Teachers receive Bright Ideas grants from Santee Electric

Eleven area teachers were recently surprised when Santee Electric Cooperative employees showed up at their schools with up to $1000 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 co-op’s 4-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 http://www.santee.org next year for dates when new applications may be submitted.