Decatur City Schools Foundation

Donors show a first-grade class what teamwork really means Kristen Propst is a first-grade teacher at Benjamin Davis Elementary School, but she doesn’t just teach first grade. She loves first grade. Walking into her classroom, you can tell that her students feel loved and nurtured. They quietly listen while she illustrates how to draw a shark, they listen to her instructions, never forcing her to speak loudly, and they banter back and forth in spunky, child-like wit with her like she is their confidante. It seems like Kristen’s classroom has everything—neatly displayed books on low shelves, colorful fish bubbles hanging like Chinese lanterns from the ceiling, walls plastered with inspirational posters, and small tables with apples for snacking. But two people decided to give Kristen’s class even more by donating $395 for her to purchase an educational technology system called Osmo. And those two people are named Bill and Denise Jordan, donors who give to specific...

Over half of the class raised their hands when the library tour guide asked them if this was their first time at the library. So over half of the fifth-graders learned about the library for the first time on May 18, 2017 when their class from Chestnut Grove Elementary School took a field trip to the Decatur Public Library. The field trip was funded by the Foundation’s Strong Schools Strong Community  Campaign to increase student achievement. Throughout the tour, the class learned how to use the catalog system, the Dewey Decimal system on the spine of books, and even learned a few new words like genre, nonfiction, genealogy , and fantasy . Friendly tour guides told the class about all of the free library resources at their fingertips. From e-readers, to movies, books, music, and audio books, countless forms of educational entertainment are available for free use in the children’s department of the library. And just in case any of the fifth-graders is interested in coo...

Blake McAnally spoke on behalf of the Decatur City Schools Foundation at the Kiwanis Club meeting at the Decatur Country Club on May 18, 2017. McAnally’s main topic was workforce development, and he spoke concerning the lack of high school students graduating ready for college and career. In his speech, McAnally said that Alabama is behind the curve on workforce development. “We have a crisis in Alabama,” McAnally says. “We don’t have enough students ready to graduate from high school and get right to work.” In his speech, McAnally shared some shocking statistics. In Alabama, 60% of all jobs require skills above high-school level, but below bachelor or associate degree levels, and we have only 47% of our workforce trained to take these jobs. That means that 200,000 jobs will go unfilled by 2030 because we do not have a trained workforce. This problem creates what McAnally calls a “Readiness Gap.” Graduation rate goals have been exceeded, but college remediation h...

“Twitterpated” is how Gloria Hunter describes herself on the first day of her new job as Communications Assistant for Decatur City Schools Foundation. It’s a good thing, too, because she’ll be handling a good bit of Twitter as well as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets such as blogging and writing press releases. Using these tools, Gloria’s goal is to share stories of success with followers who support our City Schools. “My main priority here at the Foundation is to not only tell our community how awesome the Foundation is for making a difference for students, but also to share how awesome our supporters are for making it all possible!” Gloria began May 16, 2017 and is excited to see how she can begin making a difference right away. Her first job is creating a master communications plan to strategize across departments both within the Foundation and Decatur City Schools. All of that sounds pretty fun right? But her favorite part? “The variety,...