Story by Travis Hargrove
Greenville Herald Banner

The Greenville Educational Enrichment Foundation (GEEF) awarded 32 teachers and staff members in the Greenville Independent School District more than $33,000 in grants this past spring.

GEEF is a nonprofit organization that provides teacher grants for educational opportunities that aren’t otherwise funded by the state or city.

The foundation raises its funds through individual donations, voluntary paycheck withdrawals and events like the annual adult spelling bee - the most recent of which was held on April 13.

One of the GISD teachers who received a grant from the foundation in Spring 2018 was Mark Fake, an 11th grade English teacher, who was awarded $5,000 to go toward the purchase of solid state hard drives to upgrade the laptops his students use in class.

“We have a 21st century classroom,” Fake said. “We have 54 laptops and I teach classes that contain up to 45 students. When it took 14 to 15 minutes to boot up or the computers would crash, it made it hard for us to have enough time to do research or make PowerPoint presentations.”

Another grant recipient, Tina Smith, who teaches kindergarten at Bowie Elementary School, applied for and received three different grants – a $700 grant for chicken egg incubators, another grant for $2,500 for building blocks and other manipulatives for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities, and one for $4,000 for the creation of a vegetable garden on the Bowie campus.

“Twenty-seven of our eggs hatched last year, so the students got experience raising chicks,” Smith said of her class’ hands-on lesson in farming. “All but eight of them were taken to students’ homes, where they already had chickens or wanted to start raising chickens.

“The STEM building blocks are wonderful because students think they’re playing, but they’re reviewing and reinforcing math and science concepts.

“With the garden, the whole school will get to use it to grow vegetables,” Smith said. “If we don’t grow that much, we’ll just make ourselves a big salad, but if we have a large enough of a yield, we’ll sell it at the farmer’s market, and put the money back into the program.”

In addition to teachers acquiring grants for projects and activities in the classroom, some members of GISD’s non-instructional staff received grants as well.

Greenville ISD’s transportation director Laura Carter was awarded $6,000 for a trailer to use to haul equipment for the annual school bus safety rodeo competitions, in which drivers maneuver buses through obstacle courses. Carter also plans to lend the trailer to the football team during football season, so it can be used to haul the team’s equipment as well.

According to Carter, getting a grant application approved this spring was extra special for the transportation department, because the department is one of the most supportive of GEEF when it comes to employees opting to donate money out of each paycheck to the foundation.

“Close to 98 percent of our employees (in GISD's transportation department) are members of GEEF,” Carter said. “The bus drivers and our department have the most participation in the district.”

Those who would like more information about the Greenville Educational Enrichment Foundation can contact GISD’s community relations and marketing liaison Amy Wade at 903-408-4427 or wadea@greenvilleisd.com.