{"id":405109,"date":"2026-08-13T02:56:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T02:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T02:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T02:56:22","slug":"nominations-open-for-san-antonio-based-h-e-b-excellence-in-education-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/405109\/","title":{"rendered":"Nominations open for San Antonio-based H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

Nominations are now open through Sept. 30 for the 2027 H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards Program.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio-based grocery giant seeks to award more than $1 million in cash prizes to Texas educators and their schools. Anyone can nominate a favorite teacher, counselor, principal, school district, school board, or early childhood center.<\/p>\n

Nominations can be made here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

H-E-B has given away more than $15 million to outstanding Texas public school professionals since the awards began in 2002.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 25 years, the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards have celebrated Texas educators whose commitment reaches far beyond the classroom,\u201d said Winell Herron, H-E-B senior vice president of Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. \u201cTheir dedication to strengthening our communities and preparing the next generation of Texas leaders reflects the very best of public education. In this milestone year, H-E-B is proud to increase our investment in the people and institutions driving meaningful, long-term impact across Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

H-E-B named the amount of cash prizes available to winners and their schools in a news release:<\/p>\n

The Rising Star Award\u2014one elementary and one secondary teacher with less than 10 years of experience will receive a $10,000 check for themselves and a $10,000 check for their schools.\u00a0The Leadership Award\u2014one elementary and one secondary teacher with 10 to 20 years of experience will receive a $15,000 check for themselves and a $15,000 check for their schools.\u00a0The Lifetime Achievement Award\u2014one elementary and one secondary teacher with more than 20 years of experience will receive a $30,000 check for themselves and $30,000 check for their schools.\u00a0Two counselors\u2014one elementary and one secondary\u2014each will receive a $15,000 check for themselves and a $20,000 check for their school.\u00a0Two principals\u2014one elementary and one secondary\u2014each will receive a $15,000 check for themselves and a $30,000 check for their school.One early childhood facility will receive $50,000.\u00a0One school board will receive $50,000.\u00a0One small school district will receive $75,000.\u00a0One large school district will receive $150,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All state-certified public school educators currently teaching in Texas are eligible. Educators who are nominated will receive an invitation to apply before November 1, 2026. A nomination is not required to apply for an award. H-E-B officials said a nomination lets an educator know they are appreciated and should apply for the awards program.<\/p>\n

“Finalists and winners will be selected by a panel of judges composed of educators, administrators and community leaders throughout the state. Ten winners\u2014six teachers, two counselors and two principals \u2014 along with an early childhood facility, public school board and two school districts, will be announced at an awards ceremony in Austin in Spring 2027. Each award recipient\u2019s school will also receive a matching grant,” stated a news release from H-E-B.<\/p>\n

H-E-B reports it donates more than $12 million each year to Texas education initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-405109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}