The Educational Support committee provides awards, scholarships 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 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.
Loretta Woodson Awards: April 20, 2020, Valley Grove School District
Education Grants to teachers were awarded November 2020 to two teachers in the Valley Grove School District
Due to COVID-19 restrictions grant checks were mailed to both teachers.
Two Valley Grove third grade school teachers, Tammy Kline and Julie Plumer, received a PASR Venango Educational Grant. The Third graders made door hangers for residents of Sugar Creek Station. Plants were also purchased so residents knew someone was thinking of them during these difficult times. On April 7th, the staff delivered the items to Sugar Creek Station.
A $200 Educational Grant was awarded to Marjorie Hart to purchase material, thread, elastic, sewing machine needles, and scissors so her students at Rocky Grove High School can learn to make masks to prevent the spread of COVID.
Diana Fesenmyer will be awarding two $250 grants to teachers from the Cranberry Area School District at the October School Board Meeting.
Kerri Sutch will be using her grant for Science Measurement Equipment including micrometers, multi-scale rulers, a digital micrometer, and an adjustable pipette for all General Biology classes. These measurement tools are to prepare students for measurement skills to meet testing and area business requirements in measurement skills.
Andrea Barrett will be using her grant for 16 Yoga/Pilates mats to complete a class set for Physical Education grades 7-12. A new unit on Mindfulness will be developed to use every year once a complete set of mats are available.
Thanks to the Cranberry Area School District for their cooperation in this program.
Teachers from Oil City Area School District submitted grant proposals that were reviewed by the Education Support Committee. The following proposals were awarded $150.00 grants
All students at the Oil City Middle School use the Tl-73 Texas Instrument calculator- That means about 470 students need a calculator that works! As they are used, some get broken or become worn out. This makes them “broken”. If I were granted $150 to purchase calculators, I would use these funds to purchase 5 “gently used” calculators from Amazon. These calculators would be used for students in grades 5-8 that are in learning support classes. I teach a pull out math class with students in grades 5 and 7, with a total of 7 students. I also have a homeroom with grades 6-8 and a total of 12 students. As of right now, we have 3 different styles of calculators, and unfortunately, with some that do not consistently work. Having 5 additional calculators would make it easier to teach such an important subject!
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Chris Salvo
The teachers at OCHS want students and parents to know that we notice the good and not just the bad. The School Climate Committee would like to roll out a school wide positive behavior rewards system. Students will earn tickets from teachers when they are seen doing something positive. Each teacher in the building will hand out 2 tickets every week. When students earn tickets, they will draw a number and their name will go on a Bingo board that will be located in the cafeteria. Once there is a “Bingo” all 10 students in that row/diagonal will earn a prize. in order to make this behavior rewards system work, the SCC will need prizes. Many of the prizes have been obtained internally (prom tickets, yearbooks, trading parking spots with an administrator, etc.). We surveyed the-students and they chose #oilerstogether as our school brand. The SCC committee would like to get t-shirts, hats, water bottles and so much more with this brand on it. We would also like to offer them gift cards ($5-$10) from Sheetz, iTunes, and movie tickets just to name a few possibilities.
Meghan FulmerThe committee also presents the Loretta Woodson Award to two members of the school district support staff. The awards are presented on a rotating basis among the four districts in Venango County.
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 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: