SPS Foundation launches new capital campaign

After nine years of helping put technology into Springfield Public Schools' classrooms with funds from the Telethon For Technology, the Springfield Public Schools Foundation is ready to broaden its horizons.

Fund-raising campaign

The foundation has discontinued the Telethon For Technol-ogy, according to Marcia John-son, project and development director for the foundation. Johnson said the foundation will kick off its new capital campaign, "Back to School With the Foundation," Aug. 30, which is the first day of the 2001-02 school year in Spring-field.

The campaign kick-off will be held at Hillcrest High School, 3319 N. Grant Ave.

Johnson said the last Telethon for Technology was held in 2000, but in the nine years T4T existed, it raised more than $400,000 in cash grants, which didn't include the technology funds individual schools raised, or in-kind donations, and gave money in some form to every school in the R-XII District.

But, she said, the foundation decided it was time for a change.

"Even though (Telethon for Technology) was a wonderfully successful project ... we really felt like we covered the gamut for technology," Johnson said. "But what we continued to hear, was that there are other needs out there."

While the new campaign will include grants and monies for classroom technology needs, Johnson said, it's much different than the Telethon For Technology, which gave funds for technology exclusively.

The "Back to School With the Foundation" campaign will focus on projects of all shapes and sizes that are geared toward enhancing students' classroom experiences, and ultimately, keeping them interested in school.

"We knew that to really keep kids in school, we had to do something to fill some of these other needs," Johnson said, and that's why the organization revamped its fund-raising campaign.

"We know that every child in Springfield, if it was a perfect world, would love school, and we think that what we can do with the money raised in this campaign will help them come to the first day of school, eventually, and say ... I love it, and I'm going to learn; I'm going to stay here,' and that's what we want," Johnson said.

The types of things that will be eligible for "Back To School" grants include creative classroom projects, including those that give real-world experience in teamwork and practical applications, equipment or equipment upgrades, continuation or expansion of previous grants and funding for teachers to attend conferences and workshops that cover anything from working with at-risk kids to advances in technology.

For this first year, the foundation's goal is to raise $150,000, and Johnson said she's already started pitching the cause to community members. Of that amount, $50,000 is earmarked to help pay for the school district's new accountability plan, with a commitment of $2 per student for that purpose.

Accountability

According to SPS Chief of Staff Phyllis Chase, EdD, the accountability program includes establishing standards for testing scores on the ACT, the Missouri Assessment Program and other standardized tests. It also includes implementing measures designed to improve scores and meet those standards, and it makes all parties involved accountable for their part in increasing student a-chievement, which Chase said is top priority of the Board of Education.

"We're looking forward to the resources from the foundation, because that can help fund school improvement initiatives. With the accountability plan, we're asking that schools look at the data in terms of recommending and setting achievement goals, so they should know the data on the math assessments and on the benchmark assessment (tests) ... it could be survey data on parent satisfaction, on teacher satisfaction, those types of things," Chase said.

Armed with that data, she said, schools and their school improvement planning committees will set their own goals and benchmarks, and "be in a continuous improvement cycle," she said.

While not all the improvement measures will cost more money, there will be ideas that will, so the boost from the foundation will be "a critical resource for all of the schools."

Plus, Chase said, the schools will be able to decide on their own how best to use the foundation funds for the accountability program.

"They're going to implement it, and their going to be held accountable for it, so they should have some input," she said.

Chase said it's "uplifting" to the district and its teachers to know that there's an organization out there supporting all SPS students.

"So many of the dollars that (the district) receives are already earmarked ... they must support this or that program, they have many, many regulations tied to them. With this money coming from the foundation ... all that we've asked is that it be tied to their school improvement planning efforts," Chase said.

Project grants

The remaining $100,000 raised in the "Back to School" campaign will be used solely for project grants. In future years, Johnson said, the fund-raising goals for the "Back to School" campaigns will increase.

She said, too, that to raise money for the grants, the foundation will host seven school lunches with members of the community to give them a chance to see the schools and their needs.

The grant application forms have been reduced to two pages to make the process easier for teachers, Johnson said, and the process with the new campaign also operates on a tighter schedule.

"Our deadline for that is much sooner, so we're going to get ... the money into the teachers' hands by Thanksgiving. So we've done lots of changing. This whole thing is about change, and trying to make it better," Johnson added.

The foundation will continue its annual summer golf tournament, that helps raise undesignated funds, and its springtime Teacher Appreciation Banquet. Johnson said the organization accepts donations for all of its projects from private and corporate donors, as well as endowments.

As for corporate donations, Johnson said businesses should be interested in education at all levels, because not only does the system represent their tax dollars at work, but today's students are the future work force.

Raising funds for project grants is "really a way that we can help, and we can get businesspeople and patrons involved and raise this extra money. It's not chairs and it's not tables and it's not air conditioning or heat or whatever, but it's really what makes these kids light up," she added.