Rockwood Receives State-Funded ‘Grow Your Own’ Grant to Recruit Local Educators

The Rockwood School District Is one of 125 local education agencies (LEAs) from around the state to receive the first-ever state-funded “Grow Your Own” grants from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

DESE’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget includes $2.5 million to support one-time grants of $10,000 to LEAs to create or strengthen their local “Grow Your Own” program, designed to increase recruitment of quality teachers across the state.

Grow Your Own programs work to attract local students as well as non-certified school staff, such as paraprofessionals and substitute teachers, to the teaching profession. Many programs also support those future teachers through their post-secondary education and path to certification. Funding is used to support a variety of activities, including dual-credit courses, scholarships for high school students, student internships and opportunities for other non-teaching adults to pursue programs that will allow them to become certified teachers.

Dr. Kelly Sollberger, Rockwood director of human resources, said the district will use its one-time grant to enhance and expand teacher recruitment and preparation support programs such as cadet teaching classes and teaching clubs and chapters at Rockwood’s four high schools.

“We want to ensure all students are invited to participate in our Rockwood teacher preparation classes and clubs,” Sollberger said. “Through our cadet teaching classes and teaching clubs and chapters, we will educate our students on critical shortage areas and how they can also share teaching as a wonderful career pathway with friends who may not be considering education already. We have success in recruiting teachers that have friends who work in the Rockwood School District. Similarly, we will use students who are pursuing degrees in education to recruit friends who may not have considered teaching yet. By bringing new students into classes, chapters and clubs, we will be able to show why teaching is a rewarding career path that students should consider.”

One such club is the Educators Rising chapter at Rockwood Summit High, sponsored by Spanish teacher Kimberly Lackey. Senior and club president Lola Wiedemann said regular membership in the club has expanded from four to nearly 20 over the past year.

Chapter members meet monthly, attend conferences, offer babysitting services to Rockwood Summit teachers during busy times such as parent-teacher conferences and engage in other activities such as reading to students in the preschool room at the school.

“I really like getting to work with the kids, getting to meet the teachers’ kids, then also learning from Ms. Lackey about what it takes to be a teacher,” Wiedemann said. “We hope to keep recruiting people, making a difference and making it better every year.”

Wiedemann’s mother, Amy, is a first-grade teacher at Kellison Elementary, and Wiedemann said she has enjoyed seeing the deep, lasting connections her mother has made with students, parents and colleagues over the years.

She hopes to get her degree in early childhood education – with a special education minor – and come back to the St. Louis area to work as a teacher.

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I’ve always been around Kellison and seen how hard they work. It’s not always easy, but I like to see the community they get to build with the students and families,” Wiedemann said. “It’s really cool to build that relationship in the community. It’s the difference we can make in kids’ lives. A teacher is always there for them, and they can make a kid feel loved.

“I want to teach kindergarten, hopefully at Kellison someday,” she added. “That would be really cool.”