MOBILE, Ala. — The students at Fonde Elementary School did not know what was coming. Then the pep band started.
University of South Alabama football players, cheerleaders and Prowlers arrived at the school alongside the Jaguar Pep Band, SouthPaw and Ms. Pawla for a surprise pep rally — one staged not for the athletes but for the teachers.
The Reveal
The reason for the visit came on Sept. 15, when Dr. Angela T. Barlow, dean of South’s College of Education and Professional Studies, presented Fonde Elementary Principal Joy Gould with a $1,000 check through the College Football Playoff Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers initiative.
Rebecca Chasteen, a Fonde Elementary teacher, was also surprised with a $100 classroom supply award.
“The $1,000 Extra Yard for Teachers grant will provide essential resources that enrich classroom instruction and improve student learning outcomes,” Gould said. “With these funds, teachers will be able to create innovative and engaging learning experiences that increase student achievement, encourage active participation and support the diverse needs of all learners.”
For Chasteen, the moment landed differently.
“This really makes me know that things are being seen,” Chasteen said, describing the hours teachers spend with their students before and after school and on weekends.
Why a Classroom Supply Award Matters More Than Its Size
A $100 classroom supply award is a modest figure against a school budget. It is not a modest figure against a teacher’s own wallet.
Surveys of American public school teachers have consistently found that a large majority spend personal money on classroom supplies, often several hundred dollars a year, with elementary teachers among the most likely to do so. The federal educator expense deduction, which allows eligible teachers to deduct a limited amount of unreimbursed classroom costs, exists precisely because the practice is so widespread.
Against that backdrop, a direct award earmarked for classroom supplies functions as a reimbursement of spending that would otherwise come out of a household budget.
A Decade of Partnership
The Big Reveal is part of South Alabama’s Extra Yard for Teachers Week, held Sept. 12-19 this year. It marks the 10th year that the College of Education and Professional Studies and South Alabama Athletics have partnered to celebrate and support local educators.
“For 60 years, the College of Education and Professional Studies has been preparing educators who change lives in classrooms and communities across our region and beyond,” Barlow said. “Extra Yard for Teachers gives us an opportunity to celebrate the people carrying that legacy forward every day and to remind them that their work is seen, valued and deeply appreciated.”
That 60-year span covers most of the university’s existence, and the college’s graduates staff classrooms across Mobile and Baldwin counties and well beyond.
The Celebration Continues Saturday
Extra Yard for Teachers Week continues Saturday, Sept. 19, when the South Alabama Jaguars host Ohio at Hancock Whitney Stadium at 6 p.m.
Pre-K through 12th grade educators can receive one free ticket to the game, with discounted $15 tickets available for family and friends.
Educators are also invited to a free Extra Yard for Teachers Tailgate hosted by the College of Education and Professional Studies before the game. The tailgate begins at 3:30 p.m. near Gate 1 and the Kids Zone and will include complimentary food, beverages and giveaways.
Teachers attending the game can enter the Amazon Classroom Wish List Giveaway. Twenty-five educators will receive $200 toward their Amazon Classroom Wish Lists and will be notified by email the following week.
Taken together, the Saturday package — free admission, a discounted rate for family, a pre-game meal and a chance at a $200 classroom award — is structured to remove the cost barriers that keep teachers from attending, rather than simply inviting them.
What Extra Yard for Teachers Is
Extra Yard for Teachers is a national initiative of the College Football Playoff Foundation, dedicated to supporting and celebrating educators and elevating the teaching profession.
The foundation is the charitable arm of the organization that runs the College Football Playoff, and its work is directed almost entirely at teachers. Its programming typically includes direct grants, classroom supply funding, professional development support and recognition events staged in partnership with member institutions — which is how a Division I football program’s pep band ends up in an elementary school gymnasium on a Tuesday.
Fonde Elementary
Fonde Elementary is part of the Mobile County Public School System, the largest school district in Alabama by enrollment. The district serves students across a geographically large county that includes urban Mobile, suburban communities and rural areas, and its elementary schools vary considerably in size and in the resources available to them.
For a single campus, a $1,000 grant is not transformative on its own. What it does provide is discretionary money — funding a principal can direct toward instructional materials without navigating the procurement categories that govern most school spending.