Ingleside ISD Education Foundation awards 18 grants to teachers to fund innovative projects that enhance learning for students across the district.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Ingleside ISD Education Foundation surprised its teachers on Friday with grants totaling more than $23,000.

Joined by district officials, the Ingleside High School Drumline and cheerleaders,  school officials personally presented 18 grants to teachers in surprise classroom visits. 

Scott Kilgore, Superintendent, said, “We’re really proud of our teachers. I believe we have the best teachers in the state of Texas here in Ingleside ISD. They do so much for our kids in our classrooms, and the checks we’re presenting today are just an opportunity for us, as the Ingleside ISD Education Foundation, to give those teachers even more resources to better the future for our students.”

Teachers were all smiles and were not expecting this huge surprise from district officials. 

Brittany Chrisman, a kindergarten teacher, and bilingual kindergarten teacher Veronica Tharas at Ingleside Primary School say they were surprised to be awarded a grant.

Tharas says, “Very excited, very, very honored. It’s, it’s, it’s a big thing. It’s a team effort that we all, work together. And I’m, I’m just excited for our students and we wanna say thank you so much.”

District officials say this makes it the second year the district has handed out grants. 

Sup. Kilgore adds that teachers were selected for the award after filling out a grant application, “What they do in that application is they talk about what they want to purchase for their classrooms, um, how it’s going to enhance the curriculum and the instruction that they’re going to use, and then there’s actually a selection committee that had retired teachers from the district, and they used a blind selection to grade those grant applications and then choose who ultimately would receive the funding.”

Both Chrisman and Tharas say they’re thankful to receive help from the district, as they spend their own money to ensure students have what they need. Chrisman is already setting her eyes on the future purchase for her students.

“The check is for us to buy Toni boxes and if you’re not sure what those are, it’s a, a listening system that is screen-free and so for our students, it’s gonna help tremendously with developing their listening, their comprehension, and it’s keeping them off of screens, which is something that we, we try to do as much as possible.”

Ingleside ISD says it is thankful to award more this year than in the previous year and hopes it will continue to grow.Â