Fourteen mini-grants totaling $6,200 were approved by members of the Morenci Education Foundation board.
The major source of funding for the grants comes through an annual golf tournament sponsored by the foundation.
• The most expensive items among this years requests are a pair of audio enhancement systems for Teresa Barrett’s second grade school classroom and John Craig’s first grade classroom.
The $1,288 units broadcast the teacher’s voice through four ceiling speakers. A microphone is also available for students to use in presentations.
• Library aide Lisa Acuña requested $508 for an oval reading rug.
• Kindergarten teacher Janet Rollins requested $270 for a writing/reading center with an easel and storage area.
• Second grade teacher Robin Borton requested $179 for a listening center that includes a CD/cassette player with six headphones.
• Kindergarten teacher Brigell Bovee-Vernier requested $205 for a literacy station.
• First grade teacher Elizabeth Jarrell requested $507 for a literacy station for use with the DIBELS reading intervention program.
• Art teacher Heidi Drake requested $111 for fourth grade students to study the cultural and historical facets of mummification and funerary items.
• Sally Kruger requested $465 on behalf of the library to update the collection of young adult fiction.
• Fifth grade teacher Beth Wright requested $120 to enhance the study of local history by creating a quilt.
• Sixth grade teacher Doug Rupp requested $230 to teach narrative writing by using terra cotta pots resembling Mayan culture.
• Andi Rorick requested $347 for an adventure education trip to Somerset Beach for qualifying sixth grade students. The challenges would build teamwork, trust and communication skills.
• Art teacher Kym Ries requested $315 tp pay for a traveling Leonardo daVinci exhibit and to purchase related materials.
• Band director Jamie DeVoe requested $309 to purchase an amplification system and four tuner/metronome units.