School Foundations

[Lisa Starbuck]

It's been a while since we had a discussion about school foundations, and there is a story in the News-Sentinel about foundations in East Tennessee. I knew there were some schools in Knox County that had private foundations already, but one of the things we had talked about before was trying to establish a system-wide foundation to benefit the schools. Individual schools having a private foundation kind of makes me uncomfortable, so I think having a system-wide foundation makes a lot of sense. If the Great Schools Partnership becomes a system-wide foundation, do you think individual schools should still have their own? Is it right that affluent schools should have access to resources that other public schools don't? I don't know the answer, but it certainly is food for thought.

[granma2]

Doesn't the Great Schools Partnership have hidden agendas? I remember thinking that once when I read about them a long time ago. Also, isn't the coupon book sales, where the primary amount goes to Title I schools, a type of foundation for schools that can't raise their own funds?

[Indya Kincannon]

Actually $7 of every coupon book sale goes to the school from which it was sold. Of the remaining $3, one dollar goes to cover the cost of the coupon books, one dollar towards some technical system-wide thing, like E-rate internet access for our libraries, and then one dollar to high poverty schools, where students cannot typically sell as many coupon books. This is my recollection. You can get the details on the kcs website.

The Chair of the Board of Ed serves as a trustee on the Great Schools Partnership. I attended a few meetings just as a regular board member, and now I attend them in my official capacity as Board chair. There is no hidden agenda. It's an evolving organization that is trying to become a Local Education Fund (LEF), which is a Foundation to benefit all of KCS. To date most of the GSP money has been tax payer dollars. I support the initiatives started by the GSP, but think it's important to reduce (possibly eliminate) the reliance on public dollars and incubate these projects through grants instead. Chattanooga has an LEF that has done this very successfully.

Some of the initiatives started and supported by the GSP include Kindergarten Intervention, Pre-k, Birth to K, Teacher Induction, Teacher Advancement Program (which include a performance pay component), AVID (a program for middle-achieving middle school kids who may be the first in their family to attend college). There may be others, but that's all I can recall off the top of my head. If these programs prove effective, they can be rolled into the regular KCS budget. If not, they can be discarded. This has already happened with Kindergarten Intervention. You can read more about the GSP here: http://www.greatschools.us/

Also the GSP has been without an Executive Director for almost a year now. We're in the process of trying to hire someone, have advertised locally and in some education periodicals. So there has been a bit of limbo. Hope that helps.

Indya Kincannon