Dr. James McIntyre, superintendent of Knox County schools, expressed his gratitude towards the TEACH/Here members during Wednesday evening's board meeting.

"We are very fortunate to have the TEACH/Here residents and their mentors and also the active support of the school principals at three schools," said McIntyre.

Central and Fulton high schools along with Gresham middle school are the three Knox County schools that currently participate in the TEACH/Here program. The program began in 2010.

McIntyre said that the funding for the program comes from a number of sources which include grants from the National Science Foundation, AmeriCorps, and the Public Education Foundation of Chattanooga.

Residents of the program were selected from a nationwide search and are enrolled at the University of Tennessee in graduate teaching courses. They devote hours in one of the participant Knox County schools as well as coursework through their college in Chattanooga. Likewise mentors are also selected from an intensive process explained McIntyre, before turning the floor over to Dr. Donna Wright.

"It is a real pleasure tonight to finally introduce this inaugural group, to not only our board members but to our public as well," said Wright.

She asked each member to stand when their name was called so that the audience could put a face with the name.  But before the members were announced, Wright first introduced Cheri Dedmon who is the director of the TEACH/Here program.

"She is the glue that has been making this work," said Wright in regards to Dedmon. "I give her a lot of credit to the success of this program." 

The partnership of mentors to residents guarantees that future students can benefit from the TEACH/Here program's focus in mathematics and science.

"TEACH/Here is an opportunity to insure students have access to the best and brightest math and science teachers, no matter what community they reside in," said Dedmon. 

The TEACH/HERE recognition portion of the board meeting ended with applause in appreciation of the seven mentors and six residents.