East Texas

By MALENA OGLES
Staff Writer

LONGVIEW- Children rushed the playground fence line of Valley View Elementary School like groupies at a rock concert to catch a glimpse of Governor Rick Perry and his Stetson hat-clad security personnel.

Gov. Perry visited three Texas schools Thursday, including Valley View Elementary in Longview, to award $360,000 in funding through the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program.

While not all the students were entirely sure who the man named Rick Perry was, they knew his visit was important.

"Um, he's like the president," one girl said.

Valley View Elementary School received a check for $75,000, 75 percent of which will be used to reward teachers based on their future performance.

"We can never pay a good teacher enough, but we owe it to ourselves to try," Perry said.

The rest of the money is allocated for incentives such as mentoring, professional development and other practices aimed at improving a teacher's effectiveness, which in turn will improve learning for students.

"Teachers that go the extra mile, taking a team approach with other teachers, devising new approaches to teaching problems, guiding their students to unprecedented success, should get more than a gold star on their paper, they should get a bump in their paycheck," he said.

The grant is available to economically disadvantaged elementary, middle and high school campuses that have demonstrated high levels of student achievement, either exemplary or recognized, or comparable improvement as measured through the state accountability system.

"We are honored he came to present the check to us. The money allows us to look at employees and staff members to improve student achievements," Principal Melinda Anderson said.

The first cycle of the TEEG grants were implemented in the 2006 to 2007 school year where more around $100 million to Texas teachers and schools.

This is the second year of grants for Valley View Elementary.

Gov. Rick Perry was in Longview on Thursday to award $75,000 to Valley View Elementary. The funds will be used to reward teacher performance.
((Staff Photo By Malena Ogles))