The Elijah P. Lovejoy Memorial Scholarship Program is coming up Sunday afternoon at 4pm at the Lovejoy Monument at the Alton City Cemetery. The entire program was mo
Reginald Spears attributes his success as a teacher to the fact it combines two things he showed an affinity for early in life: music, and helping others figure stuff out. That, and his mother pushing him years ago to apply for a Golden Apple college scholarship for future educators. Spears would go on to receive that scholarship and, on Thursday, he was named one of the 2021 winners of the .
School districts across Texas implement massive austerity and cuts to staff
Despite the allocation of roughly $11.2 billion in federal funds ostensibly to support public education, school districts across Texas are cutting staff and closing schools. Over the past year, tens of thousands of teachers were forced to quit or retire early after the state government aggressively pressured districts to reopen amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the state, huge numbers of these teaching positions are being left as unfilled vacancies, encompassing nearly all the major school districts. This mass attrition follows the expiration of the state’s hold on cutting school funding that was extended through 2020, following declines in attendance due to the pandemic.
WBGZ Radio 5/10/2021 |
By Jason White / Doug Jenkins - WBGZ Radio
An Alton music teacher got a welcome surprise Monday morning when he learned he’s the winner of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Zebulon Holder walked into his music class in the Lovejoy Elementary School gym and was greeted by fellow educators and students waving signs and pom-poms. He’s one of only 10 teachers in Illinois to earn the award, out of 708 nominations of pre-kindergarten to third-grade teachers.
Holder, in his second year of teaching at Lovejoy, tells the Big Z what the award means to him.