Million-dollar grant to help recruit, retain teachers in El Paso school districts

EL PASO, Texas – A major new grant and partnership will be used to improve teacher training, recruitment and retention in the Borderland.

CREEED, or Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, and the El Paso Community Foundation announced the initiative Tuesday.

The effort will be backed by a $1.36 million grant from the Prentice Farrar Brown & Alline Ford Brown Foundation.

CREEED and the community foundation will work with the University of Texas at El Paso and six school districts during the first year of the program.

The grant will provide funding for teacher recruitment, training before teachers enter the workforce and support for local teachers once they start working in the classroom.

Some of the grant money will be used to identify and recruit future teachers as early as grades kindergarten through 12.

The program will initially work with the Canutillo, El Paso, Fabens, Tornillo, Socorro and Ysleta school districts, with plans to expand into other school districts.