“I Love Eudora Schools”

story by Sydney Shain ≫

In 2001, Shanda Hurla, Executive Director of the Eudora Schools Foundation, was struck by the overwhelming support that her new community gave to the schools.

This is the driving force behind the Eudora Schools Foundation’s campaign for the year: I Love Eudora Schools. Many community members have signs in their yard displaying these words, but what do they mean? What does it stand for?

“We are starting our 11th year [as an organization] and a couple years ago the foundation board members really decided, hey, we want to up our game,” Hurla said. “We want to do a lot more to provide a lot more opportunities for the teachers in the buildings and stuff like that.”

This year, the organization is taking strides towards community awareness of what they do for our schools, in the hope that they can continue to be a driving force for the progress that our schools make in the level of education that we offer here. Last year, around $10,000 total went to all of the schools in the district for various projects that teachers had proposed.

One of these projects that was proposed and a grant was awarded for was requested by Mrs. Pyle, Health Careers teacher here at EHS.

“We received a grant to purchase additional adult and baby manikins to accommodate our growing enrollment in the program,” said Pyle. “The manikins are used to teach our American Red Cross CPR/AED/First Aid certification course.”

With growing numbers of students choosing to participate in the Health Careers courses, it was becoming difficult for the manikins that the classroom already had on hand to be shared between the students. They needed enough to be able to practice the processes they were built to teach over and over again. Hands-on learning is key in classrooms such as this, and especially so when techniques are being taught which save lives.

“CPR/AED/First Aid are beneficial skills for everyone to know,” said Pyle. “In fact, we have had a couple of students that have used some of the first aid skills and have even had to help a choking victim.”

The health careers grant is just one of many which help to supply our teachers with the funding that they need for special projects. A few more examples are the grants which were awarded to provide a drone for the video class, purchase bikes for the middle school library, and help fund the Science Olympiad program that Mrs. Splichal started here at the high school last year.

The Eudora Schools Foundation’s campaign this year has raised around $18,000, and the goal to reach is $30,000. Through many different phases and events, members plan to make the community aware of just how much help any individual can be for the school district just by donating.

“When you visit other school districts and see what they’re doing, these teacher grants…if we didn’t have these, these opportunities would not be possible for our students,” said Hurla.