Time for a Scotia-Glenville Education Foundation?

[Andrew Crapo]

Would you like to help create the Scotia-Glenville Education Foundation?

I’ve been thinking about an education foundation in our district for a year and a half, and I’m ready to act! I have some ideas about mission and activities, but a foundation is a community effort so the first task is to see if we have a critical mass. Then we can sift through the ideas and make a plan. If you are interested in becoming part of an effort to create a Scotia-Glenville Education Foundation, please let me know.

What
A 501(c)(3) education foundation is a non-profit organization separate from the school district but with a memorandum of understanding with the district to work in concert with the district to support education.

Why
A foundation can do things that the school district cannot do, especially in times of limited resources. A foundation can organize volunteers, raise funds, provide grants to teachers, and do many other things which the district does not or cannot do.

When
My aspiration is to have a foundation in place and starting to make a difference by the start of school in September, 2012.

How
There are many aspects to creating a foundation. Here is a checklist. Some of these may not apply to us. The essentials are organize, define our mission, handle the legal tasks to become a 501 (c) 3 corporation, develop a memorandum of understanding with the district, marshal the resources, and start to execute.

Some Ideas
Here are my preliminary ideas. I envision a foundation whose primary purpose is to marshal human capital and not just to raise money. I think and hope there are significant human resources in our district willing to helping and encouraging our students and school community. I now better understand the myriad of constraints under which the district operates, and a properly aligned foundation could foster innovation as well as provide a direct help to students.

More specifically, I envision two possible initial thrusts, although obviously the direction actually undertaken would depend upon the board of the foundation.

1. The superintendent's goal is to have every child reading at grade level by third grade. I’m sure you’ve heard the cliche--up to third grade kids learn to read; after that they read to learn. I have observed reading specialists helping kids who are having trouble reading both in the district and in an outside program. Discussions with the outside specialist as well as my observations lead me to believe that volunteers can be successfully trained at a reasonable effort to tutor kids in reading. This would need to be done in a way that the district teachers and specialists perceived as a help, not a threat, and in a way that supplements the existing and future district programs. The foundation would pay for the background checks (if needed) and training of the volunteers. Imagine that every child reading below grade level had access to a trained tutor to work with him or her in after-school (or other) programs. For an example of a foundation doing this at a large scale, see Saint Paul Public School Foundation, Tutoring Partnership.

2.  Project-based learning is increasingly popular. I observed in the Science Research class at the high school, where bright kids pick a topic, research it, identify a specific objective, enlist a mentor (often a college professor), and then do a summer research program with the mentor. It is a two-year program. The kids were understandably very motivated, self-directed, and enthusiastic. With increasing amounts of high-quality educational material available on the Internet, students with an interest, with the help of a mentor with whom they meet and collaborate, could undertake projects on their own. This could be done individually or with a friend or two with similar interests. A foundation could provide the structure of a program and trained mentors to extend the opportunity to do project-based research to a larger student population. This would need to be done collaboratively with district educators as a way to extend their reach, not to compete with them.

[mk...@nycap.rr.com]

Andrew, Thank you so much for attending the SPACE meeting last week.  Bill P sent me the link to your post.  I too am interested in developing an Education Foundation and am certain of several others with the same interest.  I really appreciate your thoughts on marshalling human capital.  I've said time and again that there are a number of valuable individuals willing to volunteer, several of us who are teacher certified, but no organized way of doing so.  To coordinate a volunteer bank and coordinated efforts would certainly be invaluable.  I have passed your group link on to others interested in developing an ed foundation.

[Claire Houlihan]

Other school districts in the area already have education
foundations.
Take a look at the fundraising, programs and grants that their
districts are involved in.

Ballston Spa
http://www.ballstonspaeducationfoundation.com/

Saratoga Springs
http://saratogaspringsscholarships.org/

Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake
http://library.bhbl.neric.org/edfoun/index.html


Shenendehowa
http://shenedfoundation.org/

Schenectady
http://www.foundationforeducationalexcellence.org/

Mohonasen
http://www.mohonasen.org/MohonFoundation/mohonfoundationhome.htm

Duanesburg
http://dcs.neric.org/district/aboutus/partners/DEF.cfm

The list goes on and on....

[Claire Houlihan]

Hi Andy,
When you presented your education foundation idea to the BOE on March
26, 2012 there was mutual agreement by the board members that the
foundation would be must beneficial if it were up and running by the
start of the next school year. Also, the notion that while the
community/district was still engaged in the budget process it would
make sense to float the idea at that time. Has a date been selected
for the district discussion/ informational session yet?

