During a media briefing at St. Elmo Elementary School on March 21, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, announced details concerning two new educational programs at 36 Austin ISD schools funded with $4 million in federal dollars.
“We are supplementing a local effort to provide outdoor learning to 36 school campuses throughout the district with $2 million of the $4 million received,” Doggett said during the briefing. “The other $2 million will go toward college and career readiness at our schools.”
Doggett said this money will be used to encourage and reinforce what AISD is already trying to do, which is to create opportunities to learn more about postsecondary education and to create outdoor learning situations similar to what St. Elmo Elementary School offers its students.
Ben McCormack, principal of St. Elmo Elementary School, said his school has received several grants to create outdoor learning experiences, such as a Monarch butterfly garden and rain garden for students. He said through the Urban Forestry grant, his school was able to plant 64 native trees on campus, and the school was designated a green park school.
