Blue Valley Education Foundation celebrates 25 years with $250,000 fund goal

Twenty-five years ago, parents in the Blue Valley School District were concerned about a change in the state’s school funding formula, so they formed a private foundation to help support excellence in their district.

And while concerns about education funding at the state level remain, the Blue Valley Educational Foundation has grown steadily since it was established in the fall of 1990. Since that time, it has distributed more than $3.5 million in grants to support such things as the Wilderness Science Center, the Center for Advanced Professional Studies and early-childhood education programs. And that’s not to mention a host of smaller grants that individual teachers have applied for and used to buy “maker space” supplies, computers and broadcast equipment for students to use.

“We look for creative ideas for classrooms; projects that are not already funded but that promote learning and educational excellence,” said Blue Valley Educational Foundation executive director Anne Blessing. “Part of the money we raise funds those grants, and we also work to fund districtwide programs that have wide impact.”

And while the Blue Valley Educational Foundation is based in the district office and stays in close contact with administrators, there are legal restrictions on what it can fund. Teacher salaries, for instance, are a no-no. But the foundation can, for instance, fund a classroom visit by an author or buy musical instruments for students to use.

In honor of its 25th year, the foundation set a goal of raising $250,000 this school year, which would allow it to provide a $5,000 grant to each of the district’s 34 schools, among other things.

At an anniversary celebration held this month at the Museum at Prairiefire, Interim Superintendent Al Hanna recalled that he thought the annual fundraising goal was too ambitious when he first heard of it. But he congratulated Blessing and the donors who were present for making it happen. He noted the foundation’s big annual fundraiser, a breakfast held the first day of the school year, raised about $200,000 from 1,000 attendees in August. The event, held at the Overland Park Convention Center, was a far cry from the first one, held at a school cafeteria, Hanna noted.

“The foundation does tremendous events for students,” Hanna said. He said that when teachers learn their grant requests have been funded, “They are literally bouncing off the walls. It’s so meaningful for them. They know they have an impact on the kids.”

Tom Mitchell is a member of both the Blue Valley Board of Education and the Blue Valley Educational Foundation board. In fact, he’s a former foundation president.

He said at the celebration that it was “a pleasure” to watch the foundation’s endowment grow from $350,000 12 years ago to $1.7 million today with the support of many individuals and corporations.

“A lot of use are passionate about education,” Mitchell said. “People live here because of the quality of life, and the top of the pyramid is education, and that translates to economic development. People support the foundation because of that.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Blue Valley Education Foundation celebrates 25 years with $250,000 fund goal."