Five East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS) teachers each received a 2010-2011 Deborah Rochelle Teacher Grant funded by the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Charitable Foundation. 

The winners announced August 23 are: Michaela Anderson, McKinley High School; Phyllis Burleigh, Brownfields Elementary; Christopher Jose, Park Forest Middle; Randy Prejean, Northeast High School; and Genedi Shamburger, Woodlawn High School.  The recipients and their principals were honored at a reception at the school district’s Christa McAuliffe Center.  Each received between $3,309 and $3,500.

The Kelly Gene Cook, Sr. Charitable Foundation has been awarding grants of up to $3,500 to EBRPSS school personnel through their Teacher Grant Program.  In 2009, the program was renamed in honor of Cook’s niece, Deborah Rochelle, the original founder of the program.  Rochelle, a retired English teacher who taught for one year at Scotlandville Magnet High School, envisioned the program as a means to provide direct support to school personnel and bring greater recognition to the teaching profession.  Rochelle currently resides in Folsom, La., and continues to participate as an active member of the Foundation’s board of directors.

Attending the reception honoring the 2010-2011 Deborah Rochelle Teacher Grant recipients were (pictured, left to right):  Prejean, Burleigh, Shamburger, EBRPSS Superintendent John Dilworth, Deborah Rochelle of the Cook Foundation, Anderson and Jose.