Broken Arrow Teachers Get A Head Start On The New Year With Holiday Grants

Broken Arrow school bus driver arrested for child endangerment and kidnapping. (KTUL)

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. –

It was the last day before Winter Break for Broken Arrow Public Schools, but at Vandever Elementary, Christmas came early for some teachers.

The teachers say grants like these are so important because they go directly to helping their students.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for Jenie Dolan. The president of the Broken Arrow Public Schools Foundation was helping hand out 47 grants worth over $32,000. She says there is no better time to give out grants than at Christmas.

“Who doesn’t want to play Santa Claus or Mrs. Claus, right?” she said. “So we like to do grant delivery day right before they go to break. It’s a really fun time.”

Dolan says teachers have been applying for these grants since the beginning of the school year. When they apply, teachers outline what they need.

This was Kimberly Medric’s first time applying for a grant. She knew exactly what her students would need to help them grow.

“We’ve been trying to work on the garden and thought, let’s try a grant! So about a week before the end of the time, we got together and thought, let’s look for some ideas that we need, and here we are! We got a grant!”

She’s planning to turn the school’s sensory garden into a place where her students can learn and relax.

“We’re just getting started, and we’re lacking some resources,” Medric said. “The ground out here’s just kind of been plain, still, flat for a few years for lack of a better word. We’re going to put in some structures to make it more interesting for the children and get the plants going.”

Dolan says it can be difficult for teachers to get everything they need from state funding alone, so foundations like theirs help teachers fill the gaps.

“We feel that’s one of the most important things because our teachers don’t come to school with all the things, all the materials, and the school budgets don’t have all the materials built in, so this is our way to give back and to get them excited about what they do every day, too.”

The application for next year’s grants will open up in August.