Utility, DonorsChoose.org partner to support education
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. is again using a popular, crowd-funding site used by teachers to fund classroom projects.
The utility recently announced it will work with Donors Choose. org for a second consecutive year to spend $70,000 to provide grants of up to $750 to teachers who propose projects to improve the efficient use of energy within t heir classrooms.
Company officials said eligible projects will involve proposals teachers make on the site to obtain dollars they need for projects that promote or teach energy efficiency and/or projects seeking EPA-rated products for the classroom, such as LED bulbs or other energy-saving gear.
Qualifying projects, they said, must involve a classroom at a public school located within the company's Oklahoma service areas.
The proposals, p rescreened by DonorsChoose. org, will be reviewed by the utility' s energy efficiency
team to select recipients. The utility' s energy-efficiency funding program began Aug. 1 and will conclude at the end of the year.
“One of the things we have found is that if we can help the schools be more energy efficient, it keeps their bills down and allows them to spend that saved money on something else,” said Jeannie TroxelStover, coordinator of t he utility's energy efficiency education program.
Teachers are appreciative for the help.
One, Mrs. Key, wrote the utility to thank it for an energy efficiency donation it made to her kindergarten classroom at Heritage Trails Elementary in Moore last year.
The donation helped her acquire an iPad, and Key wrote it helped her expand her kindergarten students' classroom engagement and fun as they learned.
OG&E also works with the website to offer matching dollars to teachers who use the site to fund STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and reading- related projects for their classrooms.
When it begins that $30,000 initiative in mid-September, officials said it will be the third time the utility has worked with the site to help teachers seeking that kind of help.
They said that initiative will offer matching grants of up to $300 provided by the utility and the OGE Energy Corp. Foundation for qualifying projects, which DonorsChoose.org will automatically select.
Besides being required to raise the initial dollars the utility is willing to match, teachers proposing those types of projects also must be working at a school within the utility's service area where 75% or more of its student population qualifies for free lunches.
Last year, the company provided $30,000 for that program to 153 teachers within its service territory by working with the site.
Kathleen O'Shea, a spokeswoman for OG& E, said the utility began partnering with the website for several reasons.
“We thought we might be able to reach more classrooms that way,” she said, given that the site is a preferred method that teachers l i ke to use to acquire dollars to support their educational efforts.
Plus, its ability to prescreen projects for the energy-efficiency initiative and to select projects for the STEM program saves the utility effort and time.
O'Shea said the utility has been actively supporting teachers in many ways, committing $600,000 to educational efforts since 2003.
The utility, for example, provides scholarships to selected teachers that allows them to attend STEM conferences.
It works with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to support its Green Schools programs, offers electrical safety curriculum to fourth-grade teachers and “Living Wise” curriculum and supplies for teachers who work with older elementary students.
The Living Wise supplies include water-saving shower heads and aerators, LED bulbs and refrigerator thermometers the students are encouraged to install at home as they go through the instruction materials.
“It all is about making an impact on our community. I want dollars to do the best they can in that regard,” TroxelStover said.