The Operation Round Up Board of Directors created a mini-grant program to help teachers with classroom projects or educational field trips. Operation Round Up approved another three-year cycle of teacher mini-grants.

Nineteen teachers received grants for their reading or social studies classroom projects for the 2020-2021 school year.

Cody Lass is an early college preparation teacher at Estacado High School and is a 2020-2021 Operation Round Up Mini-Grant recipient.

For the past three years, Lass has had students participate in a history competition called “National History Day.” The competition is similar to a science fair, only where students complete a project related to American History. For the past two years, Estacado students have advanced to the state competition located at the University of Texas in Austin.

Due to COVID, the 2021 competition was held virtually. “Despite this disappointment, the students still managed to remain enthusiastic about their projects and spent much of the fall semester planning and researching their chosen topics,” Lass said.

The mini-grant was used to purchase materials for students to create their presentation boards and project websites with the research they compiled.

“Thank you so much for the generous grant and for your continued support of local education”, Lass said. “In a year where there has been so much chaos and uncertainty, it has truly been comforting to know that there are institutions in our region who still value supporting their own”.