Education
The Community Foundation's Education Initiative is intended to help improve academic achievement for Erie County students in grades K-12. Our goal is to provide, and to encourage others to provide, private support for public education as a means to enable our students and schools to achieve a margin of excellence through projects and programs that would otherwise be out of reach within their regular school budgets.
Education Challenge Grants
The Erie County Community Foundation awarded challenge grants totaling nearly $250,000 to five public and three parochial school systems in Erie County to establish permanent endowment funds for K-12 education. The challenges were issued to all Erie County schools in early 2007, with the Community Foundation offering a 1:1 match on dollars raised by December 31, 2009. Each school’s allocation was based on student enrollment data. The endowment funds will generate an annual grant to each participating school, to be used for purposes determined within each district.
Schools that have raised matching dollars are public school districts: Berlin-Milan, Margaretta, Perkins and Sandusky City Schools, Vermilion Schools; and parochial school systems: St. Mary School in Vermilion, St. Peter School in Huron and Sandusky Central Catholic Schools. Of these, with the exception of Margaretta, all met or exceeded their challenge grant goals, and received an additional $3,910 bonus award for their fund.
Endowment funds have been established with a challenge grant and donations from each school community as follows:
Berlin-Milan Education Fund
Margaretta Education Fund
Perkins Education Fund
Sandusky Education Fund
Sandusky Central Catholic Education Fund
St. Mary School Education Fund
St. Peter School Education Fund
Vermilion Education Fund
$71,526
$46,840
$80,809
$139,174
$29,974
$13,910
$13,910
$86,570
The second component of the Education Initiative is a $1,000,000 grant for academic achievement. This year's grant of $250,000 is the 4th and final year of the program for the benefit of the 14,000 young people attending Erie County schools.
Each school district is unique and each faces its own challenges, so in designing our program, we believed it was important to allow each school system to address its own needs and dreams for the future as they best saw fit. We asked only that the grants be used to help students improve academically and that the schools solicit community input in their decision making process.
2009-2010 School Year Grants for Academic Achievement
Berlin-Milan Schools
$30,914
Huron Schools
$26,585
Margaretta Schools
$24,949
Perkins Schools
$37,509
St. Peter, Huron
$3,125
St. Mary, Vermilion
$3,125
Sandusky Central Catholic
$13,141
Sandusky City Schools
$68,712
Vermilion
$41,940
Total 2009-2010 Grant
Purchase Smart Boards and related classroom technology; fund 3rd grade Learn to Swim program; fund guidance counseling programs.
Purchase 11 Smart Boards with matching funds from the Huron Eagles.
To fund “Polar Bear Proposals” for 15 Teacher Classroom Grants.
To fund 17 Teacher Classroom Grants.
To purchase playground equipment.
To purchase a Smart Board.
To upgrade wiring for computers; purchase classroom computer stations.
To purchase laptops for Adams Junior High School, a Smart Response system, and related computer equipment.
To fund the continuation of the AIMS web program, Progress Book and Study Island programs; Smart Response system; and to fund staff development in technology training.
$250,000