Education group gives out grants to teachers

The Foundation for Excellence in Public Education in Clarke County announced Monday the award of $13,600 in grants to more than a dozen teachers to reward them for their teaching skills, leadership and community service.

The foundation presented four teachers with specialized teaching awards of $2,400 each, covering two years with recipients receiving $1,200 each year.

Recipients are Krista Dean, Chase Street Elementary School, who won the Lamar Dodd Award for Teachers of Fine Arts; Barbara Gaertig, Barnett Shoals Elementary School, the Charlotte Brown Award for Teachers of Special Education; Jamie Jordan, Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, the Frusanna S. Booth Award for Teachers of English and Language Arts; and Steven King, Whit Davis Elementary School, the Margaret and Raymond Pondsoldt Award for Elementary School Teaching.

This year the foundation also offered a new grant, called the Eve Carson Memorial Service Learning Grant, in honor of the Clarke Central valedictorian who was killed in 2008 during a robbery in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The new $1,000 grant was awarded to Ellen Sabatini and Mimi Elliott-Gower to help fund a weekly service project with a group of students at Barrow Elementary School.

The foundation also presented $500 awards to outstanding classroom teachers with at least five years of experience: Lee Ann Callebs, Whitehead Road Elementary School, who won the Friends of Eve Carson Excellence in Teaching Award; Leslie Dutcher, Whit Davis Elementary School, the Joan Humphries Excellence in Teaching Award; Marlana Street, Clarke Central High School, the Dr. Walter Allen Sr. Excellence in Teaching Award; Lindsay Williamson, Timothy Road Elementary School, the Newland Excellence in Teaching Award; and Kena Worthy, Timothy Road Elementary School, the foundation's Excellence in Teaching Award.

The foundation presented three endowed awards as well. The $500 Freida M. Thomas Teacher of Promise Award went to Ian Altman, a language arts teacher at Clarke Central High School. Clarke Middle School Principal Tad MacMillan won the $500 Kathryn H. Hug Instructional Leadership Award. The $500 Howard B. Stroud Award for Community Service went to Vance Sims, counselor at Gaines Elementary School.

The Foundation also awarded teachers at eight schools classroom grants to use for materials, special guests or projects: Lori Jackson, Lesley Dea