FISHERS - It's no secret that most school districts are facing a budget squeeze going into next year, but some teachers are going online to help pay for school projects.
Donna Schiele teaches a course to 7th and 8th graders at Fishers Junior High School. It's called "Read 180."
"I have a reading center where the kids read independently. The books get used, they get beat up pretty bad. So this is one of my books here," said Schiele.
Devon Lewis is one of the students who has been wearing out those books. He'll be a sophomore at Fishers High School.
"I came into the program with only, like, reading small books and when I left the program, I'm now reading Stephen King books, James Patterson books," Lewis said.
The program's gone so well, students are wearing out the books. But money to buy replacements isn't readily available in her school's budget, so she's turned to the Internet for help.
The website is called DonorsChoose.org, where Schiele's now more than halfway to reaching her funding goal.
"What's great about it is, you can put it on Facebook and Twitter, so I've had a few of my friends and you can donate five dollars, it's not a lot," Schiele said.
The online fundraising effort has helped teachers raise money in a timely fashion. In the past, going through, say, a grant committee, they'd have to wait nine months to a year to find out whether they got the money.
DonorsChoose.org gives teachers a few months to get the word out about their cause and reach their goal. Two schools in the Fishers school district have fundraising efforts underway, there are hundreds more in the Indianapolis area.
"Teachers have been able to do field trips, just all kinds of things. They've been able to enhance their classrooms," Schiele said.
Last year, DonorsChoose.org helped raise $30 million dollars to support 60,000 classroom projects.
