The McKinney Education Foundation awards Professional Development and Classroom Grants to deserving MISD teachers and staff. Most funds for these grants are donated by MISD staff themselves.

Awarding grants to teachers directly impacts the quality of education in McKinney. The grants give teachers the freedom to implement innovative ideas that otherwise would go unfunded.

Finch Elementary received two MEF grants for the 2008-2009 school year. Mary Carole Strother received a  MEF staff grant for Digital Science Portfolios. Ricardo Jaramillo also received a staff grant to purchase Flip cameras for Science.

For the second year in a row, Finch Elementary is the only campus in MISD to qualify for the Governor's Educator Excellence Award Program, a non-competitive grant. The purpose of the Governor's Educator Excellence Award Program, Texas Educator Excellence Grant, is to achieve higher levels of student academic performance. Finch qualified based on improvement of TAKS scores during the 2005-2006 school year. The goals of the program are to create a financial incentive system for educators and increase student academic achievement. The incentive program proposal for the 2007-2008 year is outlined below.

Program Proposal for 2007-2008