Teachers in Helena receive grant money for their classrooms

HELENA, Ala. (WBRC) - Great news for 23 teachers in Helena who will now be able to buy some of the much-needed items from their classroom wish lists. That’s after city leaders gave out a little over $54,000 in funding.

These grants are called tag team grants or teacher assistant grants that are awarded to teachers in the spring and fall.

Mayor Brian Puckett said, after he took office, he wanted to make sure he got money back into teachers’ hands for their classrooms.

“We started in April of 21, so April of 2023 is our fifth time doing it and we are getting better and better each time,” Puckett said.

Teachers at all four schools in Helena received this funding.

Three from Helena elementary school, five from Helena intermediate school, five from Helena middle school and 10 from Helena high school.

“The funding this time, went to teachers wanting to do to conferences, flexible seating, just various other things,” Puckett said. “Some mac books for some teachers that they wanted for their classroom. iPad is always a hot one for us.”

The funding used is a part of the city’s education one cent sales tax.

“We had this little bit of extra funds, so I want to give it back to those teachers,” Puckett said. “This doesn’t take away from the school donations, this doesn’t take away from any of the things we were already doing, this is just an addition to be able to enhance the education that theses teachers are able to provide for us.”

Teachers do have to apply for these grants each year stating how much money they need and how it will be used.

Right now, they have had 133 teachers that have won this funding since the program started and the city has given out over 3 hundred thousand dollars.

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