Tuesday was an exciting day for more than 100 Plano educators as the Plano Independent School District Education Foundation Grant Patrol made a stop at their schools.
This annual event allows teachers to receive grants that will be used directly in their classrooms. Teachers received $120,000 this year, which is $20,000 more than last year.
"The education foundation is a nonprofit, it's a 501c3," said Plano ISD board member Missy Bender, "That is designed to supplement the parts of the education process that the school district cannot pay for."
The grant patrol made one of their first stops at Daffron Elementary School in Plano where second-grade teacher Linda DeSousa received a grant for $1,351, which made her students happy.
"They are excited because they know they are going to be part of it and that's why we did it," said DeSousa. "It's all kid driven."
Each teacher who wants a grant just has to apply online and explain what the grant will be used for.
"The grant is going to be really cool," explained DeSousa. "We are going to use Legos. We will give the kids a topic to write about and then they will make a Lego situation."
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Everyone agrees the grant patrol puts a little excitement in education.
"It allows them to be creative in their thoughts," said Bender. "It gets the kids excited, as you can see, and it gets the community excited."
Teachers in Plano ISD can apply as many times as they want for these grants. All of the money raised for the grants comes from sponsors.
Since the Plano ISD Education Foundation was started, they have given out more than $1 million to educators.
