Schools
Gower Foundation in Danger of Disbanding
If no one steps forward to be an officer of the foundation between now and the first week of March, the non-profit's assets will be redistributed.
Without new members willing to take the reigns of the Gower Foundation for Excellence in Education, the non-profit will disband.
“If nobody steps forward between now and the first week of March, when they next meet, the vote will be at that point to dissolve,” Gower School District 62 Superintendent Steve Griesbach said Tuesday.
Since 1993, the Foundation has raised funds from private, business and corporate sources to provide additional learning opportunities to students and programs for the community. The Foundation also has provided mini-grants to teachers to help pay for supplemental instructional materials or to start a new program.
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Griesbach told the Board of Education Tuesday the Foundation has tried to recruit new leadership, but no one has stepped forward.
“It’s a sad day for the Foundation. They’ve been working for three years to get new membership,” Griesbach said. “It may take (the Foundation’s) death to be reborn.”
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Should the Foundation disband, its assets will be distributed according to its bylaws, he said.
“They will give them to the district,” Griesbach said. “They have about $26,000, and they will earmark those for projects that they would like to see supported until those funds are exhausted.”
While nobody has volunteered to be an officer of the Foundation, there are people who keep coming to the meetings, which are held on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the school year.
“I think there’s still hope,” Griesbach said.
For more information about the Foundation, visit www.gowerfoundation.com.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved the student fees for the 2012-2013 school year.
“We’re not raising anything,” Griesbach said. The fees will remain the same as this school year, which are $90 for kindergarden, $110 for first through fourth grades and $181 for fifth through eighth grade. Bus fees will remain at $100 for the first student, $75 for the second and $50 for the third.
“Our fees are not the highest, they’re not the lowest,” Griesbach said. “They’re actually towards the lower end right now among our feeder schools going to the high school.”
In other District 62 news:
- The district will move forward with summer projects related to life-safety issues at Gower West. The district will spend approximately $150,000 to replace classroom doors, locks and closures. Superintendent Griesbach said that all classroom doors entering the hallways need to have automatic closures on them. In addition, some glass windows need to be replaced.
- The board approved the purchase of a new school bus for $87,993 from Central States Bus Sales. The bus will arrive in August.