Refugio ISD Foundation awards more than $58,000 in grants

The largest grant, $6,763.50, went to Sarah Lopez for the high school’s Medical Assistant Skill Builder & Test Prep program. Lopez also received $1,994.55 for Medical Assistant Dress for Success and $600 to provide Basic Life Support CPR certifications for medical assistant students.

Another $6,000 was awarded to Clarissa Rosas and Alexa Deal for the third annual Bobcats Walk/Run to Save a Life, a districtwide project.

Elementary teacher Kayla Garner received $5,000 for Bobcats Future Problem Solvers and was among three educators awarded $4,141 for an iFly field trip. Chasey Duncan and Bobbie Ramirez also are participants in the iFly project.

Grants support music, CTE programs

Band director Ted Buhrts received funding for three projects. The foundation awarded $4,500 for Clinicians for Band, $1,793 for TMEA Day for 11th- and 12th-grade band students and $1,500 for Leadership Band Camp.

Career and technical education programs also received support. Kent Hawthorne was awarded $3,268 for Rockport Market Days-Promoting CTE, while Justin Southern received $768.60 for an Arc Captain AG 60 plasma cutter.

High school science projects included $1,500 to Katie Green for “From Classroom to Clinic: A Human Anatomy Experience,” which includes a Health Museum field trip, and $1,300 for Green’s “Sustaining Life 2.0.” Meaghan Franz received $1,470 for “Exploring Chemistry through Natural Bridge Caverns.”

Literacy, history projects funded

Monica Baron received funding for four projects, including $2,175 for “From Page to Stage: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” $1,775 for “The Power of Performance,” $775 for Pages & Pajamas Family Literacy Night and $2,000 for the districtwide “Empowering Libraries, Enriching Students” project.

Junior high grants included $2,325 for Stacie Meza and Debbie Herrera’s “Is the Holocaust Real?” project, $396.44 for Meza’s “Remembering Anne Frank” and $1,320 for Chris Hawthorne and Herrera’s “Which Creatures Live in the Ocean, Bay, or Rivers?”

Other elementary grants included $719.96 to Leslie Haug for fourth-grade Reading Table Talks and $911 to Malaise Williams for the “Sparking Wonder, Igniting Minds” second-grade exploration field trip.

At the high school, Tammy Wills and Jessica Stillwell received $1,170 for “Sit, Stand, and Succeed: Redefining Our Learning Space,” Michelle Myers received $900 for “Decoding Success,” Samantha Meza received $1,500 for a Top Ten Banner and Edward Ousley received $1,500 for “I Dream My Painting and I Paint My Dream.”

The grants were announced as part of the foundation’s 2026-27 Innovative Teacher Grants cycle during the Aug. 10 Cat Walk presentation.