2026 TEACH Grant Awards
In 2026, Marion Community Foundation is awarding $38,000 to classroom teachers in Marion and Morrow counties for 21 innovative and motivational programs. This level of support is made possible by the Ray & Charlotte Baldauf Fund and the Trachsel Foundation, as well as the following Teachers’ Funds: Allen ‘Bus’ Augenstein Teachers Fund, Brown Family Teachers Fund, Marion Education Foundation Fund, Pillar Credit Union Teachers’ Fund, Pillar Credit Union Morrow County Teachers Fund, and River Valley Teachers Fund.
Elgin Local Schools
Elgin Middle School | Andrea Coykendall | Life Skills Classroom
Building life skills activities for the first year of the cross categorical special education classroom.
Marion City Schools
Harding High School | Adam Hanke | Elevating our Art
The “Elevating our Art” program will “elevate” the quality of Harding High School’s drawing and painting instruction, through the use of quality art equipment and materials. This equipment will also “elevate” the presentation of student artworks. The program will “elevate” the MCS community by providing extra-curricular art opportunities.
Harding High School | Jacob Hartman | Multi-Ensemble Digital Piano Upgrade for Marion City Schools Band Programs
MCS Bands use a digital piano system extensively in marching band, jazz ensembles, indoor percussion, and solo and ensemble performance settings. After years of dependable service, the system is failing. This grant will replace a critical voice for the ensembles that support a wide variety of students and ensembles.
Harding High School | Jami Rawlins | Harding Singers Lighting and Performance Project
The Harding Singers is a competitive show choir program who compete in Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia, as well as host community performances and a large show choir competition in February. Wireless, computer-programmed lights and other musical performance elements will help elevate our students’ achievement.
Grant Middle School | Aaron Edwards | Engineering
Adding projects to the engineering curriculum, ranging from basic soldering of electrical components to building birdhouses and basic wood projects and many more. This grant will provide more in-depth projects.
Grant Middle School | Jessica Clarke | VOX Books
VOX Books are books that have a built-in mp3 player that will read the book aloud to students — in different languages and grade levels. VOX books will get students excited about reading books. They especially target low readers and English language learners.
Garfield Elementary School | Lily Janson | Garfield Elementary Specialized Learning Center
The purchase of sensory equipment for the specialized learning center classroom will support students with disabilities in developing sensory, social, and emotional regulation skills. Access to these tools will help students better manage their physical and emotional states, improve readiness to learn, and foster greater independence within the classroom environment.
Pleasant Local Schools
Pleasant High School | Kirsten Jordan | Implementation of CCP Photography Courses
Implementing a College Credit Plus (CCP) Photography course with Columbus State offers our Pleasant students college-level studio and digital photography instruction, portfolio development, and career exploration—providing a strong foundation for art majors and pathways into professional photography and related creative industries.
Pleasant High School | Paula Ritter | It’s a Zoo Here!- Enriching a Zoology Course
This grant will purchase zoological specimens for students to see, feel, and examine in the high school zoology course, including microscope slides of whole organisms, display charts and tissue samples of animals.
Ridgedale Local Schools
Ridgedale Jr./Sr. High School | Jason Sobas | Teachers of Social Studies Learning Opportunity
The grant provides a professional development opportunity. allowing social studies teachers to attend the Ohio Council for the Social Studies Conference. This is a valuable opportunity for teachers to learn about engaging lessons, activities, and strategies and networking with other current teachers.
River Valley Local Schools
River Valley Middle School | Laura Carey | Pixels to Polymers
Building on the success of our iPad-based digital art curriculum, “Pixels to Polymers” is an innovative program designed to bridge the gap between virtual design and physical creation for students. This project introduces cutting-edge 3D digital sculpting and additive manufacturing.
Liberty Elementary | Samantha Coyan | Audio Adventures
The grant will purchase an audio library for kindergarten students using VOX Books, which combine print and built-in audio narration. Students can listen and read along, building early literacy skills, confidence, and a love of reading, while engaging independently with a variety of age-appropriate stories.
Heritage Elementary | Laura Rengert | The Book Drop
A pseudo book vending machine is an approach to spark an interest of literacy and bring books into our students’ homes. Instead of snacks, candy or drinks, this psuedo vending machine will house engaging, age appropriate books for K-5 students.
St. Mary School
St. Mary School | Jared Tedrick | Library Enrichment
The St. Mary School library grant will purchase a library management system for an expanding catalog of student books and support subscriptions to electronic materials for a diverse student population.
Highland Local Schools
Highland Elementary | Dirk Detillion | Greenhouse
A student-led project where learners grow, care for, and sell plants, gaining hands-on experience in agriculture, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Students develop responsibility, teamwork, and business skills while connecting classroom learning to real-world applications through planting, marketing, and sales.
Highland Elementary | Samantha Johnson | Cultivating Curiosity Outside the Classroom
This project will transform an outdoor space into a hands-on learning area with plants, pots, and simple landscaping. Students will explore science, responsibility, and teamwork while caring for a garden. The outdoor classroom will provide engaging, real-world learning experiences that inspire curiosity and growth beyond our four walls.
Highland Elementary | Madison Craigo | Kindness Club
Kindness Club is an opportunity for 5th grade students to spread kindness and support our elementary school. The club is student-led, where they create plans and ideas to encourage the rest of the school. We work on clean-up projects, beautification, encouragement, and kindness.
Highland High School | Craig Smith | Sustaining Personalized Strength & Conditioning through Performance Tracking Technology
This program sustains Highland High School’s strength and conditioning software, providing individualized workouts and performance tracking. Students build academic skills such as goal setting, data analysis, self-monitoring, and accountability while improving strength, endurance, athletic performance, and injury prevention through safe, data-driven training that supports lifelong fitness habits.
Highland Elementary | Kayla Arthurs | Instruments for the Elementary Music Classroom
This grant will add musical instruments — African gourds, maracas, hand drums, and rhythm sticks — for grades K-5 to address growing classroom sizes and allow for more hands-on participation for every child.
Mt. Gilead Local Schools
Park Avenue Elementary | Mackenzie Hoffman | The Park Avenue Student Market
Students will plan and operate a student-run marketplace that brings math to life. Using budgeting, fractions, decimals, measurement, and data analysis, students make real-world decisions, track sales, and reflect on outcomes. This hands-on project builds financial literacy, collaboration, and confidence while making math meaningful and engaging.
Mt. Gilead High School | Hanna Vanderkooi | Rise and Shine Cafe
Rise and Shine Café is a fully operational, student-run coffee shop that transforms our entrepreneurship class into an innovative, real-world business lab. Students manage operations, marketing, finances, and sales technology, gaining hands-on experience, leadership skills, and workforce-ready knowledge with meaningful, real-world impact.
Mt. Gilead High School | Tom Lewis | T-shirt Press Room Storage & Rack System
This project seeks to transition our student-run direct-to-film shop from a classroom hobby into a professional-grade production facility. The grant will purchase an open-wire storage and modular system and provide organized storage to address a workflow bottleneck.
