IDEA grant delivered to Wichita Falls ISD teachers

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (KAUZ) - Some Wichita Falls ISD teachers started their mornings off with a pleasant surprise from representatives from the WFISD Foundation and administrators. Teachers across the district received a grant totaling more than 18 thousand dollars to 29 district teachers.

January Cadotte, partnership coordinator for the district, said about 50 WFISD teachers applied for the IDEA grant which she described as a lengthy process. Cadotte explained there is a blind judging process. As they go through the application the administrators and district officials made their choices through which applicant they believe would impact students the most, without knowing whose campus or teacher each application belongs to.

“They have to be thoughtful on them they have to apply it to strategic and district plans of innovation and it has to be able to tie to that. It has to be something that we can track and see what kind of progress they’re having,” Cadotte said.

Cadotte says a lot of times teachers have to spend money out of their own pockets if they want to go the extra mile for their students to help them learn in a fun way. This grant helps those teachers who aren’t able to do that.

Mikke Zelner is a teacher and idea grant recipient. She says even with the extra financial help, teachers still struggle with out-of-pocket expenses.

“Luckily in head start, we have a lot of financial support in the district and with region 9 so we are really lucky in that but we still do spend money out of our pockets,” Zelner said.

Zellner explained her grant will go towards a field trip learning experience that promotes literacy and parent involvement.

“We had seen that Burkburnett had started doing this walking story path and so we were excited to take our students on a bus to Burk and get to read stories to them and have parents do activities with them,” Zelner said.

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