literacy across the district.

The event brought together educators, students, local leaders, performers, volunteers, and families, highlighting the power of community collaboration in supporting education. Special recognition goes to those who helped make the bookfair a success:

• Barnes & Noble

• Superintendent Travis Reiman

• Hillsboro Hops

• Mike Zimmerlund

• Representative Nathan Sosa

• Kathryn Lopez Resto

• Diane Kiley

• Emmeline Duncan

• Senator Janeen Sollman

• Vanessa Ceccarelli

• Glencoe High School Chamber Choir

• Evergreen and Poynter Middle School Bands

• Century High School NHS Student Volunteers

• First Tech Federal Credit Union Volunteers

• Community members who supported the event

The Tanasbourne Barnes & Noble Bookfair stands as a lasting example of what can be achieved when a community comes together to support students and their love of reading.

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In early 2026, HSF checked in with Mark Striplin, Computers & Shop Teacher at Brown Middle School. After receiving funds through HSF from a PGE Foundation grant, we wanted to ask how the addition of a welding module has been impacting students at Brown:

What has been the overall impact?
“It took me some time to adapt the station to fit the needs of my classroom, so students have only had access to the station for the last few months. In that short time, however, students have picked the station every rotation, so approximately 40 students have had the opportunity to learn what it is like to be a welder. This number will grow substantially over the next year.”

How would you ran the impact on a scale of 1–5?
“I would say 4 because it took so long to adapt. But so far, student feedback is that they are enjoying the station, and some students who hadn’t thought of welding as a career are now considering it.”

What were the total numbers of people served?
“40 and growing. By the end of the 2025–2026 year, at least 110 more students will have the opportunity as well.”

What was the approximate percentage of communities of color served by this project?
About half of the students who have access to this opportunity are students of color.

Do you have any anecdotal stories and/or picture(s) you could share with us?
Students have communicated that welding is more challenging than expected, and a few have mentioned interest in pursuing it as a career.

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At Patterson Elementary Kindness Garden, they are growing a beautiful garden that is rooted in kindness. Thanks to a generous Innovative Grant from the Hillsboro Schools Foundation in 2024, the students are seeing many large transformations that will be enjoyed for years to come. Grant recipient Amanda Jett shared the following:

“The garden space at Patterson is part of the playground. Therefore, all students see the space multiple times a day and oftentimes during their after-school activities. The space had been revamped by volunteers but the garden beds had been largely unplanted and unused. After pulling weeds during recess, the students were really interested and wanted to help. A few buckets, gloves, and hand tools were gathered and “Recess Gardening” was born. Students could choose gardening as one of their daily recess activities. It was popular with students because it grounded them, gave them pride in themselves and the space, and they could see what a community could accomplish. The following year a gardening club was added to tackle some of the bigger garden projects.

After a while, the raised beds began to fall apart, and the weeds began to get unmanageable during the short recess gardening times. That’s when we applied for, and were awarded, a large grant from HSF. The grant was for purchasing a greenhouse with a rainwater collection system, renting equipment to clear the space, redoing the paths with heavy weed mat and bark chips, building healthier raised cedar beds, adding water trough style metal beds, and for creating an Indigenous first foods garden.

We are enjoying our greenhouse and have even planted the new garden beds with cold weather vegetables. This spring, we will be focused on creating a meaningful learning experience by planting first foods that the tribes who stewarded this land may have eaten. The goal is to teach students we are also a piece of the timeline and stewards of this land. We can honor the history by going forward in kindness and mindfulness for our environment, for each other, and for future caretakers of this land.

We are looking forward to seeing even more changes made possible by the HSF Grant!”

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In May of 2024, Kimberly Parrett, the Library Media Assistant at Poynter Middle School, was awarded funding for her innovative grant, “Books Supporting Students.”

This grant provided prose novels that students are eager to read, aiming to improve the reading abilities of struggling readers and English language learners. “Own-Voice” stories are written about characters from diverse backgrounds by authors who share that same identity. With 32 different languages spoken in homes at Poynter, these books have been a hit!

These books were delivered to Poynter at the beginning of the 2024/25 school year and made available for checkout. Students quickly seized the opportunity to borrow them. We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Ms. Parrett for her dedication and hard work in making this project a success. Additionally, we are deeply grateful to the donors whose generosity made this opportunity possible – thank you!

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In May 2023, HSF awarded an innovative grant to Ashley Jennings at Brown Middle School for her project, “Native Plants Garden.” This initiative created a calming and educational garden space for students, featuring traditional plants and techniques from local Native American tribes. Students were actively involved in planning, designing, implementing, and caring for the garden, using both technological tools and traditional gardening methods.

This grant not only provides Brown Middle School with a sustainable garden space for years to come but also establishes a framework for students to have a voice in their community. After the first year of developing the initial design, students feel empowered to redesign and expand the garden to reflect the current student body. 

To view a picture book created by Ms. Jennings, please click the image on the left.

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When asked if the grant met her goals:

“Exceeded!! My goal was to have 90% of the school population experience the Wellness Center and the new equipment. As of today, I have had 103% of the school access the Wellness center and the tools we added. Students that have left Brookwood and are no longer part of our school population, have still had the impact of the items we purchased with the grant. The Pre-K classroom has accessed the sensory walks and the climbing wall, with support and supervision of the Pre-K staff.  The Under the Sea sensory path is used by so many different grade levels. A fourth-grade class uses it on their way back from Library and Music EVERY Week! The Warrior Wall is used as a great affirmation for staff and students. 323 students have accessed the Wellness Center this year. There have been 1384 visits to the wellness center where the crash pad, jumping board, sensory walk, balancing beam, steppingstones, and weighted items are used EVERY DAY!”

 

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Avery had just moved to Hillsboro from another district following her parents’ divorce. She was suffering from depression and anxiety and was having a hard time making connections in middle school. But she loved writing stories. When I introduced the Graphic Novel unit to the class, I saw a rare smile. She began to write. And she continued writing. After 18 pages, she began to draw. Every day working on the graphic novel, I saw her love for writing, drawing, and school in general increase. Her intermittent attendance improved and she was often the first one to class, working before the tardy bell even rang. Phone calls started coming from home. “Something’s different,” mom would say. “My daughter wants to come to school. She’s doing homework. She’s working for hours. What did you do?” One last phone call from mom: “Avery has decided that she’d like to be an author. She wants to publish her work.” Avery had a goal now; a direction. A purpose.

Avery went on to present her graphic novel at Evergreen Middle School’s Comicon (Comic Convention) where professional artists and authors reviewed her work and remarked on Avery’s immense potential.

Evergreen Comicon was a game changer for Avery.

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Nicole Chronister knew that Sara’s life wasn’t fair. She was dealing with life and family circumstances that no one should have to face in a lifetime, let alone at age 11. To make matters worse, the Tobias Elementary teacher didn’t know if her Girl’s Engineering After School Club was making an impact on her student. Sara, unlike the other curious and engaged girls, seemed unimpressed and aloof during the engineering projects that were introduced every week…more interested in her smart phone than building hydro lifts.

But Nicole learned the truth on parent day, the last day of the 8-week series when all the students presented their final projects. A shy humble man approached the teacher slowly. He introduced himself as Sara’s grandfather and thanked the teacher. He shared that his granddaughter rarely talked at home, rarely seemed happy, rarely seemed interested in anything but her phone…except on Monday nights after the Girl’s Engineering Club. On these nights, Sara came home full of excitement and ideas….happy. Sara insisted that she and her grandfather build a shelf together to display her club projects and built a movie projector completely on her own.

This engineering club was a game changer for Sara and her grandfather.