Eighteen schools in the Lee County School District were awarded a $700 Target Field Trip Grant to be used for students next year.
Grants Coordinator Terri Kinsey said teachers in the Lee County School District have taken advantage of the Target Corporation grants for the past four years.
“I think it increases every year,” Kinsey said about the number of applications. “Word spreads and more teachers take advantage of it.”
Kinsey said the grant is made available in the fall, and teachers to fill out the application and are notified in December if they were awarded the grant. She said the application asks for a detailed explanation of what the enrichment program will entail regarding the field trip.
“The application asks that teachers plan for the trip to occur in the spring for the following year,” Kinsey said.
She said the Target Field Trip Grant is worth $700 and they want the teachers to spend the total amount of the grant in some shape or form. If the teachers need to spend the remaining money on supplemental materials to go along with the field trip, Kinsey said they can do that also.
Six out of the 18 schools that were awarded the grant were from Cape Coral. Those schools include Caloosa Elementary School for a mud flats at Tropical Point field trip, Gulf Elementary School for the 3rd grade gifted students to attend the Southwest Florida History Museum and Butterfly Estates, Gulf Middle School for a career focus trip to Florida Gulf Coast University for the AVID students, Island Coast High School will take 45 students to the Naples Museum of Art, Skyline Elementary School will take 155 5th grade students to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater and Trafalgar Elementary School will take 154 students to the Randall Research Center.
Kinsey said she thought it was great to see that the field trips targeted the arts, science and social studies, along with one career exploration trip. She said it was also great to see that teachers are providing students with the opportunities to participate in enhanced arts through the grant program.
The other schools awarded include Bonita Springs Elementary School, Bonita Springs Middle School, Colonial Elementary School, Cypress Lake Middle School, Edgewood Renaissance Academy, Gateway Elementary School, Harns Marsh Elementary School, Lehigh Acres Middle School, Manatee Elementary School, Mirror Lakes Elementary School, Ray V. Pottorf Elementary School, Rayma Page Elementary School and Spring Creek Elementary School.
The field trip grant program was launched in 2007 and has awarded $9.76 million to students in all 50 states.