AMARILLO, TEXAS -- We all know, in an atmosphere of budget cuts, our school districts must stretch every one of their dollars.
But the Amarillo Highland Park Education Foundation is easing some of that stress by giving teachers grants to help buy supplies and programs.
From cheering students, congratulations for a handful of Highland Park teachers who got some of that much needed funding. The Amarillo Highland Park Education Foundation was recently created by the school district because it is facing severe budget cuts.
"They developed a grant program that we could qualify for and then they would look at the need and desire of where we wanted to go and assisting it with finances," said Michael Hayes, Science Coordinator.
With his grant money, Hayes plans on buying some flip cameras.
"One thing I started doing this year was I started recording my lessons and posting them to YouTube and I am getting a lot of views of that right now and something I want to continue to do. I've seen positive things as a result, students that are absent watch the videos," said Hayes.
The English Department received a total of $2,000, and teachers say they're thrilled about using it to buy a vocabulary program to implement in their classrooms.
"It will start in 6th grade and build on the roots, latin roots, greek roots and words that they will need for SAT, the new STAR test, SAT Texas and so we want to have our kids have a strong foundation of vocabulary by the time they graduate," said Lisa Staton, English teacher.
It's the new foundation at work.
The money raised by the foundation comes from donations from area businesses and organizations.
To find out more about the foundation or how you can donate, click here.
