East Texas Educators Association holds ribbon cutting in Lindale

LINDALE, Texas (KLTV) - The East Texas Educators Association held a ribbon cutting Thursday to commemorate working with three school districts: Sabine, Kilgore and Lindale.

The association launched in March of this year. Founder Kallie Hamill said, “We’re working to connect the classroom and the community together so that we’re all on one team moving forward into this new school year.”

The association board is made up of current and retired teachers as well as college students on their way to becoming teachers.

“We branched out into about 10 different school districts, and so we now have resources in those East Texas areas as they go back to school to really support those teachers and educators,” says Hamill.

The organization has partnered with libraries in the Lindale area to make reading more interactive. “That really gets reading into our community into the hands of students even when they’re not at school,” Hamill explained.

President and CEO of the Lindale Area Chamber of Commerce Shelbie Glover spoke about the benefits the organization has for the community.

“The educators association is going to give them resources. We saw during the pandemic that some homes were unprepared for the pandemic and at-home learning, so the resources they’re going to give are not only for the family but the teachers and communication tools for all of those partners to work together to better educate our children this year,” Glover said.

The organization will begin taking scholarship applications for high school and college freshmen in January.

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