A foundation has been started to support students in the Foothills School Division.
After being in the works for several years, the Friends of Foothills Schools Foundation is ready to get to work, said board member Drew Chipman.
"We're putting things in place to raise awareness of the foundation on all the things that we're hoping to do with it," said Chipman, the assistant superintendent at Foothills School Division and the division’s representative on the foundation board.
“We're really looking at moving ahead quite quickly at this point and making sure that people are aware of who we are and how they can be supportive.”
According to the foundation's website, the school division is facing pressure from rising costs and a growing need for student support while working to maintain frontline staffing numbers.
While the bulk of the division's funding comes from the Province, six per cent comes from other sources.
"There's always additional need," he said. "This is what that is about, is being able to provide those additional supports."
Foundation goals include generating revenue for schools, removing barriers to academic success and promoting innovative educational projects.
Three focus areas of the foundation are enhanced learning support, empowering flourishing communities and emergency relief for families.
Enhanced learning support could include initiatives like mental health support, technology, educational assessments or classroom resources, Chipman said.
“Maybe even as far as adding additional teachers and educational assistants in the classroom,” he said.
Empowering flourishing communities would support projects that have the ability to become self-sustaining, encourage community engagement or environmental sustainability, and provide students with enhanced learning opportunities.
“This will give people an opportunity to explore how they can receive funding for those types of initiatives,” he said. “We want to provide opportunities for people that have those kinds of ideas."
The last area of focus, emergency family relief, would create a formal mechanism to help students who need it.
“We have a lot more individuals that have needs, with the economy the way it is,” he said.
He said other school divisions have had success with foundations and that Foothills is optimistic it will have a local impact.
“We're hopeful it becomes a staple in the community and people look to it as an opportunity for them to reach out and to help others, and to be able to provide additional supports for schools and students and teachers,” he said.
The foundation operates at arm's length from the school division and there will be volunteer opportunities for people to get involved.
“It's not the school division that's running it, we’ve got some great volunteers that have stepped up,” he said.
Larry Albrecht, the foundation chair, previously served on the Foothills School Division board of trustees.
