TFAE LOOKING AT LARGER GRANTS

A Terrebonne Parish non-profit that helps fund teacher-based classroom innovations and other programs is taking a hard look at restructuring its schedule of grant opportunities, taking into account higher costs for materials and other factors.

The Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence has since 2001 been a stalwart backup for local teachers, serving up grants for programs and practices that elevate student achievement potentials and encourage creative thinking.

Since 2001, the foundation has given out $1,072,113.95 in grant dollars, with a direct effect on at least 50,000 children over that period, said TFAE Executive Director Angie Rome Walsh. But while the organization is proud of its achievements, Rome said, the need for classroom back-up is intensifying, and there are no plans to rest on its achievement laurels.

“We are going to have a grant team and it is composed of board members and business people” she said. “We will look at our grant process to with an attempt to raise some grants to a higher dollar amount, to help find more effective ways we can make the teacher’s life easier in the classroom.”

Governed by a board of directors that includes Times publisher Brian Rushing, TFAE makes three kinds of grants available to teachers in Terrebonne Parish public schools.

“New Teacher” grants provide up to $500 each to new certified teachers or veteran teachers who have changed grade levels or subjects. new teacher grants – up to $500 for new certified teachers in the classroom or veteran teachers who have changed grade levels or subjects. The money, presented in the form of a Stire Office Supply credit on the foundation’s account, allows the teacher to buy any kind of supply “other than technology” from paste and crayons to an otherwise unlimited range of “stuff” to help children learn.

Twenty-one of those grants were awarded this year.

Purchase of school supplies is common-place among teachers throughout the country — so much so that the IRS has allowed deductions of up to $250 per teacher for qualifying buys. That deduction is in jeopardy as Congress prepares to vote on its tax bill. The House version calls for elimination of the deduction while the recently passed Senate bill has a provision for an increase of the deduction

The next level of TFAE grant is for a proposal written by one teacher, and can be for up to $1,000, Walsh said.

“They can ask for anything for that $1,000,” Walsh said.

Among the items that have made the cut are “bouncy bears” that can be tied around the legs of desks, allowing students to bounce their feet on them without making noise.

One item Walsh thought was particularly innovative involves special chairs that are able to wobble. This facilitates movement and is especially useful for children who have difficulty staying still, while allowing order and focus to be maintained in a classroom.

A Houma Junior High teacher, Melissa Williamson, came up with an idea for desks students could stand at, to be measured, built and assembled by children.

“It works well for students who are fidgety and don’t like sitting for too long, they can stand,” Walsh said.

A Mulberry Elementary teacher, Emily Gilmore, proposed a program called “Lisons mes amis.”

Translated to English from French, that means “Let’s read my friends.”

The program allows children to read from books that are in French as well as English, in particular involving Cajun folklore, or translation of wellknown children’s stories like The Three Bears into versions read in Cajun French.

The final tier of the grants program is a $10,000 award applied for by two or more teachers in the same grade level or the same subject area, unlimited in scope with one exception. The money cannot be used for things the school system ordinarily purchases such as furniture.

One such grant paid for a program called “Baby – Think It Over.”

Students at South Terrebonne High were given lifesized “special” dolls that cry and otherwise make demands on their “parents.”

The idea was for students to learn about all that goes into caring for a baby, with the hope that an individual confronted with the task might think twice about behavior that could result in a child before the proper time in life.

The money has also been used to set up “Chromebook

classrooms” where the Google laptops are utilized in the classroom — and remain in the classroom — to a point where the classroom becomes paperless. Students can retrieve things they are working on with their home computers because Google documents reside in the cloud,

Another TFAE program that has wide acceptance through the school system and the community is Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Begun in 1995, the library mails free books to children from birth to age five in participating communities within the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

The program spans four countries and mails over one million free books each month to children around the world.

“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true. I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister. Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer,” the superstar says in promotional materials for the program.

The gifts of books are meant to foster a love and reading and of

The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”

Since 2012 a total of 4,030 Terrebonne Parish children have graduated the program upon their fifth birthdays. The local program is budgeted to fund 3100 children per month.

The hope, as TFAE looks at all of its grant programs, is that the payouts could perhaps double, allowing teachers greater flexibility in crafting their grant ideas, Walsh said.

The foundation is funded through a restricted endowment with the Greater New Orleans Foundation. There is also a special Big Imagination Library fund-raiser and each year the Foundation’s “Race for Excellence” run helps with overall financial needs.

Between the money for grants that comes through the endowment and general funding the total budget for TFAE is about $200,000 annually, Walsh said.

For more information on TFAE and how you can help go to tfae.org or call (985) 868-5881.

The Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence has given out more than $1 million in grant dollars since its inception – a truly staggering figure. Now, the organization is hoping to secure bigger grants.

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TFAE has already done amazing things for the people in our area. Now, they have high hopes to continue that and do more in the future.

COURTESY PHOTO