Education Foundation Surpasses Halfway Point of Campaign Goal

The Decatur City Schools Foundation (DCSF) announces reaching $570,000 in funding of its $1 million goal. The Foundation received this funding through pledges, gifts, and grants from individuals, smalls businesses, corporations and non-profits.

The Foundation began the Strong Schools. Strong Community. (SSSC) campaign in 2014 following their successful It Starts With Our Schools 5-year campaign, 2009-2014. SSSC will capitalize on accomplishments established through the It Starts With Our Schools initiatives in Decatur City Schools.

The campaign goals are to increase student achievement, enhance classroom technology, expand career tech resources, and continue the partnership with the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) to ensure data based measurement and accountability of all initiatives. “Reports reveal that we have made progress over the last few years, but new test scores show there is much work to be done. We are confident through the support of the community and the partnership with DCS, that we will meet our goals,” says Jesslyn Reeves, Decatur City Schools Foundation Executive Director.

“Our donors are very generous with their support, and also expect progress as measured by graduation rates, discipline rates, and an overall increase in college and career ready graduates”, says Ellen Didier, former DCSF President and SSSC Campaign Chair.

“We are continuing to solicit donations and write grants for the remaining $430,000 of the campaign goal,” says Mrs. Reeves.

For more information on the Strong Schools. Strong Community. campaign, contact the Foundation office at (256) 616-1734 or email Executive Director Jesslyn Reeves at jessylyn@decaturcsf.org .

Comments

Funding from 3M Keeps the Wheels Turning for Career Tech STEM Initiatives

3M has awarded a grant to Decatur City Schools Foundation that will provide resources for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education f ocused on career- and college-readiness for more than 500, 6th– 12th-grade students. The Foundation is committed to working with Decatur City Schools to ensure that students graduate ready to enter the workforce or continue their education. In August, Decatur City Schools combined the Career Technical Education (CTE) efforts of Austin and Decatur High Schools at one center on a portion of the campus previously occupied by Austin High. The center is known as The Career Academies of Decatur. The center provides students the opportunity to explore the type of career or secondary education that they may want to pursue through the use of CTE pathways. STEM career pathways, such as Engineering and Machine Tool Technology, are popular with area students. Introducing students to a variety of career pathways beginning ...

Representative Collins Provides Community Grant Education Funding for ACT Prep

This Fall, Decatur’s high schools started their second year using John Baylor Test Prep to help students get ready to take the ACT. For the past three years, every 11 th -grade student in the state of Alabama has taken the ACT as a way to measure the effectiveness of education among the state’s school districts. While the test for standards is changing this year, the ACT remains an important exam for many students in our district. Often a student’s ACT score determines whether or not the student is eligible to attend the university of their choice. After acceptance, their score will help the scholarship office decide whether or not to grant the student scholarship money to attend. With the high cost of attendance for both two- and four-year institutions, scholarship money can be the deciding factor in whether a student will seek post-secondary education. John Baylor Test Prep provides students with online access to test-prep sessions for the ACT, Pre-SAT, and SAT—all of whi...

The Cure to "Worksheetitis" Teaches Kids Computer Science

Are your students suffering from Worksheetitis? Tired of learning their lessons through written work alone? Luckily, our elementary teachers learned the cure, and thanks to some help from Representative Terri Collins, they’ll be getting the tools to cure it in their classrooms soon. The Technology Department of Decatur City Schools hosted Professional Development for all DCS elementary teachers last month. The gym at Oak Park Elementary School became an escape room, where all of the teachers worked through stations to collect items they would need to escape. To complete each station, though, they had to learn some new things. At each one, they found a new tool or game related to coding, computer science, and technology. From simple tools like Coding Hopscotch that teaches sequencing, to Augmented Reality Cubes that let the user hold our Solar System in the palm of their hand to discover new facts about the planets, our teachers were able to see a wide variety of new wa...

Decatur City Schools Foundation

Search This Blog