My Two Cents
Flexible seating is a popular request. So are sensory experiences. And hands-on teaching and learning tools.
While their physical classrooms may have been closed and moved online, Snyder ISD teachers didn’t stop thinking about ways to engage their students over the past few months. And based on their applications to the Snyder Education Foundation for classroom grants, many are already busy working on next year.
Some of the grant applications are for single classrooms, others are for teaching groups and others would cover an entire school campus. And at Snyder ISD’s convocation in August, approximately $5,000 in grants will be awarded to teachers by the foundation.
The Snyder Education Foundation supports Snyder ISD programs by helping to pay for items and programs not normally funded by the district. The annual classroom grants are one example.
Last year those foundation grants helped teachers purchase a light table and helped provide funds to student teams that undertook a variety of community service projects. Grants also helped to purchase seating, a listening station and math instructional supplies.
Since 2013, the foundation has awarded more than $30,000 in classroom grants across all four Snyder ISD campuses.
The foundation has also been awarded $100,000 in donations to support Snyder ISD science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes. With that money, the foundation helped buy virtual learning stations for the school district’s STEAM lab and provided ongoing support of the drone program and the STREAM mobile learning center.
Through a partnership with SACROC employees, the foundation has also awarded scholarships worth tens of thousands of dollars to graduating seniors from all three of Scurry County’s public high schools. Those scholarships have helped dozens of students achieve their dreams of attending a 2-year or 4-year college or university.
The foundation also helps support up and coming teachers who are committed to working for Snyder ISD by providing financial assistance to help them pay for state-required tests and certifications.
Snyder High School graduate Ben McQuirk was one of those beneficiaries.
“As a future educator, I thank the Snyder Education Foundation for the blessing of compensating me for the required testing as I have a once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue locally a career in education,” he wrote to the foundation.
The Snyder Education Foundation is a group of volunteers from the community — parents, business leaders and community leaders — who recognize the importance of excellent public schools to the Snyder community. The funding we’re able to provide to support innovative classroom initiatives comes primarily through an annual fundraiser — the Freedom Run 5K and 10K — and private donations.
Like too much of the rest of our community, state and nation, the foundation found itself impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and this year due to that and a few other factors, decided to cancel its fun run. We’re working on plans for an alternative event with a couple other groups and will announce those plans in the near future.
Despite the obstacles in its way, the foundation will overcome those challenges just like the classroom teachers we are so privileged to support have been doing since March. Over the next few weeks, foundation members will review their classroom grant applications and fund as many of those innovative ideas for 2020-21 as it can.
The foundation has a number of ways you can get involved. For additional information about our programs or to donate, email me at the address below or at info@snyderedfoundation.org.
Bill Crist is the publisher of The Snyder News. Comments may be emailed to publisher@thesnydernews.com.