In case anyone missed the meeting when this was discussed, here is an
excerpt from the March 26, 2012 BOE meeting for this item.

DISCUSSION: EDUCATION FOUNDATIONS
Mr. Crapo explained what an Education Foundation is and how it can
work with a school district. The
Board briefly discussed this issue and agreed that it would be
worthwhile for the District to see if there
were any interest in the community for forming an Education
Foundation. Superintendent Swartz will
work with Bob Hanlon to put something together to present to the
community and engage interested
individuals.

http://www.scotiaglenvilleschools.org/BoardofEducation/2011_12/minutes/march2612.pdf

[Claire Houlihan]

Albany (NY) Times Union
By Scott Waldman /
January 30, 2012

Schools look to sponsors to help pay for programs
Cuts force districts to find alternative funding

ALBANY — Public school districts are turning to private donations to
make up for their budget cuts.

Districts are creating, or expanding, foundations and other nonprofit
organizations to fund programs that have suffered from school aid
cuts. And while the districts' needs and level of support differ,
donations may soon pay for musical instruments, field trips, after-
school programs and building renovations at some area schools.

For years, a number of districts have been supported by nonprofits run
by volunteers. Mostly, they have raised money to provide modest grants
for computers, college scholarships, school plays, robotics programs
and anti-bullying courses.

New efforts under consideration could dramatically increase
fundraising and create a wall of support for districts expecting years
of tight federal and state aid, drawing on a base of alumni, local
businesses and parents.

The Albany district is looking to increase corporate sponsorship that
could provide large grants for bulk purchases of musical instruments
or classroom technology, like interactive Smartboards, said spokesman
Ron Lesko, who is heading up the effort to increase support for The
Albany Fund for Education. That foundation has raised about $30,000 a
year, but the amount could rise to six figures with sponsors
contributing to the renovation of Albany High School or construction
of a new one, as well as to after-school programs for disadvantaged
children. If the district can offset some costs through donations,
money can be put into saving programs and jobs at a time when
continuing cuts are expected, Lesko said.

"We have a ton of financial needs, and one of the ways we're trying to
address that is by becoming more sophisticated in our overall
development efforts," he said.

While residents may complain that they already support schools through
their property taxes, advocates see the foundations as an alternative
source for budget relief. Foundations use golf tournaments, dinners
and appeals to parent groups to drum up community support. School
boards are allowed to accept donations as long as they retain
oversight of the programs.

Five school districts have already affiliated with the Community
Foundation for the Greater Capital Region, which has assets of $51
million and supports 700 nonprofit organizations annually. Foundation
President Karen Biloworth said districts are finding ways to fund
programs already in the budget and also other efforts that can't be
funded through the budget. For example, the Greenville district is
raising money to preserve a historic building, and several districts
are raising money for scholarships, Biloworth said. Schodack is one of
several rural districts looking at forming foundations to support
programs the district can no longer afford.

Bethlehem, which recently affiliated with the Community Foundation,
used a $5,000 anonymous donation to create classroom innovation grants
for teachers. They will support district educators who have innovative
curriculum and classroom ideas, said Michael Klugman, the Bethlehem
Middle School principal who runs the Bethlehem Central Community
Foundation.

He said similar efforts in other districts where he worked paid for
portable telescopes and computers used in classes and after-school
programs. He said the foundations will grow because loyal alumni and
residents will step up after a district grapples with the constraints
of the new tax cap.

"This gives an opportunity for a community and township to keep funds
in their own house," he said. "This gives people a sense of having
local control."

http://www.cfgcr.org/

[mk...@nycap.rr.com]

I see that Ed Foundation is on the agenda for tonight's BOE mtg.  It's unfortunate that this is scheduled on the same night as our Community Walk-Abouts. 

On Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:25:29 AM UTC-5, Andrew Crapo wrote:

[Andrew Crapo]

It was decided last night that the district will organize and publicize a community meeting on education foundations to discuss and inform interested parties. (This was actually decided on March 26, so was not really a step forward, just a re-affirming of direction.) As soon as the date for this is established it will be posted.

[Andrew Crapo]

The education foundation informational session tomorrow (Thursday, June 7, 2012) evening at the Sacandaga library will include, I believe, several speakers who will share their "experiences with an educational foundation". This confirms a conversation I had with someone from the BHBL Foundation in which she told me that she had been invited to speak to us. I think this meeting is an important opportunity to identify and form an interested community and an indicator of the level of interest that exists. Please spread the word!