Newtown Education Foundation Continues To Take Shape

By Eliza Hallabeck

Since February, a new group has been meeting roughly once a month in the meeting room at C.H. Booth Library in the hope of furthering education in Newtown.

“We are definitely trying to recruit more help,” said Debbie Leidlein, the Newtown resident who started the education foundation. Ms Leidlein is also a history teacher at an independent school in Fairfield and is PTA president for Newtown Middle School. “People are working hard to carve out time to help with the organization.”

The foundation now has eight members on its board, including Ms Leidlein. Other board members are Bob Davenport, Mary Ann Jacob, Cindy Desilva, John Reed, Jean Scarangella, Joe Devellis, and Brian Leidlein.

“A lot of times school budgets keep [teachers] from being able to do projects they want to do,” said Ms Leidlein, “or students for that matter,” and the Newtown Education Foundation is hoping to help.

According to its mission statement, the Newtown Education Foundation, “an independent organization of community volunteers dedicated to supporting the goals of all public K–12 schools in Newtown, will secure resources that help facilitate educational achievement through innovative projects and programs that fall outside the school budget.”

“It’s going well, and we’ve finished with our bylaws, making final revisions. We have a mission statement,” said Ms Leidlein. “So our next step is incorporating and then doing the 501(c)(3) status. We can begin to receive donations before we have the 501(c)(3) status, because it is retroactive.”

So anyone who gives a donation to the foundation would be donating to a tax-exempt organization, she said.

The Newtown Education Foundation has an email established, newtownedfoundation@charter.net, but is still looking for a local student to help set up a website.

“I kind of started talking about the idea with people last summer,” said Ms Leidlein. “I talked to people who I knew are very much in education in our town, and helping students and teachers to think creatively and to go for their goals, even if budget does not allow that to happen. I talked to a few people who came on board. We had a couple meetings, and an informational session.”

Through the informational effort, she said, a group was formed, and bylaws and next steps happened over the next couple meetings. Ms Leidlein said the foundation tried not to schedule meetings during the town budget season, because many of the people involved in the Newtown Education Foundation are also involved in other areas of the town.

“I think because I work in a school, I know that teachers think outside the box,” said Ms Leidlein. “And a lot of time school budgets keep them from achieving or being able to do projects they may want to do, or students for that matter. So I wanted to think outside the box, to be creative in finding ways to help teachers to do things the schools may want them to do but they may not to have the money for.”

Ms Leidlein said the economic sitiuation was a coincidence and did not drive her to start the Newtown Education Foundation. Ms Leidlein said she first learned of education foundations from Lorraine Santore, a former member of the Newtown Board of Education, “and I thought what a great thing for Newtown to have.”

From being a teacher and, “Having that knowledge, made me anxious to help our community,” Ms Leidlein said, “the community in which I live, the community where my children go to school. I see the great things their teachers do every day, and what a great thing it is to be able to help them.”

The Newtown Education Foundation, according to Ms Leidlein, is a way to help further education in town without burdening tax payers.

“Everybody wants great schools,” said Ms Leidlein, “but it is really hard for people on fixed incomes to keep paying more and more and more to have those great schools. So we have to be creative.”

When she first learned about education foundations, she started researching online, and attended a conference in October for the Consortium of Connecticut Education Foundations. Ms Leidlein said each year the conference is held to teach communities what education foundations in the area are doing.

“There’s also programs that will help existing education foundations to go beyond what they are already doing, and to grow” said Ms Leidlein. “It’s filled with a lot of resources.”

Another conference is scheduled for October 6 at the Crowne Plaza Hartford-Cromwell Hotel in Cromwell. Ms Leidlein said if anyone is interested in attending this event they can email her at newtownedfoundation@charter.net.

“Most people when I say we are interested in starting an education foundation are very interested in what and how the education foundation is going to help the community,” said Ms Leidlein. “So I think people are very positive about it. They see a necessity for it. I think once it gets up and going a little bit more, and we are able to send out more information to the public, we will become more widely known.”

Ms Leidlein said possible projects include an annual appeal, sending out information to the community to gather donations. She said setting up specific areas for people to donate to may also be possible in the future, like specifically donating to a science or art project.

The foundation also hopes to set up grants for which teachers and students can apply.

Ms Leidlein said the foundation will be working separately from the school district, but will work to support it where possible.

“We certainly don’t want to give a grant for something outside the curriculum or something that the school district does not want to see happen,” said Ms Leidlein. “We’re hoping to have a good relationship with the school district, and any way the school district could help us to get the word out, we would appreciate that. We also want people to understand that this is not controlled by the public schools in Newtown. This is an independent organization that is working with the schools.”