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Education Foundation reports $96,000 in recent classroom grants; Student Voice Council outlines districtwide projects
Summary
The Bend‑LaPine Education Foundation summarized recent grants and scholarship activity and set fundraising goals; the Student Voice Council described three subcommittees focused on college and career readiness, mental health and bias incidents and proposed districtwide student-produced videos.
At the Jan. 14 meeting, the Bend‑LaPine Education Foundation and the Student Voice Council presented updates to the school board.
Education Foundation report Jamie Goldman and Anne Westerhoff, executive directors of the Bend‑LaPine Education Foundation, told the board the foundation has returned more than $2.5 million to the district since 1988. For the most recent year the foundation reported two grant cycles and said it funded about $92,000 for the full year; it also reported that in the most recent fall cycle it funded 87 grants totaling over $96,000 and funded about 83% of applications received.
The foundation said it has three primary programs: activity-fee scholarships (to pay participation fees for students), perseverance awards (in partnership with the Axel F. Hoke legacy scholarship for postsecondary scholarships of up to four years), and classroom enrichments (districtwide classroom grants). Foundation presenters said the classroom-enrichment budget for the year was $92,000 and that they have impacted more than 11,700 students through recent grants and programming. Goals for the 2024–25 school year include more than $200,000 in perseverance scholarships, $120,000 in classroom enrichments, and 22 $1,000 activity-fee scholarships.
The foundation described fundraising activities including an annual trivia night (community event with sponsorships), bingo nights, foundation grants and repeated donors.
Student Voice Council Students from the Student Voice Council reported work underway in three subcommittees: college-and-career readiness, mental health, and bias incidents. Quincy Bernal, a senior at Bend Senior High School, said the council is developing a report to measure college-and-career readiness across high schools to identify strengths and gaps. "We hope to provide our insights on how students are being prepared to make and follow through with their post-secondary plans and offer our relevant recommendations," Bernal said.
Elliot DeMartin of Realms High School described the bias-incident group's plan to produce districtwide videos and community meetings ("community meetings," she said, is the school's term for assemblies) that collect and share student and staff stories; those videos could anonymize contributors if privacy concerns arise. The council said it includes at least one representative from nearly every school.
Board response and next steps Board members thanked both presenters. Directors asked the foundation about outreach and communications (the foundation said staff and office managers will be emailed and materials posted on social media and the foundation website for grant cycles). Board members encouraged the Student Voice Council to continue and said they welcomed a future written report on college-and-career readiness and the planned report on technology effects on academic performance.
Ending The board invited the foundation and student council to continue engagement with staff, share timelines for grant cycles, and return to the board with the student council's reports when they are completed.
