East County teachers part of over $22k in grants

 Community Partners Education Grant (CPEG) committee announced this week that it has awarded $22,290.00 in grants to twenty-six teachers from eight school districts in both Grays Harbor and Mason Counties.

Locally this included teachers in the Elma, McCleary, and Montesano school districts.

Teachers had submitted applications for a variety of projects to improve their student’s learning environment, including space exploration, STEM, reading, music, art, genealogy, physical fitness, and others. 

There were also practical projects to improve learning from home and to address mental health. 

CPEG says that forty-one percent of the grant dollars went to school districts that serve less than 500 students. 

“The CPEG committee was pleased to be able to approve all of the applications that were submitted this year, which will benefit nearly 1,100 students,” said committee member Darren Eisele.

For seven consecutive years, CPEG tells KXRO that they have awarded grants of up to $1,000 to local K-12 educators.

The partnership is comprised of nine local businesses, including Belco Forest Products, Elma Family Dental, Green Diamond Resource Company, Hood Canal Communications, Our Community Credit Union, Shelton Dental Center, Sierra Pacific Foundation, Simpson Door Company, and Vaughan Co, Inc.

Founded in 2014, the Community Partners Education Grant (CPEG) says that in total they have awarded over $135,000 of K-12 grant requests.

“This unique program provides funding for educational projects and programs while allowing teachers great flexibility to develop them. CPEG is local businesses supporting local educators with funds to enrich the student’s learning environment.”

For a complete list of approved grants, please visit cpegwa.wixsite.com/home/grants.