The school year has ended, and our office is overflowing with final Teacher Grant reports, adorable handmade thank-you cards from children who took a field trip to somewhere special, and somewhat less adorable (but no less heartfelt) thanks from teachers who received grants, scholarships or awards from the Partners in Education Foundation over the past nine months.

Thanks to the support of so many of you in our community, Partners was able to accomplish the following Teachers Who Inspire Awards. This year, Partners recognized eight outstanding teachers for their inspirational qualities in the classroom, leadership among their co-workers, and service to the community. The 2009 Teachers Who Inspire honorees are:

Laurine "Dakota" Goldberg, SER/SFPS Career Academy, who received our top prize, the Noah C. Rodriguez Award for Excellence

Laurie Anderson, New Mexico School for the Deaf

Terri Blackman, Wood Gormley Elementary

David Forester, Santa Fe High

Susanna Mireles Mankus and Anita Navrot, El Dorado Community School

Margaret Romero, Gonzales Community School

Bob Sorensen, Capital High School, Rotary Award

Teacher grants: Partners awarded more than $95,000 in grants to 91 teachers at 26 schools. These grants funded creative, innovative curriculum-based projects serving more than 10,000 students from pre-kindergarten through high school.

Field trips: The big orange buses took nearly 1,000 classes on field trips to educational destinations throughout Santa Fe and beyond.

Teacher Opportunity Scholarships: Each year, Partners offers small scholarships to school district employees who are studying to become teachers or continuing their education to improve their teaching skills. This year's recipients were:

Sandra Archuleta, educational assistant, early childhood, bilingual, Piñon Elementary

Melanie Bartmess, educational assistant, special education, Atalaya Elementary

Martin Clay, educational assistant, special education, Nye Early Childhood Center, Ramirez Thomas Elementary

Amy Ferns-Vigil, first-grade teacher, Chaparral Elementary

Martha Gonzales, instructional assistant, bilingual, Nava Elementary

Cynthia Arundhati Ladds, substitute teacher, several schools

Kirsi Laine-Castiglione, educational assistant, special education, El Dorado Community School

Annette Ortzow, educational assistant, special education, Atalaya Elementary

Charlotte Ozuna, kindergarten teacher, Gonzales Community School

Dorothy Stenberg, educational assistant, bilingual, E.J. Martinez Elementary

Teacher warehouse: Teachers from all over the district benefited from the donated goods to be found at Partners' Teacher Warehouse. From art supplies and magazines to desks and computers, thousands of dollars worth of materials were recycled by Santa Feans to find new homes in our classrooms.

Partners is an independent nonprofit organization. Every dollar that we give out, every service that we provide, is funded by the generosity of individuals and businesses, foundations and government.

Our best wishes to all the dedicated teachers, and our heartfelt thanks to every one of you who supported Partners, and Santa Fe's students and teachers, this year. We're looking forward to doing it all again in 2009-10 — I hope you'll join us!

Contact Ruthanne Greeley at rgreeley@sfpartnersineducation.org, or visit the Web site, www.sfpartnersineducation.org. Correspondence can be sent to Partners in Education Foundation, PO Box 23374,Santa Fe, NM 87502.