Teachers receive Bright Ideas grants from Santee Electric

By: From local reports | SCNow
Published: November 10, 2009

Eleven area teachers were recently surprised when Santee Electric Cooperative employees showed up at their schools with as much as $1,000 each in grant money.

The money came from a cooperative grant program called Bright Ideas, which allows teachers to compete for funding outside of school district resources.

The winners included Crystal Mercer at Williamsburg Academy; Danielle Culick and Aimee Shute at Walker-Gamble Elementary School; Holly Williamson at W.M. Anderson Primary School; Melinda White and Carline Poston at Hannah-Pamplico Middle School; Urica Brown at Georgetown High School, Sheri Sims at East Clarendon Middle School; and Latavia Brown, Natalie Robinson and Michelle Burks at D.P. Cooper Elementary School.

In all, $10,965 was awarded to seven schools in Williamsburg, Georgetown, Clarendon and Florence counties.

All classroom educators are eligible to apply if they teach kindergarten through 12th grade in the cooperative’s four-county service area. Teachers were awarded grant money if they could demonstrate in an application that they had an innovative idea for a classroom project.

Each school was eligible to submit more than one application, but individual teachers are limited to one application per school year.

Visit www.santee.org next year for dates when new applications may be submitted.