ODESSA, Texas — $127,827 of total grant funds were given out to teachers 60 teachers across Ector County on Monday based on 47 proposals for unique education programs within their schools.
The funding announcement comes one week after similar grants totaling $23,000 from the education foundation were awarded to Ector County schools for fine arts programs.
With the prior fine arts funds included, the 2020 Odessa Education Foundation grant awards have totaled a little over $150,000.
“While the current year did not end the way we had planned, we are grateful to be in a position to continue awarding funds to our teachers in Ector County ISD," said Education Foundation Director Celeste Potter.
Ector County teachers submit proposals for grant funding to the education foundation each year. Of the total 95 proposals submitted from the 2019-2020 school year, the education foundation board was able to fund 47.
The largest single grant, totaling $9,700, was awarded to Teri Richardson and Michelle Press, teachers at Permian High School, for their "Tag! Who's it?" program.
Since the creation of the grant program, the Education Foundation of Odessa has awarded over $2.6 million in grants to ECISD schools.
The education foundation's grants are not intended to replace the county's primary sources of funding but to promote programs that enrich Ector County public education with novel or innovative ideas that could not be implemented without the grant money.