2026 Prize Patrol: six teachers, more than $16,000 in classroom grants

The Lago Vista ISD Education Foundation surprised six Lago Vista ISD educators across three campuses. The Foundation awarded classroom grants supporting STEM, literature, technology, and fine arts initiatives.

Earlier this year, the Lago Vista ISD Education Foundation awarded six teacher grants totaling over $16,000. Each one started with a teacher who saw something their students needed, from a Chromebook lab to a costume studio to a classroom library geared for graduating seniors.

Teachers applied in the spring, the Foundation's Grant Committee reviewed every application, and the Prize Patrol delivered the news in person.

The grants reach students across the district, focusing on initiatives in STEM, literature, and the arts. Here are the bright ideas that were funded.

Our 2026 Grant Recipients

Out with old iPads, in with 30 Chromebooks

Expanding Digital Learning Through a Middle School Chromebook Lab | Rusty Maynard

Lago Vista Middle School

From left to right: Wendy Norman, Norma Owen, Linda McCullough, Rusty Maynard, Sara Jane Cantwell, Tamara Carlton, Dr. Mindy Curran

Lago Vista Middle School students have been doing classwork on iPads that can no longer receive software updates. Many current educational programs won't run on them. Without keyboards, essays and research projects become a slog, and students often end up sharing devices.

That matters because technology skills are what students need next. Texas standards expect middle schoolers to research, analyze data, and present their ideas using technology, and high school courses will expect the same. Middle school teacher Rusty Maynard points to STAAR data showing students do better when research, writing, and digital work are built into lessons across subjects.

His grant funds a mobile lab of 30 Chromebooks. Any teacher in grades 6 through 8 can check out the cart, and the district technology department keeps the devices running and secure. One cart now serves a campus of about 442 students.

In February, Maynard will report to the Foundation board on how often the lab gets used and what students produce with it.

Fifth-grade science, now on wheels

Mobile Science Carts | JoAnn Grace

Lago Vista Intermediate School

Pictured with check: JoAnn Grace

Fifth graders at Lago Vista Intermediate don't have a science lab. Supplies are kept in a storage closet in a separate building, so teachers gather materials, carry them to class, and set up and break down labs before and after school. Every lab has to be prepped days ahead. If a piece is missing or broken, there's no running back for a replacement, and the lab doesn't happen.

That matters because fifth grade is a STAAR-tested year for science, and the test expects students to measure, observe, record data, and draw conclusions. Intermediate school teacher JoAnn Grace makes the case that students build those skills by doing experiments, not by watching a teacher demonstrate one.

Her grant funds three mobile science carts. The fifth grade science team will organize each cart with lab materials matched to fifth grade standards, so an experiment can roll into any classroom and start right away. Labs become a regular part of lessons instead of an occasional event, and students spend more time running investigations in small groups.

The team will track how often labs happen and review student work.

No campus library? This senior English class is getting its own

The Senior Bridge: A Legacy Library for Life Beyond LVISD | Cassandra Hagler

Lago Vista High School

Pictured with check: Cassandra Hagler

Lago Vista High School doesn't have a campus library. For seniors, that means few chances to pick up the memoirs and nonfiction books that speak to life after graduation.

English IV teacher Cassandra Hagler writes that by senior year, most students have only seen the world through the experiences of their friends and family. Within months, they'll handle job offers, build their own routines, and make decisions without a parent or teacher nearby.

Her grant builds The Senior Bridge, a classroom library of eight titles, five copies each, on leadership, negotiation, habits, and resilience. The collection includes memoirs like Educated and The Glass Castle. LVHS woodshop students are building the bookshelf.

Starting in April 2027, on-level English IV seniors will choose a book, form reading groups, and read and journal in class. Each group will finish by designing a messaging campaign and delivering a keynote speech on how the book shaped their outlook on the future.

The library stays in the senior English classroom for every class that follows. Hagler deliberately asked for a bigger shelf than needed – she's already collected about 100 more titles and plans to keep adding through grants and community donations.

Putting Newton's laws to the test

Investigating Force and Motion Through Hands-On Physics Labs | Angela Drake

Lago Vista Middle School

Pictured with check: Angela Drake

Recent STAAR results showed that force and motion were among the lowest-scoring science standards for Lago Vista Middle School students.

Middle school teacher Angela Drake explains why. Force and motion come down to abstract relationships between mass, force, and acceleration. When students only see those ideas in lectures, textbook examples, and diagrams, they struggle to connect the math to how real objects move.

Her grant funds two force-and-motion lab kits and six support stands. Students can change a cart's mass, the force pushing it, or the angle of a ramp, then measure what happens and calculate speed and acceleration from their own data. The stands let teachers build pulley setups that show friction and net force at work. With two kits, two classes can run labs at the same time, so students work in lab groups instead of watching a demonstration.

Drake, Kris Carroll, Amanda Akin, and Benjamin Hill will share the equipment across grades 6 through 8, reaching about 442 students a year. The teachers will compare force and motion scores before and after the labs, and Drake will share results with the Foundation board in February.

From pincushions to the spotlight

Costume Design and Construction Studio for LVISD Theatre Program | Lisa Whitted

Lago Vista ISD

Pictured with check: Eric Holt (standing in for Lisa Whitted)

Lago Vista's middle school theater students started hand sewing last school year, beginning with small pincushions. Many were ready for bigger projects fast. But the district's old home economics sewing machines are long gone, and theater teacher Lisa Whitted's own machine is too light to handle the durable fabric costumes need.

Whitted learned to sew as a child through Texas 4-H, competing in garment construction and fashion shows. That skill carried her through university theater training and years of building costumes as a teacher. She points out that sewing costumes costs less than buying them, and students who design a costume and see it through to the stage go well past the basic theater standards. They also learn to maintain and troubleshoot a machine, which is hard to pick up without a teacher beside you.

Her grant funds a costume studio with two heavy-duty sewing machines, a serger, an iron and ironing board, and a standing steamer. About 100 middle and high school theater students will use it, and their designs may compete in UIL Theatre Design contests. Whitted measures success with one test: is the costume good enough to wear on stage?

Taking UIL training into the summer

Summer Prime Math Camp 2026 | Robyn Statham

Lago Vista High School

Pictured with check: Robyn Statham

Competing in UIL Math, Number Sense, Calculator Applications and Science takes more than what fits into a class period. Students need practice on real contest problems and coaching from people who know the tests.

High school math teacher Robyn Statham's grant covered camp registration for a group of Lago Vista High School students and coaches at Summer Prime Math Camp, a two-day camp at Cedar Ridge High School in Round Rock. In July, they trained with UIL state contest directors and past state medalists, working through mental-math strategies and real contest problems in math and science.

Statham argues the payoff extends beyond the competitors. Students who build these skills outside class come back stronger in their regular math and science courses. Coaches leave with new content knowledge and strategies they bring to every student they teach, including the ones who never compete.

This school year, Statham will compare students' scores at practice meets and the district meet against previous years to see what the camp changed.

Help fund next year's grants

Grants are awarded to teachers, but ultimately, students benefit most from the funding. Fifth graders at Lago Vista Intermediate will run more experiments now that their lab rolls into the classroom. Seniors at Lago Vista High School will head into life after graduation with books their school didn't have before. Each grant starts with a teacher's idea and ends with student success.

Community donations, local business sponsorships, and Foundation fundraisers fund these grants. The next grant cycle opens in January 2027.

A gift of any size helps fund more teacher ideas next spring.