Teacher Innovation Grant Program

The Orange County Education Foundation maintains a teacher innovation grant program in order to provide resources, inspire innovation, and enhance opportunities for teachers of the schools in Orange County. The program consists of funds from which grants are awarded to support innovative classroom instruction.

2025 Teacher Innovation Grant Award Winners

2024 Teacher Innovation Grant Award Winners

2023 Teacher Innovation Grant Award Winners

2022 Teacher Innovation Grant Award Winners

2021 Teacher Innovation Grant Award Winners

Previous Winners of Teacher Innovation Grants

The Prize Patrol

• Each year, on a carefully guarded secret date, board members of the Orange County Education Foundation travel through the county delivering symbolic checks to teachers who have won Teacher Innovation Grants. Their arrival is always meant with surprise and joy by both teachers and students alike. This is referred to as “The Prize Patrol”. <View Video>

Orange County Education Foundation Fund for Innovative Teaching

The Orange County Education Foundation (OCEF) Fund for Innovative Teaching provides at least six grants to support creative instruction in Orange County Public Schools, Grymes Memorial School and at the Locust Grove Campus of Germanna Community College. The grants are awarded each spring to teachers who have proposed lessons that they will implement during the subsequent school year.

Ernestine Reid Teacher Innovation Grant Fund

The Ernestine Reid Teacher Innovation Grant Fund provides multiple annual grants to support creative instruction in Orange County Public Schools. The grants are awarded each spring to teachers who

Kathleen Ellington Hargett Fund for Library/Media Center Resources​

The Kathleen Ellington Hargett Fund for ​Library/Media Center Resources provides one annual grant of up to $500 to support creative library and media center programs in Orange County Public Schools. The grant is awarded each spring to a librarian or media specialist who has proposed a creative program that: (a.) encourages students to use library/media center resources; (b.) inspires students from all backgrounds to learn; and (c.) focuses library/media center resources on literacy achievement.

Paul Cogar Teacher Innovative Grant

The Paul Cogar Teacher Innovative Grant is designed to honor Mr. Cogar’s motto be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.