Eligibility to Apply for Grants

Individuals or teams of individuals employed by the Shallowater Independent School District are eligible to apply for grants, as long as positive impact on students can be demonstrated.

It is important to note that individuals may not apply for more than one Innovative Teaching Grant per year. If an individual is listed on more than one grant proposal in this category, both applications will be disqualified. (See more in Important Exclusions, below.)

Professional development and training grants are separate, and a teacher may apply for both an Innovative Teaching Grant and a Professional Development Grant in the same year. The latter are ongoing, accepted at any time, and granted as funds are available. Professional Development Grants cover workshops, training sessions, hotel, travel and per diem, up to a maximum cap of $1000.00. If there is a clear supportive connection between an Innovative Teaching Grant and a Professional Development Grant, please mention this on both applications if possible.

Innovative Teaching Grant Award Levels

Small Grant ($0-$1,000).  Open to individual or group.
Large Grant ($1,001-$3,000).  Open to individual or group.

In any one application year, you may apply for a small OR large grant as an individual/group, but not both. Please identify in your application the cost range of your overall project. Note: A designation of “large grant” does not preclude a project being submitted by or ultimately under the supervision of one person.

The number of awards will depend on funds available to the Foundation.

Scope and Requirements

Instructional approaches or projects designated to begin during the current school year that meet the selection criteria will be considered. Innovative Teaching Grants may fund instructional and classroom materials, parent involvement programs or any activity or material that support higher levels of student academic achievement. (Digital and computer equipment excluded, as described elsewhere.)

Grants awards are based on the demonstrated needs of the project and the funds available. A detailed budget is essential for projected costs describing how the entire budget will be spent. Ultimately, an award may only cover a portion of the entire project cost.

Accountability

All expenditures for awarded grants must be consistent with the description outlined in the application. Changes to the project must be approved by the Grant Committee before expenses will be reimbursed.

Administration of awarded funds must be in compliance with district goals and standards. Non-consumable materials purchased with grant funds are to remain property of the district; all materials, of whatever constitution, purchased with SEF funds become the property of the Shallowater Independent School District and must be identified and accounted for accordingly.

All equipment purchased with funds provided by SEF (such as specific campus allocations) shall be accounted for as solely district property.

Important Exclusions

Please do not include in your grant proposals the purchase of Chromebooks, Google training, smartboards, iPads/tablets, computers, carts for computers, computer chargers, and similar hardware.  Personal printers/ink are allowed. (If a proprietary device, not ordinarily found in a campus’s compliment of standard digital and computer technology, is a required component of your project, please be sure to explain its nature and why its utilization is required.) In lieu of supporting grant requests specifically for equipment, the Foundation has a special technology amount that will be awarded to each campus based on available funds.

SEF grants are not intended to pay for college or graduate school courses, or programs for which funds are otherwise available (see the Foundation’s Professional Development Grants for potential assistance in the area of educator development.) Grant funds are also not awarded for the purpose of funding Shallowater Independent School District educator stipends. SEF grants should also not be used to purchase core curriculum texts which should be provided by the district.

Regarding Highly Similar Grant Requests (“Copycat” submissions) 

Please do not submit so called “copycat” proposals (i.e., identical or nearly so) for the Innovative Teaching Grant. Eligibility for all such submissions will be nullified.

The Foundation Board finds such identical, rubber-stamped grant requests prime for disqualification because of the appearance that one person/source wrote the grant, which is then submitted by multiple people requesting support. This is obviously unfair competition for those who devoted time to develop and individually write Innovative Teaching Grant proposals.

Past experience has also demonstrated supporting multiple same or nearly-same projects greatly dilutes funded project diversification.

The above said, however, the Foundation recognizes the desire to pool funds when an expressly large project has been proposed. Thus, similar grants will be acceptable if they present multiple, different ways in which the integrated projects will benefit instruction, and how clear professional collaboration, intended interaction and cooperation will bring about broad success. This collaborative intention should be clearly defined and described early in any relevant proposals.

Funds Dispersal

Grant funds will be held in a designated district account and drawn down by the grant application for the needs of the project. Funds are not given directly to the grant recipient(s). It is expected that grant funding will be used by the end of the current school year following the date of the award of funds.

Good luck! Mostly, thank you for what you do.

To teach is to change a life. 

See also our Innovate Teaching Grant Application Tips