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The Mountain Home Education Foundation handed out $27,320 in teacher grants Tuesday, funding 23 classroom projects across six campuses ahead of tonight’s Senior Awards Ceremony at the high school.
Board members made the rounds to surprise recipients with certificates, cowbells, balloons and treats for students.
The grants will reach classrooms from Little Bombers Academy through the high school, with projects ranging from flexible seating systems to a Holocaust remembrance unit and a rock tumbling investigation.
MHEF Board President Julia Gist said the program lets educators try ideas they could not otherwise fund. “Teacher Grants give our educators an opportunity to implement innovative and creative ideas and activities in their classrooms,” she said.
Tonight’s senior awards will push MHEF’s 2026 scholarship total to $94,500. That figure spans Completer Scholarships, Fine Arts Completer Scholarships, Mr. and Miss MHHS awards and traditional scholarships usable at any post-secondary institution.
Another $4,000 in scholarships will go out later this summer to students who post top Advanced Placement exam scores.
The foundation’s Promise Scholarship Program will again cover tuition at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home for Class of 2026 graduates choosing that path.
Several grants this cycle target high-impact teaching tools. Sydney Lind’s $3,800 award will modernize journalism and yearbook production at the high school with new editing computers. Whitney Hickman secured $3,325 for flexible seating in junior high math classrooms, a project shared with co-teacher David Luttrell.
Pinkston Middle School science teacher Vonya Schaufler earned two awards totaling $2,800 for hands-on science work and a progress monitoring initiative that will reach 300 sixth graders.
Mountain Home High School English teacher Tammye Quick received $2,600 for her “Remember Me” project, and Pinkston seventh-grade social studies teacher Lisa Lacefield secured $1,700 for “Butterfly Wings,” a Holocaust remembrance project that will reach roughly 325 students.
At Hackler Intermediate, Vanessa Martin pulled in $1,500 to bring Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” to life through an immersive wilderness unit. First and second grade GATE teacher Amanda Rayburn at Nelson-Wilks-Herron also received $1,500 for a science-through-literacy project.
Other funded projects include a teddy bear health clinic linking high school medical professions students with kindergartners, a library media center book club, fraction fluency tools, French language library building and a sensory-based pre-K curriculum.
MHEF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and accepts community contributions to support teacher grants, student scholarships and educational programming across the district.
Contact MHEF Executive Director Mollie Morgan at 870-421-6166 for more information.
