March 28, 2024

cedric-lachat

education gives you strength

Education foundation awards more than $1 million in grants despite coronavirus pandemic

The Humble ISD Education Foundation provided more than $1 million in grants to educators last year despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the local economy.

The foundation has awarded more than $13 million in grants over the last 20 years, according to Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen, who introduced their leaders to speak at the monthly school board meeting on Sept. 8. Foundation Chairman India Loth presented the annual report for the 2019-2020 school year and said Jim Carranza will take over as chairman next year.


Before the coronavirus caused large fundraising events to be cancelled, the foundation was able to hold their annual “GOSH” golf tournament in November and the Humble Rodeo and Barbecue Cookoff in February. The annual gala was canceled due to COVID-19, but many of the sponsors choose to still donate their pledged amount to the foundation.

“During hard times, we always see community leaders and supporters of the foundation step up to the plate to cover unmet needs within the district,” Loth said. “Although our events have been put on hold to care for the health of our community, the resilience of our board and donors has remained strong.”

The funds from these events support innovative foundation grants. The grants are awarded to teachers, programs, and departments around the district that come up with creative ways to educate Humble ISD students.

Large school educational projects are also funded through grants from the foundation. For this cycle, that includes $9,800 for “Fine Motor Frenzy 2.0” at 25 elementary campuses, $8,500 for “Aquaponics: Sustainable & Natural Method of Agriculture for the Future” at Summer Creek High School, $1,600 for new books for the summer at Jack Fields Elementary “Keep Reading Rolling,” and $487 for “Shadowbox Stories: Visions of the Future” at West Lake Middle School.

Due to the coronavirus, they were not able to bring prizes to teachers who won these awards as they had in the past. Instead, they asked principals to pick a time for their teachers that would work best for them and send pictures of them receiving the award, according to Loth. The photos of the “Prize Posse” can be found at their website along with a full list of the grants awarded.

The education foundation awarded $848,100 to Humble ISD in the 2019-2020 school year, and if they include the prize posse’s that were technically given in the 2021 fiscal year, it comes to $1,048,814 which is close to what they met last year despite the pandemic. At least $343,000 was raised for the foundation through donations primarily received from payroll deductions. They were able to award $33,100 in scholarships to Humble ISD students. They reported over 1.5 million were raised in the 2019-2020 school year.

Fagen thanked the education foundation for their work and pivoting as so many had to during the coronavirus pandemic to continue raising funds through innovation.

“Thank you to the education foundation,” Fagen said in the board meeting on Sept. 8. “I’ve said, for I think this is going to be my fifth time because this is going to be my fifth year in Humble ISD, that there is almost no higher praise an employee gives a school district as a donation of their own dollars to support their colleagues and their peers in the innovation ideas that they have.”

[email protected]

Source Article