Local teacher wins CapEd award

Kerrie-Lynn Raines, a K-2 Special Ed Teacher at Mountain Home Primary School has been named the CapEd, Capital Educators Federal Credit Union, Teacher Grant winner for December in the Teacher of the Month program.

She was named in the large school category and was awarded a $750 grant to help her purchase the "Touch Math" curriculum for her second-grade students. The presentation of the award, made last week, had been postponed from last month due to weather and the holiday break.

Raines said the program will be available for all teachers in their general education classroom as a supplement to enhance math computation skills for all students.

"Touch Math is a scientific research math supplemental that is easy to teach and provides students with another math strategy to be successful in developing their basic math computation skills," she added.

Todd Erickson, CEO of Cap Ed, said the Teacher of the Month program is striving to reach a wide variety of programs and teachers throughout the area.

"To date we have had over 100 teachers apply for the Teacher Grants, and we have been able to award $6,300 to nine teachers from September through December this year. We plan to continue the program through May when we will ultimately award a Teacher of the Year Teacher Grant to two teachers worth $2,500 each," Erickson said.

Two Teacher of the Month, Teacher Grant Program, winners will be selected from grant applications submitted from teachers within CapEd's field of membership area, which includes the 15 southwestern Idaho counties. Each Teacher of the Month selected will receive a $750 grant.

Applications are due the tenth of the month. For full details about program, application forms, eligibility, and FAQ, teachers can go online at www.capedfcu.org.