The West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce and Adopt-A-School Committee presented checks to four area teachers during the Ouachita Parish School Board Meeting on Friday. These four teachers were the winners of the 2024 Building Bridges Grant from the Chamber’s Adopt-A-School Program.
The four teachers participated in a competitive application process that was reviewed by the committee to receive funding. This grant will allow them to purchase materials to better present educational topics to their students.
“The resources, encouragement, and partnership provided to our system by the Adopt-A-School Program continue to enrich the educational experiences and success of students across Ouachita Parish,” said Todd Guice, Ouachita Parish Superintendent. “We cannot say thank you enough for the involvement and support to the Ouachita Parish School System by the Adopt-A-School Program.”
The projects funded are:
Joetta Davis, Central Elementary: Joetta’s project will renovate a butterfly habitat and greenhouse on campus so students can plant and grow vegetables. This outdoor learning experience will teach them about soil, nutrients, the environment, and how to grow, propagate, and harvest vegetables and fruits.
Alexandra Antwine, Swayze Elementary: Alexandra’s project is named GAMERS, which stands for Gaining Automaticity through Multiple Engaging Reading Skills. This project will provide reading remediation and enrichment games to our PRIDE Reading lab where struggling students are given support for reading intervention. It also will provide enrichment for students who need challenges to extend their reading comprehension.
Russell White, Good Hope Middle: Russell’s project, Weather in West Monroe, will utilize a partnership with ULM’s meteorology department in releasing a weather balloon and maintaining a weather station on campus where students can expand their knowledge and have real time weather data on a continuous basis.
Allison Lovelady, West Monroe High: The Digital Graphics project will provide supplies and materials for STEM class and MAGNAtech Robotics team members to learn how to video and photo edit a safety animation video using stop-motion animation with lego models in order for the team to submit for additional awards at competition.
The Adopt-A-School program pairs individual companies or organizations with schools to develop and execute mutually beneficial endeavors. Schools show improvement when businesses and educators focus on mutual goals. The Adopt-A-School program helps bring needed resources and volunteers into public sources from a variety of sources – businesses, religious organizations, civic organizations, social service agencies and higher education.
“These partnerships ensure that school staff and the community work together to develop and achieve excellence in education,” said Kristopher Kelley, Executive Director of the WMWO Chamber. “The Chamber is honored to support these amazing educators, and we are proud of the difference our members and community make through the Adopt-A-School Program.”
For more information about the Adopt-A-School program, please contact the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce at (318) 325-1961 or email info@westmonroechamber.org
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