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At the May Board of Education meeting, the Tullahoma Educational Foundation For Excellence awarded Tullahoma City Schools with $67,961.87 in grants.

“Having the continued support of the Tullahoma Educational Foundation for Excellence is so very appreciated,” said TCS Board of Education Chairman Kim Uselton. “From celebrating our TCS Teachers of the Year to awarding funds for many worthy programs, the foundation helps to make our schools better. We value their financial support as well as their advocation for and promotion of Tullahoma City Schools.”

East Lincoln Elementary School received the largest portion of the grants, $30,000, geared toward purchasing 10 BoxLight Interactive Whiteboards. Grant writer Tosha Frost states these whiteboards would provide plenty of educational opportunities for third through fifth-grade students.

“One of the most important benefits of the BoxLight is that the whiteboards will enhance student learning by allowing students to participate interactively during the lessons,” Frost said. “These whiteboards will also encourage teachers to create more interactive lessons. BoxLight Whiteboards were designed to increase student participation which will increase the amount of interest students have in the learning process.”

Robert E. Lee Elementary School also received $11,420 to purchase three BoxLight Interactive Whiteboards. REL has purchased 27 BoxLight Interactive Whiteboards in the past three years and has seen the tremendous impact that these panels have on helping students learn.

Tullahoma High School was the recipient of $18,429.66 for four different grant requests. The majority of these grant funds will go toward the Tullahoma Aviation Program, which received $8,000 for the purchase of drone technology.

“By introducing drone technology into our aviation program, we aim to provide students with hands-on experience in piloting unmanned aerial vehicles and to prepare them for the FAA part 107 certification,” said grant author Derek Rowe. “This grant will directly impact 150 aviation and aerospace students at the high school, and it will also benefit any student who wishes to pursue a drone certification.”

The Tullahoma High School Future Business Leaders of America program received $5,226 to send students to the National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. The THS FBLA program had 11 students qualify for the national competition after their state-level performances earlier this year.

Tullahoma High School also received $3,300 for the English department to purchase six Meta Quest 3 headsets. The THS English department believes virtual reality will help students connect more to literature in various ways.

“VR will build background knowledge essential for literacy development, appeal to visual and spatial imaginations and offer innovative ways to produce and consume texts and multimedia,” the grant stated. “Through the use of Meta Quest 3 headsets, the English department at Tullahoma High School will reimagine the ways students interact with texts and with each other to develop reading, writing, digital and multimodal skills while maintaining fidelity to our state standards and district curriculum.”

The Tullahoma High School visual arts department received $1,903.66. These funds will go toward purchasing an animation app, Procreate Dreams, as well as an Apple TV and a Samsung smart TV display.

“Over the past few years, my vision as the Tullahoma High School art teacher has been to build a studio space that promotes exploration and collaboration in creating art and design with current technology,” said grant author Kelly Orr. “In this space and with these additional resources, students will be able to animate like never before at our school. Our fine art students will be able to explore and create in an unprecedented way, preparing for innovative careers in animation, graphic design, illustration and interactive media design.

Little Cats Learning Academy received the final portion of the grant, totaling $8,112.21, for two projects. LCLA will designate $650 for a year’s subscription to Brightwheel, an innovative software program that allows daycare staff to communicate with families instantly throughout the school day. The program will support staff in every way, from creating schedules to tracking time and providing daily reports for parents.

The remaining $7,462.81 will be used for Experience Curriculum, which is tied to Brightwheel. With Experience Curriculum, lesson plans are automatically loaded into Brightwheel, making it easy for teachers to access plans for their day. Additionally, Experience Curriculum ships all materials needed to complete lesson plans. That will allow LCLA staff members to focus on teaching and growing the minds of their youngest learners.

“I am so very grateful for the Tullahoma Educational Foundation For Excellence,” said TCS Director of Schools, Dr. Catherine Stephens. “The foundation and its members go out of their way to continue to ensure that our students and staff members have the opportunity to enhance teaching and learning experiences so students flourish academically. These grants go a long way in providing our students and staff members with a plethora of innovative educational opportunities. I just want to give a big thank you to the foundation and the members for their work in making these grants possible.”