SAN ANTONIO — More than $200,000 in grant money will be used to support teachers and enrich learning in San Antonio.

  • SAISD grant recipients receive awards
  • District picked 50 winners
  • Help fund projects in the classroom

The San Antonio ISD Foundation announced the first recipients today of the Innovative Grants. 

"Some go to teachers and some go to programs. Today we're doing them for teachers who apply, but they'll be for whole school use," SAISD Foundation Executive Director Judy Geelhoed said. 

Two teachers at Gates Elementary are the first of more than 50 winners of this year's SAISD Foundation's Innovative Grants. Money will go toward building an outdoor classroom to let students get creative.

"The kids will be able to learn outside. We can do science, read-alouds, and all those great fun things because learning takes place everywhere, not just in the classroom," Gates Elementary Principal Sonya Mora said. 

The money will also go to a second project, called the chill zone, to help kids decompress. 

"We'll have things in the classroom for the kids to know what to do when they're having a moment, if they're having an outburst, or if they just need some space to just be alone," Mora said. 

Another part of the grant will focus on college readiness. 

"It's a grant that we're trying to push college readiness. So we want our kids to know that they have opportunities to go to college, it's an option. So they'll get to go on field trips, fourth and fifth graders will get to go to field trips to colleges," Mora said. 

These grants come from major fundraising efforts all year long, and now in it's 12th year, the foundation says they aren't stopping any time soon. 

"Teachers are creative, they know their students, they know what they need to get them to the next level. This offers them the opportunity to apply to us and say this is my fabulous idea, invest in me, invest in my kids," Geelhoed said.