Center Education Foundation

When the Center Education Foundation was created in 1999, we quickly realized that the single best way to impact student learning in the Center School District was to support the work of classroom teachers. Our primary strategy since that time has been to provide funds through a competitive grant program that teachers can request to enhance student learning opportunities. As the Foundation has grown, our ability to help teachers has also improved. We currently award over $50,000 per year with 40-50 grants covering a wide range of academic areas. The ages served by grants range from birth to high school seniors. Academic areas addressed including technology, art, science, math, social studies, literacy, school libraries, physical education, travel experiences, music, behavior, and safety net supports. All grant recipients are required to provide feedback to the Foundation on how the funds were expended and how the program impacted student learning.

The Foundation consists of a volunteer board of alumni and community leaders who raise funds and administer the grant program. An Executive Director provides the day to day support for the Foundation's activities. Funds are raised through a variety of community sources, including corporate partners, alumni, individual donors, and Center staff who donate through a payroll deduction program. The grant review process is conducted by a volunteer group of educators who do an initial screening of requests and make recommendations to the Foundation Board. The Board makes the final funding decisions. Funds are given to the School District to be disbursed to support the teachers per normal district financial procedures.

The primary measurements are the feedback reports received from teachers on the impact that their grants have on student learning. In some cases this will include data driven measurements such as assessment reports. In other cases the measurement is based on testimonials from students and teachers impacted by the grant programs and projects. One of the measures that we have used over time is the steady growth in the number of grant requests submitted to the Foundation. In our early years, we received less than ten requests per year. In the past three years, we have averaged over 70 requests totaling over $90,000. This is also an indication of our potential to grow our impact as we continue to explore new sources of revenue.

Over the past three years, we have awarded over $170,000 in classroom grants to Center teachers. As we move forward, we expect to continue to expand our impact by developing new sources of revenue so that we can approve more of the grant requests that are submitted. In addition, we are expanding our mission to work with a community-based program called Impact Center to address some of the outside needs of our students and their families. The immediate goal of Impact Center is to end homelessness for Center students by providing a wide variety of support resources to help homeless families get into and stay in dignified, permanent housing. Longer term, we expect this group to also address the larger problem of housing instability for our families.