Merit Awards

The request for grant submittals is initiated in September of every school year and currently managed through the Downey Unified School District (DUSD). Our guideline is that they be innovative and align with the Foundation’s mission statement. We do not put a monetary limit on an individual grant, but our total grant amount is approved annually by the MRSF Board during the budgeting process.

Teacher Grants

The Teacher Grants were started in 1995 and are rotated every year between Elementary, Middle, and High School teachers.

An example of some of these grants include supporting a High School to move one of their musicals from the school drama room to the local Civic Theater. This provided the students the opportunity to perform on a professional stage and learn about what goes on behind the scenes. The school is now able to collect enough in ticket sales to continue these musicals there annually. We have approved a grant for 3D printers which were used in printing face masks during the COVID-19 closure. We have also approved grants for classroom and teacher resources in support of Social Emotional Inclusion and a field trip to the Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library at Chapman University. We’ve even had grants as small as $170 to initiate coding in a first-grade classroom.

District Grants

The District Grants are requests that support multiple schools across the District. These types of grants include the Autry in Residence Program for Grades 3-5, Columbia Memorial Space Center (CMSC) Challenger Learning Center field trip, Project Lead the Way (PLTW), Robolympics, and the All District School marching band.
The Autry in Residence staff bring artifacts to the students who work in teams and become California history detectives. This is a great critical thinking program with 21st century skills.

Downey High School Robotics Program