A focus on student learning lives at the heart of LISD’s Learning Model. In a continuous effort to empower students to own their learning comes a new grant program open to all district employees to apply.
The Board approved a $2 million transfer into the Empowerment Grant Fund. This fund represents a belief in teachers and staff’s creativity, passion and dedication. These grants are intended to act as one-time catalysts for transformation aligned to the Strategic Plan, creating opportunities to pilot an idea and then expand that across our campuses once it catches on.
In a time of shrinking budgets to school districts while funding from the state falls further and further behind inflation amidst the state’s unprecedented surplus, LISD has been forced to go a different route in supporting the type of the learning that will help students prepare themselves for anything when they graduate from our system.
“Thank you for being willing to bring forward ideas like this,” Trustee Francesca Romans said. “It’s frustrating to need programs like this when our state has such an incredible surplus, but I appreciate the fact that our district is willing to put forward new ideas and to allow our teachers to innovate.”
The district will continue working with its education foundation, Leander Educational Excellence Foundation (LEEF), to partner in managing what the grant and application process will look like.
Hear more from Superintendent Bruce Gearing, Ed.D., in this video as he sketches out the vision for this exciting new opportunity for LISD’s life-changing workforce.
