Gwinnett teacher needs votes to get $100K grant for at-risk students

A Gwinnett County teacher still needs your vote to win a $100,000 grant she believes would "be a life-changer for academically at risk students."

As of Wednesday morning, Brookwood Elementary School's Sharon Smith was just outside the top six in Farmers Insurance's "Dream Big Teacher Challenge," a spokesman said — meaning that, if she doesn't rally, she'll be out of the money.

Voting is open through Oct. 31.

According to a news release from the city of Snellville, Smith would use the grant to "implement a tuition-free after-school program for the lowest achieving 10 percent of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at Brookwood and Meadowcreek elementary schools."

“This tuition-free, innovative intervention would help strengthen students' weakest math and literacy standards through explicit instruction that would be applied to the building and maintaining of a community garden and aquaponics system," Smith said in the news release. "Students would also learn about entrepreneurship as they realized jobs that needed to be filled, completed job applications and interviewed for these jobs."

Supporters can vote for Smith's proposal by clicking here. Votes are limited to one per day.