Seguin Education Foundation surprises teachers with education grants

Seguin Education Foundation surprises teachers with education grants Main Photo

7 Dec 2021


Seguin ISD, news

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

(Seguin) – The spirit of giving and receiving was fully underway this past week across the Seguin ISD. That’s because teachers from across the district were surprised in their classrooms with a 2021 Seguin Education Foundation Grant. The teachers not only received a large check, but they also each got to enjoy the sounds of the Seguin Matador Band which escorted SEF board members as they made their official “prize patrol” trek across the district.

Kelly Follis, Seguin ISD director of community outreach and SEF, says the foundation is grateful to be awarding these grants in hopes of furthering student success.

“We are giving out $50,000 today in grants so that teachers can do great things at most of our campuses. Almost every campus got one. We are very excited. We want to pump it up and do more next year,” said Follis.

Follis says the grant total amounts to nearly two dozen grants – grants she says will help fund equipment or programs that otherwise could not be afforded through the regular school budget.

“We had $110,000 in applications I believe, and we are awarding $50,000 so we definitely have room to grow. I think we have 22 grant recipients today so a great variety of different kinds of innovations and teaching so we are very excited about the ones we are giving but we always want to do more,” said Follis.

The Seguin Daily News was on hand to witness the grants awarded to those at Vogel Elementary School. Shocked and surprised in the school hallway was Second Grade Teacher Lynze Morris. Morris says she received $834 for a Mimio Teach Interactive Whiteboard.

“I am blown away. I am so excited and I can’t wait to use this with my kids in the classroom and I talked to them about hopefully getting it and they are just as excited about it as I am but what this grant is for – it’s for an interactive component to the white board so the kids can control what’s on this screen from the front of the class as we are doing activities,” said Morris.

Also, appreciative to have her submitted grant awarded was Educator Katie Arnold of Vogel Elementary. Arnold says these grants make classroom wishes possible.

“I was just so surprised and so thrilled. The Book that we are going to be reading is really fun. I think the kids and their families are really going to enjoy this. So, this is a family engagement and upper elementary reading grant and so we are going to be providing books to each student to be read with their families. We’ll provide some activities that go along with the book so that families can get involved with our students’ reading and literary discussions can be happening at home, and we’ll also be reinforcing those discussions here at school about the book. This is with fourth and fifth grades and the book that we’ll be reading is from the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and I’m just so grateful to the Seguin Education Foundation for awarding this grant,” said Arnold.

Follis says it is always worth the experience to see the true value in what the grants mean for local teachers and their students.

“It’s been really exciting. It’s been wonderful to see the expressions on the teachers faces when they find out they have won. It’s been really exciting to have the band along. They have added so much spirit and our board had a great turnout, so everybody is excited, and we are ready to do better and bigger things next year,” said Follis.

Donations to the Seguin Education Foundation are accepted year-round. Those wishing to donate are asked to call 830-379-0325 or email kfollis@seguin.k12.tx.us.

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