Education Foundation Formed to Support School District
A group of community leaders has formed a foundation to raise much-needed dollars for additional programs that support the education for students of the Sioux City Community School District.
The Sioux City Public Schools Foundation will be officially introduced to the community on June 3 during “New Beginnings,” a retirement dinner and program honoring the achievements of outgoing Superintendent Larry D. Williams. (Click here to view invitation)
The Foundation is comprised of eleven people from the community who are committed to improving education for students of all ages in the District, and will donate their time and efforts to raise dollars needed to support “focus fund” areas including science and math, technology, arts, and scholastic enhancement.
According to board president Ed Den Beste, the foundation is an autonomous organization with its own board of directors and a tax-exempt status, separate and distinct from the District’s Board of Education.
Foundation board members include Den Beste, president, Marty Palmer, vice president, John Williams, treasurer, and Denise Salem, secretary. Other directors include Barbara Benson, Jane Bomgaars, Bruce Lear, Bob Meis, Nancy Mounts, Grant Haight and Larry Williams. Mounts and Williams serve as ex-officio members.
“Monies raised by the Foundation go directly to support programs not able to be provided by the District,” said Den Beste. “Additional support will allow for enhancements that are critical to providing our students with many of the tools needed to achieve academic excellence and to succeed in life.”
The Foundation will seek gifts in the form of cash contributions, bequests, insurance policies, memorials and tributes, all of which will be tax deductible.
The idea for the foundation
grew from an expressed need for supplemental funds and a growing
awareness of the popularity of education foundations. A feasibility
committee of nearly a dozen community members met several times
during the summer of 2006 to discuss the merits of a foundation
before presenting their proposal for formation to the Board of
Education the following fall. The last several months have been
spent organizing the board and its governance, as well as
identifying areas of need and developing plans to meet those
needs.
Tax-deductible contributions to
the foundation can be sent to Sioux City Public Schools Foundation,
c/o 505 5th Street, Suite 412, Sioux City, IA 51101