 Wilson
Area School District looks at building a
foundation
Monday, September 27, 2004 • By EDWARD
SIEGER • The Express-Times
WILSON BOROUGH -- Wilson Area School District officials
are considering whether to join the growing ranks of school
districts forming nonprofit foundations.
An attorney from district Solicitor Donald Spry's office
will attend the school board finance committee's Oct. 18
meeting and present options for establishing a foundation,
Superintendent Doug Wagner said.
Wagner said he'll wait to hear from the attorney before
he makes any recommendation to the full school board.
School board President Robert Fehnel said informal
discussions about forming a foundation began about three
years ago, but the board never followed through on the
idea.
No one has formally approached the board about making
donations to the district, but alumni in the past have given
gifts on their own in the form of scholarships, Fehnel
said.
A foundation could assure donations are allocated for a
specific use, such as a local business donating money for an
equipment purchase or alumni for a scholarship fund, Fehnel
said.
The Bangor Area School District formed the Bangor Area
School District Education Foundation around 1996 as a result
of graduate course work of then-Assistant Superintendent
John Reinhart.
The foundation was created independent of the school
board with its own nine-member board of directors and a
liaison to the school board. Reinhart, now the district
superintendent, said the foundation's goal is only to
enhance the district's educational programs.
"It does not become a substitute for funding necessary
and fundamental programs," he said. "No one on the
foundation board thinks donations should be used to cut
funding from the general fund."
Bangor's first donation came from Roseto native Edythe
Trigiani, a retired teacher who donated $250,000 in honor of
her father and former Roseto mayor, Antonio Trigiani. The
district uses the donation to award 11 $1,000 annual
scholarships at graduation.
Another donation from Dr. Stuart and Barbara Wolf funds
a $20,000 scholarship to a graduating senior, and a $50,000
gift from the Clarence Horn Trust funded renovations to the
high school and middle school technology classrooms.
Other foundation directives include gathering and
maintaining any historical documents or memorabilia from the
school district's 100-year history, and sponsoring community
educational and cultural events, Reinhart said. The
foundation was on the cusp of organizing its first community
events when the economy suffered as a result of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, he said.
Reinhart has served as the foundation's executive
director, and the board has discussed whether it should hire
a part-time director to handle fund-raising, an important
component of other foundations, he said.
"I could not possibly do it with my responsibilities as
superintendent," Reinhart said.
Bruce Applegate, executive director of the Nazareth Area
Blue Eagle Education Foundation, echoed Reinhart's
sentiments on the role of foundations.
"It's not created to replace or fill stopgaps in the
(school) board's budget. It's not just for school, but for
adult learning in the community," Applegate said. "We don't
want someone to submit a budget to the board have it cut and
ask the foundation to fund it."
The foundation began a program this year allowing
teachers to supplement classes or programs the district
already offers, Applegate said. A teacher, for instance,
could apply for funding to bring a speaker to the classroom,
he said.
"We're trying to plant the seed money out there to show
this is a very valuable tool," Applegate said.
When the foundation formed in 2002, organizers created a
15-member board of trustees independent from the school
board, applied for tax-exempt status, wrote bylaws and a
mission statement and hired Applegate on a three-year
contract.
The foundation has since published the district's
first-ever alumni directory and instituted an alumni wall of
fame, Applegate said. Nazareth alumni and employees this
fall will put on a play, proceeds from which will fund
scholarships and teacher grant programs, he said.
The play also serves to advertise the foundation,
Applegate said. Board members are working on a program that
would allow businesses to receive tax credits for multi-year
donations, and the foundation hoped the alumni directory
would reactivate the alumni base to make donations to their
alma mater, he said.
"Once people see we're doing what we said we'd do,
people will start coming forward," Applegate said.
Saucon Valley School Board President Karen Beyer,
however, sounded a cautionary tone about foundations,
following the disbandment in March of the Saucon Valley
Education Foundation.
"Fundamentally, a foundation is a good idea," Beyer
said. "But I'd have cold feet about doing it again at Saucon
Valley."
The Saucon Valley Education Foundation was formed in
2001 to move the 175-year-old Lutz-Franklin Schoolhouse from
its current location near Applebutter Road to the district's
Lower Saucon Township campus and use it as an educational
tool.
Hellertown's historical society, however, opposed the
move and eventually won a contentious battle to keep the
school in place.
The foundation was to help pay for moving and
refurbishing the school and eventually educational programs,
Beyer said. But very little of the nearly $100,000 raised by
the foundation remained when the foundation disbanded, she
said.
Beyer -- who was not on the board when the foundation
formed -- said the bulk of donations went toward public
relations. The district was repaid a roughly $16,000 loan
when the foundation disbanded and attorneys agreed to lesser
fees, but most donors received very little of their
donations.
Beyer cautions that any foundation should be
well-monitored with clearly outlined goals and objectives
and is "not just another way to get money from public and
spent wherever."
"I can't see the community setting up a foundation with
clear objectives and embracing it because of the bitter
taste left in their mouths from the previous foundation,"
Beyer said.
Lines seemed to blur between the foundation and the
school district, she said. The foundation used the
district's mailing address and letterhead, and it was
discovered district employees were selling foundation
fund-raising items out of the administration office, Beyer
said.
"I would caution any school board, be very careful about
your role in a separate foundation," she said.
Reporter Edward Sieger can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by
e-mail at esieger@express-times.com.
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