Education Foundation to award $93,894 in grants at Wednesday ceremony

Posted at 1:59 pm May 18, 2015
By Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation 2 Comments

As part of its “Making the Critical Difference” campaign, the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation will award more than $93,000 in grants to Oak Ridge teachers at a ceremony this Wednesday, May 20.

Oak Ridge alumni and WBIR Anchor Moira Kaye will be the featured speaker at the event for what she has described as her career’s “last personal appearance.” The ceremony is open to the public, and it will be held in the Oak Ridge High School cafeteria beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Demonstrations and displays of some of the projects and technology funded by the Foundation will be given after the formal ceremony.

The 2015 grant recipients are as follows:

Glenwood Elementary—Amelia Bell, Lauren Blair, Gwen Harrell, Terri Lloyd, and Marlene Sumner
Linden Elementary—Lisa Downard, Norma Franco, and Nancy Witick
Willow Brook Elementary—Linda Bell, Chris Bruce, Lynn Draper, Andrew McDonald, and Deborah Nall
Woodland Elementary—Barbara Krushenski, Kathy Sanderson, and Lynn Tschaplinski
Jefferson Middle School—Emily Haverkamp, Heather Henderlight, Chris Layton, and Brian Smith
Robertsville Middle School—Michelle Brown, Sandra Burnette, Jackie Laney, Mardee Miller, Leigh Monger, and Michelle Scott
Oak Ridge High School—Sharon Thomas and Elaine Vaughan

The grants program is a key component of the Foundation’s mission to support the highest-quality education for all students.

“The grants focus on empowering teachers with the tools to teach,” said Cathy Toth, chair of the Grants Committee. “By putting resources directly into the classroom, the grants enrich the learning environment and help create the conditions where inspiration, curiosity, and learning are natural outcomes. Thanks to the support of the Oak Ridge community, we have been able to fund excellent projects in every school in Oak Ridge.”

Including this year’s grants, the Education Foundation has awarded more than $665,000 in total grant funding. In 2012, the Foundation kicked off its “Making a Critical Difference” campaign. The campaign goal is to raise $100,000 per year specifically for teacher grants each year through 2017.

For more information about the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation or to make a donation, contact Jessica Steed at (865) 241-3667 or [email protected] or through the newly designed website at http://www.orpsef.org/.

If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to Oak Ridge Today. You don't have to subscribe to read most of our stories, but your subscription does provide benefits, including access to premium content. And it will help us cover local news for you day and night, as best we can. You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month. You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers:

Basic

Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.