New Hampton, Mason City and Waterloo are among 11 Iowa school districts approved for state funding to support the training of future teachers in the classroom and strengthen the educator pipeline.
According to Iowa Workforce Development, Governor Kim Reynolds announced the second round of grants in the Teacher & Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship, or TPRA, Program will provide a total of $3.4 million to “support the development of 68 new teacher apprentices and 26 new paraeducator apprentices.”
New Hampton-Turkey Valley shared Superintendent Jay Jurrens says their $266,000 grant will help fund up to eight teacher apprenticeships across the two school districts and, hopefully, fill a need for more teachers in the two school systems.
Jurrens says the TPRA is another opportunity to “grow your own.”
Jurrens credits New Hampton Schools special education director Katie Fisher for submitting the successful grant application. The apprenticeship program is expected to start this Summer.
The Mason City School District will receive a TPRA grant of $380,000 for 10 apprenticeships while the Waterloo Community School District was awarded $190,000 for five apprenticeships.
