Employees of PPG Industries’ industrial coatings manufacturing facility in Mount Vernon, Illinois, recently presented PPG Industries Foundation checks to benefit students at Hamilton County Junior and Senior High Schools. Eight teachers received grants totaling nearly $7,000 from the foundation. The teachers and projects receiving grants were:

• Junior High Computer Application and Math Teacher Kathy Teffertiller – 7th- and 8th-grade math software
• Seventh-Grade English Teacher Jessica Varner – language arts online software
• Senior High Family, Career and Consumer Science Teacher Mary Lee Stephens – materials for clothing and food classes
• Eighth-Grade English Teacher Roger Lane – accelerated reading AR360 online subscription
• Language Arts and Science Teacher Cody Swartz – reading worktexts
• High School Math Teacher Brian Ward – IXL Math online program
• High School Vocational Instructor Chad Payne – “Modern Residential Wiring” workbooks
• High School Science Teacher Jason Hall – chemistry and biology materials and supplies

PPG employees applied for the funding through a foundation program called Innovative Classroom Grants. Mount Vernon plant employees sponsoring one or more of the above grants are Lab Technician Tammy Maynor (front, far right), Batchman Brandon Barczewski, Technical Group Leader Walter Rexing (back, second from right) and Quality Control Manager Steve Smith.

“We are so happy to sponsor these grants and help provide our local educators with the tools they need to increase the quality of learning for students,” Rexing said. “PPG is strongly committed to supporting the communities where it operates and the schools where its employees are involved.”