Educational Support
The Educational Support committee provides awards, and grants to local school district teachers and support personnel. Awards are presented at School Board meetings.
Each year the Educational Support committee awards two $250.00 grants to teachers for innovative programs in their schools. The committee meets with district superintendents and teachers to discuss which projects to fund. Funding is on a rotating basis among the four school districts in Venango County.
The committee also presents the Lauretta Woodson Award to one teacher and one para-professional each year. The award winners get a check for $50.00 and a certificate.
Lauretta Woodson Award
PASR’s Lauretta Woodson Awards are named in honor of Dr. Lauretta Woodson, a retired English teacher from Eddystone School District and PASR member. She attended West Chester Teacher’s College where she earned a degree in Secondary Education in English. She received her Master’s Degree from Columbia and Doctorate from Temple University.
After joining the State Association as a life member in 1988, Dr. Woodson rose through the ranks of PASR and assumed many esteemed positions within the organization. Lauretta was highly instrumental in helping PASR become what it is today. She faithfully served the retired school employees in the Delaware Chapter and Region 1 for many years in numerous capacities.
Upon her passing, she bequeathed a sum of money to PASR to be used for the support of public education. This bequeath included $100,000 that was given to the Delaware Chapter to establish a scholarship fund. Because of her generous donation, the Delaware Chapter is able to award two $5,000 scholarships to high school students pursuing teaching careers each year.
Each Chapter is eligible to present the Lauretta Woodson Awards to one support professional and one teacher per fiscal year. Chapters select the award recipients and then present them with a certificate and PASR pin.
Chapters may present the award in a variety of ways and are encouraged to utilize this opportunity to secure positive publicity for both the school or school district the honoree works for and PASR. For example, the presentation could be done at a school board meeting, city council meeting, or even at an award or graduation ceremony.
Chapters must notify PASR Headquarters of individuals selected for an award so that a certificate can be prepared. This can be done by downloading and filling out the PASR Educational Support Committee’s Lauretta Woodson Award Citation Request Reporting Form from the Forms page in the Members’ Only Section of pasr.org. From the Forms page, you also fill out the form and submitted online here. Chapters are also able to purchase pins for award recipients on pasr.org. There is no deadline for Lauretta Woodson Award submissions. They can be made any time of year.
Educational Support Chair:Diana Fesenmyer