Education Foundation distributes more than $43,000 in grants
May 24—Education Foundation of Muskogee grants can help improve literacy for a variety of students.
The Foundation recently distributed 39 grants, totaling $43,514, to Muskogee schools. Grant committee chairwoman Melony Carey said this year's distribution set a record.
"In 1989 the first grants made were in the amount of a little over $900 total," Carey said. "This year, we were able to make an increase in the total given not only because of the leadership of the EFM board, but through the investment of the community in the foundation, especially in support of our fundraiser, Trivia Night."
Carey said the foundation based grants on how it supports Muskogee curriculum, grant creativity and on how many students would be served.
Darby Church received six $500 grants to build bilingual libraries at Creek, Cherokee, Irving, Pershing and Tony Goetz elementary schools and the 6th and 7th Grade Academy.
"They have a lot of English learners who are coming in," said Church, the English learner interventionist at Creek, Cherokee, Tony Goetz and Pershing.
She said the schools have fewer than 10 books in Spanish. The grants could help buy 50 or 60 books at each school, she said.
"It will mean a whole lot to them to have Spanish books they can read in their home language and with their families," Church said. "A lot of their families don't speak English. They can bring their books home and their parents actually can sit down and help them read them."
Nicole Hinds, an English as second language teacher, received two $600 grants to build bilingual libraries at Muskogee High and the 8th and 9th Grade Academy at Alice Robertson.
Several of the grants Pershing Elementary teachers received also build literacy.
First grade teacher Diane Raigosa said her Station Rotation grant will help pay for reading supplies.
"It gives them more independent work time on phonics skills that we've learned a week before," Raigosa said. "They're like pre-made games. There's a puzzle or two they have to put together and they have to read it out as a sentence. It will help them know how to blend words, use them in sentences and improve their vocabulary."
Kindergarten teacher Ashley Eller said she'll use her "ELA hands on" grant to buy play and literacy based activities "to help motivate them to learn more about literacy skills."
Reading interventionist Mariah Hogan said her "Solid Foundations" grant will help students improve reading through cards and games.
She said getting a grant was exciting.
"I've been in Muskogee for four years and this is the first time I applied for the grant, and I was thrilled to be funded," Hogan said.
Carey said MPS federal programs director Donna Pillars worked with teachers on how to write grants.
"Things cost so much now, and teachers pay a lot of it out of their own pockets," Carey said. "This was an opportunity for teachers to do something they are really excited about for the students and not have to pay for it themselves."
