Ball Brothers Foundation creates $15,000 ‘Excellence in Teaching’ award

MUNCIE, Ind.—Ball Brothers Foundation is establishing an Excellence in Teaching Award that annually will recognize the work of an outstanding and innovative Delaware County public school educator. The honor will include a $15,000 grant to promote innovation in the winning teacher’s district, school and classroom. The foundation’s president and chief operating officer, Jud Fisher, describes the award as the “missing piece” in his organization’s nearly 86-year history of supporting education in East Central Indiana.

“In the past six years alone our education grants have totaled more than $4.5 million,” says Fisher, “but we’ve never earmarked funds to honor the efforts of specific classroom teachers. Our board felt the time was right to begin that tradition. It seems appropriate to shine the spotlight on the kind of creativity that is so evident in our schools and that was so valued by our founders.”

The highly competitive grant program is open to K-12 classroom educators with at least three years of teaching experience in any of the county’s public school systems. “Each district will be free to develop its own selection process,” explained Fisher. “We only ask that each system limit its number of candidates to two. That will be a challenge.”

The application form, available via the Ball Brothers Foundation website (http://www.ballfdn.org/index/ExcellenceinTeachingAward.asp), is due by Feb. 1. A panel of outside judges will review the applications and select three finalists. The award winner will be selected after a final review by the foundation staff. The program will culminate in an event that will honor the winner and the finalists.

“Our hope is that the award winners will serve as professional resources not only to their colleagues but also to community organizations such as ours that support public education,” said Fisher.