Good Hope teachers Ashley Henderson, from left, Donna Burgess and Anna McSwain are joined by council members Maxie Jones and Terry Shabel during Monday night's council meeting.

Christmas came early for a handful of enthusiastic Good Hope school teachers, who showed up at Tuesday’s city council meeting to accept a combined $15,000 in extra funds from the city’s surplus of alcohol revenues.

Thirteen Good Hope teachers at all grade levels walked away with checks from the city aimed at bringing life to projects they floated to the council in a competitive application process. 

Good Hope Primary was awarded a combined $3,000 in funds; Good Hope Elementary took home $2,750; Good Hope Middle School received $1,300; and Good Hope High School landed $8,000.

Good Hope teachers were encouraged to pitch any idea, whether innovative and ambitious or simply to address a critical need, ahead of the application process. The result was a variety of student facing projects that spanned the gamut from classroom furniture to archery equipment; from a science lab incubator to a classroom’s worth of Rubik’s Cubes.

By school, here’s a full rundown of everything the council awarded:

Good Hope Primary

$180 to Ashley Henderson for INSTA-Learn math boards.

$820 to Becky McDonald and Donna Burgess for art supplies.

$2,000 to Anna McSwain for Google Chromebooks for the Primary School’s special needs class.

Good Hope Elementary

$600 to Miranda Self for a heat incubator to hatch chicks in the science lab. 

$150 to Sara Kirkpatrick for alternative seating, including bouncy balls and wobble cushions. 

$500 to the P.E. program for soft-landing gravel to cushion falls from the rock climbing wall. 

$1,500 to Melody Martin for tables and chairs for a collaborative-learning classroom setup. 

Good Hope Middle School

$1,300 to Pam Yates for Rubik’s Cubes to beging a socialization-focused Rubik’s Cube Club.

Good Hope High School

$1,500 to Lisa Holt for tables and chairs for a collaborative-learning classroom setup. 

$1,500 to Anita Whitlock for flexible classroom seating.

$1,500 to Adriana Skutchan for flexible classroom seating.

$ 1,500 to Jessica Clayton for flexible classroom seating.

$2,500 to Patrick McDonald for a new set of archery for the recently-expanded archery program. 

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 145.