By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A new leader hopes to enhance the mission of the St. Joseph School District Foundation to better serve the district and its classroom teachers.
Julie Cobb is the new executive director, taking over after stints as Major Gift Officer at William Jewell College in Liberty and Director of Development with the American Red Cross.
Cobb says a major program the foundation funds is the Appleseed program, which pays for enhanced programs in the classroom. Cobb just wishes the foundation could fund more.
“Our teachers are great and they really do think outside the box,” Cobb tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in an interview. “So, it would be nice if we could fund everything that they need and want for their classrooms.”
The Appleseed program awarded eight grants last year, totaling $10,000.
Cobb says the foundation seeks to enrich the classroom, such as funding programs that connect what students are learning with how they apply to the work world.
“So, I think it excites them to see that they can learn and apply what they’re doing to what’s going on every day out in the world.”
Cobb says the program encourages St. Joseph teachers to dream a bit, even look at what other districts might be doing.
“This is a pretty common program. Some districts call it classroom innovation grants. Some people call it small grants, mini grants. There’s different verbiage for it,” according to Cobb. “But we’re really encouraging teachers to think hard on what we can do to help them align projects with their daily classroom curriculum.”
Cobb says while the foundation always wants to help the teacher in the classroom, its mission goes beyond that.
“The district right now needs parent support,” Cobb says. “That’s what they need more than anything, is parent support. We need kids in the classrooms. We need parents that are ensuring that those students are in their classroom seats in the morning and any way we can help do that we want to do that.”
The St. Joseph School District Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is funded through donations, even gifts from estates.
Click HERE to learn more about the St. Joseph School District Foundation.
You can follow Brent @GBrent, @680KFEQ, @StJosephPost.