THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE/ULTIMATE ARTICLE OUTLINES CANADY'S AND CROCKETT'S PLAN FOR A FOUNDATION:
The Houston Chronicle/Ultimate Katy printed this article on May 10, 2011. It outlines Marcia Canady's/Chris Crockett's plan for a foundation.
http://www.ultimatekaty.com/stories/244869-katy-isd-explores-forming-a-foundation (I did not print the article here until the Chronicle took it off their web site. People should be able to see what these administrators have said.)
Katy ISD explores forming a foundation
by FLORI MEEKS , CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT | May 10, 2011 5:57 pm
Katy Independent School District could have an education foundation in place as soon as this summer, said Marcy Canady, assistant superintendent for school and community engagement.
"We're in the early stages of developing one," Canady said. "The district has been interested in a foundation for years, but it's never been the right time."
About two years ago, around the time Canady began working for Katy ISD, district leaders made it a priority to establish a foundation within three years.
This spring, Canady, who has been directing the process, worked on developing a list of community representatives who will be invited to serve as the foundation's first board.
"We're looking at people who are influential in the community or who have potential to have a great first year," she said.
While foundation priorities vary by district, the general purpose of these nonprofit organizations is to provide financial support that districts wouldn't ordinarily receive.
Cy-Fair foundation
The Cy-Fair Education Foundation, for instance, primarily provides student scholarships and teacher grants for professional training workshops.
The foundation awarded one scholarship in its first year, 1970. It now provides more than $200,000 a year and awarded scholarships to more than 85 students last year, executive director Marie Holmes said. Its actions benefit the Cy-Fair Independent School District and the community it represents, Holmes added.
"A foundation can have a huge impact on the community. Really, it's the community giving back to the students who are coming through the district," Holmes said.
Fort Bend foundation
A foundation provides multiple benefits, said Brenna Smelley, executive director of the Fort Bend Education Foundation, established in 1992.
"I think it helps the teachers and schools enhance the quality of education students receive by providing innovative tools district budgets cannot fund," Smelley said.
Fort Bend's foundation provides grants for teaching programs and also supports extracurricular activities.
"I have funded every curriculum there is to fund, even a request from maintenance," Smelley said. "We've done some really neat ones that are way out of the box."
The foundation helps new teachers buy educational materials and displays for their rooms, an expense that typically comes out of their pockets.
"So, not only are we enriching curriculum, we're building teacher morale because they know there's an organization that supports them," Smelley said.
Smelley estimates the foundation has awarded $2.8 million in grants to date.
Growth hampered Katy
One of the primary reasons KISD has not developed a foundation up to now, Canady said, is its rapidly expanding population. [And because I fought against it tooth and toenail when they tried to do one once before! MM]
Katy is gaining about 2,500 students a year, and growth was as high as 5,000 to 6,000 students a few years ago, before the economy went into decline. [KISD has only had over 3,000 new students at the beginning of a school year three times. The highest increase was 3,596 in the 2005-2006 school year. So to suggest that there were "5,000 to 6,000 new students a few years ago" is a flat out lie by Flori Meeks.]
"The focus had to be handling growth and opening schools while maintaining quality in our educational programs," Canady said.
"When you're asking the community to build new schools, it's not a good time to ask for more money."
But now, with Texas facing budget challenges, the existence of a devoted education foundation becomes increasingly critical, she said, and the district is forging ahead.
"We see there is not a best time. If we keep waiting, we will never do it."
A foundation's ability to provide funding is only one of its positives, Canady added.
Foundations also tend to have a unifying effect on a community.
"In a community like ours with fast growth, maintaining a sense of community can be challenging. We all need to pull together. An education foundation would do great things for participation among educators, trustees, businesses and parents," Canady said.
Biggest challenge
The foundation's biggest challenge is finding its place among existing programs that support Katy ISD, Canady said.
A number of parent groups and business partners have been providing financial support to individual schools and projects. Now, they'll be asked to work with an organization devoted to the district as a whole.
As far as the foundation's grant priorities, they will be determined by the first board, Canady said, but she sees a wide scope of possibilities that the foundation could focus on.
For that matter, she said she wouldn't be surprised to see other Texas foundations broaden their lists of priorities.
"I think the budget situation our whole state is in will impact education foundations: areas they haven't been amenable to giving support to might open up," Canady said.
"The overall theme is to support and enhance student learning experiences. The sky's kind of open as far as what a foundation can help us do."
Here is my comment that they wouldn't post!
As a Board member in the 1990's I did everything I could to keep a "foundation" from coming to fruition. Establishing organizations that fund school district matters that have the purposes of foundations while circumventing the authority of the school board is a bad idea. The school board by law is supposed to have control of the MONEY!!
This idea for a foundation was brought up again by Board member Chris Crockett, when she ran the first time, and now that she's been soundly defeated, I hope this idea will go away for lack of support. Board approval for a foundation evidently occurred earlier this year, but just try to find it listed on the agenda!
Foundations serve to collect money that is spent on scholarships, but those scholarships are to send teachers, mostly, to get trained so they will be steeped even more in socialist ideology. They also provide local in-service by bringing liberal leftists to talk to school employees.
Parents of Booster Clubs should also notice the line, "A number of parent groups and business partners have been providing financial support to individual schools and projects. Now they'll be ASKED TO WORK with an organization devoted to the district as a whole." **
That looks to me like a snatch and grab ploy. Another socially leveling attempt by a government. Don't let the Katy High School Athletic Booster Club have all that money they worked so hard to earn--they need to share it with some other high school that doesn't have such supportive parents!
I know when my husband was president of the Taylor Athletic Booster Club, and we worked our tails off to fund THS projects, we sure weren't of a mind to give some Central Administrator veto power over our activities.
Marcia Canady came here to write speeches for Alton Frailey because he couldn't write his own, as I imagine he had gotten tired of me sending over corrections. She can't even do that, but what she has done is try to float the IB school at Wolfe, (and let's hope that's dead), develop bad PR for the District while getting in the way of the Communications Department which was doing just fine before she got here, and now this. She needs to go! We could hire three teachers back for what she makes.*
*Ms. Canady has finally left the district (2014).
** I have been challenged on my suggestion that the KISD Foundation was after Athletic Booster Club funds. Re-read that quote! I didn't say that, Ms. Canady said it!
*** When there are Yahoos with rings in their noses for school board members, matters such as this do not get stopped. We now have a "foundation." Be sure you read the fine details of what they do with the money.