School Districts to Benefit from Grant Meant to Support Teachers

Six local school districts will receive much needed support in recruiting, training, and retaining teachers due $1.36 million grant as well as a partnership between various entities.

The Prentice Farrar Brown & Alline Ford Brown Foundation awarded the funds and will work the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, or CREEED as well the El Paso Community Foundation who will in turn with UTEP and six local school districts during the program’s initial year.

To say educators have it tough right now would be an understatement.  Teachers have been required to rethink and totally revamp their entire instructional method as a result of COVID and the move to online learning.  On the surface, it may seem like a simple issue of taking what they already have in place and just presenting it while in front of a webcam, but teaching is about much more than providing a lecture.  On top of teaching, they’ve also been forced to learn how to troubleshoot software with little to no training in order to make sure that students are even able to participate in their classes.  I’m sure that’s just barely scratching the surface as to the extra challenges teachers are currently facing and it’s no surprise that it’s overwhelming.

Students and parents are also feeling the stress of having to adapt to the current situation which in turn adds even more obstacles for teachers trying to provide quality instruction.  It’s not an ideal situation for anybody and families are going above and beyond just to make sure their children don’t fall behind.

The grant will be used to recruit teachers and make sure these new educators are provided with training before they take over their own classroom and support once they officially begin teaching.

As of now, the program will be working six local school districts.  Canutillo ISD, El Paso, ISD, Fabens ISD, Tornillo ISD, Socorro ISD, and Ysleta ISD.  Plans are also in place to include other districts as time goes on.