Austin Ed Fund awards $300K to 52 campus-based Austin ISD projects

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Ed Fund is awarding $300,000 in grants to 52 projects across Austin ISD as part of its 2022 grant program.

Teachers submitted 94 proposals requesting over $653,000 and just over half were fully or partially funded across 41 schools, says Austin Ed Fund.

For the 2022 grant cycle, Austin Ed Fund says it sought innovative approaches from teachers and staff across Austin ISD.

A maximum of $2,500 is awarded for projects that impact individual classrooms, and up to $10,000 is awarded for projects that are collaborative and have a team or campus-wide impact.

Some of the campuses that received grants this year include:

Akins Early College High School: $4,050 for its Law Practicum Legal Resources Project, which will provide its 17 practicum students with an immersive educational experience in which they get hands-on law experience throughout the state.
Austin ISD Multilingual: $7,900 for ‘Sewing Friendships: Sewing Support Groups for Refugee Women and Students’, a project that will purchase sewing machines and materials for a biweekly sewing group that also functions as a support group for female Afghan students and their mothers.
Eastside Early College High School: $7,290 for ‘Eastside Battle of the Books’ competition which will be organized by the English Language Arts Department in collaboration with the library
Gus Garcia Young Men's Leadership Academy: $10,000 for Dragon Fire Media which would create a new media lab and afterschool club.
Houston Elementary: $1,930 for the ‘For the Love of Reading... Sit and Enjoy!’ project which will give 5th grade students access to bilingual culturally relevant texts in both English and Spanish, to use during their novel studies, their own reading response journal, and a reading space
Kocurek Elementary: $9,450 for ‘The Writing Barn Retreat: Cultivating Craft’ within a Literary Community, a campus-wide initiative to develop both teacher and student writing abilities and improve student academic outcomes in all subject areas
Langford Elementary: $8,600 for ‘STEMulate Your Mind with Robotics!’ which will help fund the purchase of multiple Vex robotics bundles for the entire campus and will bring real-world learning into the classroom
Linder Elementary: $10,000 for the ‘We Knew We Could!’ program which would fund a mobile STREAM cart to make project-based learning more accessible for prekindergarten through second-grade students
Ortega Elementary: $10,000 for the ‘Healthy Habits Here We Come’ project which will encompass many aspects of healthier habits for the entire school community – students, families, teachers, and all school staff
Wooldridge Elementary: $8,000 for the ‘Building a Better Book Fair: The Collaborative Book’ project which transforms the traditional Book Fair model from a one-size-fits-all model into a tailored experience that better fits the needs and wants of the students served
Zilker Elementary: $3,550 for the ‘Girls on the Run’ program, a positive youth development program that inspires girls to be healthy, joyful and confident through a hands-on curriculum that creatively integrates running

For the full list of the 2022 Teacher Grant winners and additional information on the individual projects click here. To learn more about Austin Ed Fund, click here.