August 14, 2008

News Release

It’s Back to School Time for Tyler ISD Foundation

With Tyler students returning to the classroom in a couple of weeks, the Board of Directors of the Tyler ISD Foundation already has their lesson plan in place for its own top grades.

This past year, the Tyler Independent School District Foundation received recognition on a regional, state and national level as one of the premier education foundations in Texas. 

With another academic school year beginning soon, the expectations are greater than ever, according to Larry Goddard, Executive Director of the school district’s non-profit organization.

“With record-setting campaign results last year, we believe the upcoming academic year will bring impressive achievements for the Foundation in our efforts to support education and educators in Tyler,” said Goddard.

Mike Thomas, a CPA with his own firm, Michael Thomas CPA, P.C., will begin his third term as President of the Board of Directors. Thomas and Executive Director Goddard recently returned from Tampa, Florida where they met with directors of the nation’s two most successful education foundations.

“We are constantly striving to make the Tyler ISD Foundation more successful in order to support the Tyler Independent School District,” said Thomas. “We returned with several innovative ideas that we are excited to implement this year.”

Some of the achievements of the Foundation during the past academic year include:

·         The Foundation received state, regional and national recognition for being a pioneer in public school philanthropy and is one of the oldest education foundations in Texas.

·         This past year, the Foundation won awards from the Texas School Public Relations Association, the National School Foundation Association, and the National School Public Relations Association, which brought honor to Tyler.  Also, Goddard was named the 2008 Regional Citizen of the Year by the East Texas Council of Governments.

·         Directors and staff of the Tyler ISD Foundation gave presentations on a local, regional, state and national level during 2008.

·         The Foundation provided classroom, campus, and district wide grants.  More than $200,000 was awarded this past year to teachers and campuses in Tyler, Texas.  In 2006, $9,000 was awarded.  

Raising private funds for public schools is a cutting edge arena for philanthropy for this decade.  In years past, universities, both private and public raised endowments from alumni; in the 1990’s, the trend expanded to include community and junior colleges.  The current trend is for public schools, kindergarten through high school, to research successful alumni for donations or to partner with large corporations.

“It makes sense for donors to place their contributions in the early years of education in order to ensure academic success of our students,” said Goddard.

Ross Conner, President of Connor Communities Home Builders, will serve as vice president-development and chair the “I Love Tyler ISD” Campaign for the second year in a row. The campaign will kick off in October and will begin a three-month solicitation drive. Last year, the campaign raised a record-setting $380,000 in support of the programs of the Tyler ISD Foundation.

Chris Jones, Branch Manager of East Texas Professional Credit Union, will serve as vice president-governance and chair of the Teacher & Campus Grants Program. In this position, Mr. Jones will oversee policy, goals and plans for the Foundation.

Catherine Harrison is serving as vice president-programs. This is a newly created office that will oversee all the Foundation-supported events, such as the Kickoff Luncheon and A Night of Shining Stars, the Foundation supported academic recognition program.  Also, an alumni research firm has been hired to create a Tyler ISD alumni data base for an Alumni Association.

Larry Bolton, Senior Vice President for Austin Bank will serve as secretary and treasurer for the Tyler ISD Foundation. Mr. Bolton also chairs the Foundation’s Finance Committee.

“We are pleased to announce eight newly-elected directors to our board, with 26 returning board directors,” said Goddard.

Newly elected Directors include:

Todd Cruthird, executive with Suddenlink Communications in Tyler.

Carol Foley, Public Relations Representative with Dimension Imaging

Stacey Gregory, Owner of Regency Cleaners

Randy Grooms, Chairman and ExecutiveV.P. at Citizen’s 1^st Bank

Charles Hill, Customer Operations Manager of Oncor

Holley Howard, Community Volunteer

Gay Smith, Executive Vice President with Southside Bank

Beth Whitney, Community Volunteer

Returning Directors include:

Blake Armstrong, Attorney with Birdsong Armstrong, P.C.

Tab Beall, Attorney with Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins and Mott, LLP

Lynette Birdsong, Office Administrator at Birdsong Armstrong, P.C.

Betty Bower, Retired journalist and educator

Bill Coates, Sports Anchor and Account Executive for Gleiser Communications

Kathey Comer, Executive Vice President of the Tyler Area Builders Association

Dr. Jack Davidson, Retired Tyler ISD Superintendent

Paul Fisher, Business Leader, Tyler Operations for TRANE

Dawn Franks, Program Officer for Fourth Partner Foundation and Executive Director of the Ben and Maytee Fisch Foundation

Dr. Gary Gross, M.D. with Blood and Cancer Center of East Texas

Gary Howell, President of Hibbs-Hallmark and Company

Doug Hunsley, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, TRANE

Sarah Jacobi, Community Volunteer

Micheal Lavender, Officer of Commercial Relationships, Firstbank, Tyler

Felicity Reedy, President of the Genecov Group

Randy Reid, Ed.D., Superintendent of Tyler ISD

Kristen Seeber, Community Volunteer

Tom Slack, CEO of HealthFirst, TPA

Lonny Uzzell, Executive Vice President, Southside Bank

Ron Vickery, Attorney for Peltier Enterprises and President of the Tyler ISD Board of Trustees

Ed Wallace, Retired Businessman

The Tyler ISD Foundation was created in 1990 to provide funding resources in support of Tyler’s public school system. For more information, contact foundation@tylerisd.org or call (903) 262-1144.

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