La Porte Education Foundation

The La Porte Education Foundation was born from the vision of former La Porte Superintendent of Schools Richard F. Hays who knew the importance of funding teachers' creative educational ideas.

LPEF was launched in 1993 after the implementation of Chapter 41 of the Texas Education Code (also known as the “Robin Hood” plan), which set in motion the school finance system to recapture funds from the property-wealthy districts to distribute to the property-poor districts. LPEF was created as an avenue to generate additional funding to enhance and augment educational opportunities for students and teachers in La Porte ISD.

More than 80 citizens, businesses, and industry members came together as our Founders. Shortly after organizing, the Board of Directors kicked off a Founders' Drive with the goal of raising $100,000. During that drive, the Foundation decided to award its first round of grants, with 13 grants totaling more than $15,000 presented to deserving teachers.

Since its inception, more than 1,300 grants and special projects totaling more than $1.8 million dollars have been made possible by the Foundation.

Our Innovative Instructional Grants Program encourages teachers to research and develop innovative projects that stimulate thought, expand the existing curriculum to meet District goals, and advance new approaches to teaching in classrooms without having to self-fund the projects.

Through a grant allocations process, funding is awarded to teachers for educational programs or projects that increase student achievement, especially in mathematics and science, and advance new teaching approaches.

On November 17, the Dollar Patrol awarded 176 grants to teachers and staff at all 12 schools totaling $150,600. Some of the grants funded for the 16-17 school year include biology models for science classes, equipment for Robotics programs, educational games to help with language arts, and fiction and nonfiction books for classroom libraries.