BLUE SPRINGS, Mo — More than a dozen local school districts received $10,000 grants from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to help train and hire their former students as teachers.
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The “Grow Your Own” grant is DESE’s yearly investment in local talent to foster and recruit them as future teachers.
KSHB 41 checked in with two school districts to see how the funds are being used.
“I used to go up to Blue Springs High School and pretend to grade papers and I remember one year all I wanted for Christmas was a Blue Springs School District ID badge,” said Katy Knudsen, who is a student teacher at Blue Springs South High School.
Since she was a little girl, Knudsen has had all her books in one basket.
Having grown up in the district, she always dreamed of returning where she started.
That opportunity came her senior year, when she was accepted into the “Grow Your Own Teachers” program.
“If I wasn’t in this program, I don’t think I would have been as prepared,” said Knudsen. “It’s been really cool to go through the district and then come back and kind of see the other side.”
Knudsen was given a personal mentor, opportunities to shadow working teachers, a guaranteed teaching position in the district and a $20,000 scholarship.
“I’m going into it with no student loans,” said Knudsen.
The district also has Aspiring Educators, a club created to help students who are interested to get a case of being a teacher.
Morgan Warren helps recruit members.
“I think everybody is experiencing a teacher shortage and I think if we’re putting effort into finding and mentoring and helping our students get to where they want to be," Warren said. "They’re going to give back to us. And that’s what we need, those fantastic teachers to come back in the district."
Patrick Lee, a teacher in the the Park Hill School District, says the value of returning to one’s own school district is the understanding they have of the people, the culture and the needs.
“We almost have like a jump start, a head start to things," Lee said. "We don’t have to realize or get things together, we can focus on the more important things like the students."
In the last two years, Park Hill School District hired 16 alumni from its Aspiring Educators program that began in 2016.
The program grew and now offers students opportunities for scholarship.
They have created three, worth $10,000 in total, from the funding by DESE.
It is a relief to Ryann Banks, who qualifies for them.
Through the program, she teaches special education at Russell Jones Education Center.
“It’s worth it in the end cause you’re doing this for the students and if we have a lack of teachers, then our students aren’t going to succeed,” said Banks. “This is 100 percent my calling. Like, this is where I am truly happy — being in this classroom with these kids.”
Blue Springs School District says with this year’s funds they will be launching a new campaign to recruit adults who are pursuing a job change.
But whether it is one’s second career, Knudsen says there is nothing quite like impacting the future generation.
“When you finally get your name on a badge, it’s the best feeling in the entire world,” said Knudsen.
