Education Foundation Reaches $1 Million in Private Community Contributions
Oak Ridge families and individuals have donated or pledged $1 million as of this week in the campaign to raise $8 million to renovate and rebuild Oak Ridge High School, believed to be the most ever raised privately from a community for a public school effort in Tennessee.
As of Monday, the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation had raised $1,001,834 from families and individuals since the campaign began last year. Nearly a half million dollars, or $460,414, has been raised from families and individuals since the mid-June high school groundbreaking and kickoff of the Community Celebration Campaign, when each household in Oak Ridge received a mailing about the fund raising campaign.
"This $1 million milestone so soon is just terrific - it truly is a community celebration!" said Pat Postma, who heads the Education Foundation fund raising efforts. "The funding pieces are really falling into place."
Combined with the $5 million pledged by the city's major Department of Energy contractors and $244,750 from local businesses, the Education Foundation has raised $6.24 million in the ongoing campaign.
"There is not a foundation in the state of Tennessee that has even tried to do something like this," said Kip Reed, Executive Director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. He described the nearly $1 million raised from private family and individual contributions as "simply amazing."
Most education foundations in the state are small and work on smaller projects, but the scale and scope of the Oak Ridge Public School Education Foundation's efforts are very unusual, Reed said.
Another major piece of the funding is now in place, as well. The Education Foundation was instrumental in identifying special federal funds available through the state of Tennessee to provide funding for the school. These are Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZAB), issued by the Tennessee School Bond Authority. The city has received $7 million of the $8.5 million from the QZAB funds so far, according to Steve Jenkins, Oak Ridge Deputy City Manager. Private funds raised by the Education Foundation are providing the estimated $800,000 in local matching funds needed for the QZAB interest-free loans.
Without the initial private commitments from UT-Battelle, BWXT Y-12, Bechtel Jacobs, Wackenhut Services, Inc., Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and others who have contributed to the Education Foundation, the school system couldn't have applied for the QZAB funding. "It wouldn't have happened," said Oak Ridge School Superintendent Tom Bailey.
The half-cent increase in local sales tax approved by Oak Ridge voters last year provides another piece of the financing needed for the $55 million high school renovation and rebuilding.
"It is significant that we are able to do this (the high school project) without impacting the property tax rate," Jenkins added.
Nearly 100 volunteers in neighborhoods across the city have participated in the campaign, either by hosting neighborhood gatherings, such as ice cream socials, picnics, or wine tastings to generate support for the campaign, or by sending post cards to neighbors encouraging them to support the high school project and endowment.
Contributors have included families with multiple generations that have attended Oak Ridge schools, such as ORHS graduate Connie Adams, her husband Ben, and their children and grandchildren, and newcomers to Oak Ridge, such as Bonnie Hebert, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's new protocol officer, who arrived less than a month ago. Hebert attended a progressive party in the Park Meade neighborhood July 15 hosted by several families in support of the campaign. Admission was a pledge to the foundation, and Hebert was happy to oblige.
"One of the main reasons we moved here was because we heard such great things about the public education system in Oak Ridge," said Hebert, whose husband Paul, who will also work at ORNL, and two children moved here from Atlanta. Their son and daughter will both benefit from the new high school.
"The highly successful results of the Community Celebration Campaign are so important. It gives us just the base we need as we go forward to contact our alumni across the country," Postma said. "We'll continue working with people in the community, too. There are many families and many businesses in the area that still plan to contribute. We will see our numbers get higher and higher."
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2000, invests in the Oak Ridge Public Schools to ensure the highest quality of education for its students. The foundation, providing funds beyond public tax dollars for education, raises funds through grants and private donations to invest in enhanced educational programming, innovative technology, and state-of-the-art facilities for teachers and students.
For more information about making a donation to the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation, call the foundation office at 241-3667 or see the foundation's web site at http://www.orpsef.org. In addition to direct contributions, donors can pledge an amount with payments to be made over a period of five years at specific intervals through 2009. The Education Foundation is a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization. It has an investment account and does accept gifts of appreciated stock. Call Lila Metcalf at the Foundation office for account information.