Decatur City Schools Foundation

Challenge spurs a reaction—one of either defeat or victory. For Zoe Watkins and Malieq Senior, two 2017 Austin High School graduates who have received the Rice Scholarship, challenge demands dauntlessness. Zoe’s dauntless enthusiasm was sparked by her battle with liver sarcoma. She is now a 7-year survivor, but she didn’t always feel so strong. Even long after the liver sarcoma had been defeated, Zoe still struggled with the chemo affecting her brain. “They call it chemo-brain,” she says. “It makes my brain fuzzy, and it is super hard to concentrate for long periods of time—sometimes even a class period is too long.” When Zoe’s grades started dropping, her parents offered to let her pull out of the advanced classes she was taking, but Zoe was determined to not only graduate from advanced classes, but also with honors. “Putting in the extra time was really, really hard,” Zoe says, “but somehow I graduated with honors. It’s a miracle.” Zoe will continue her education at S...

Teamwork is a beautiful thing, and generosity is another beautiful thing, so when they work together, they make something so beautiful the whole world stops to stare. And it just so happens that these two beautiful forces collided in the teamwork between St. Johns Episcopal Church and Banks-Caddell Elementary School in Decatur, AL. And the whole town is staring. Seeing the needs of Banks-Caddell—96% student poverty rate and low reading test performance—St. Johns decided to invest in changing those statistics. By implementing Homework Helpers, Backpacks for Food, and Camp McDowell sponsorships, St. Johns has made generous changes to their community. Within the first year of teamwork, 77% of students raised their reading test scores, and 82% raised their math test scores. In addition, 4 students increased their reading level by a grade or more, and 9 students increased their math level by a grade or more—in only 8 weeks. The academic progress has the Homework Helpers progra...

In June 2017, the Rotary Club of Decatur generously agreed to fund $1,500 for Innovative Reading Tools in Decatur City Schools. Since their very first donation of $500 in 1998, the Rotary Club of Decatur has modeled a lifetime of giving through the Decatur City Schools Foundation totaling over $11,000 to date. With partners like Rotary and many others, it seems like the Foundation is always celebrating something new and exciting. The change we’re celebrating this time is the introduction of reading materials supporting the Decatur City Schools effort to increase the reading skills of over 4,000 students in Kindergarten - 5th grades. These reading materials are called Leveled Reading Libraries, and will be used in all 12 of Decatur’s elementary schools. Leveled Reading fosters a level of ability that is custom-made for each reader; in which student reading is guided not by a certain age, but by a certain level. The entire project budget is $23,723, but library set...