Schools foundation awards grants: MB Schools received $450K

The Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation recently awarded its annual grants to Mountain Brook Schools for the 2019-20 academic year. 

The foundation contributed $451,883 to the school system, which will use the funds to finance technology upgrades, professional development and library enhancements.

All six Mountain Brook schools — Brookwood Forest, Cherokee Bend, Crestline and Mountain Brook elementary schools, the junior high and the high school — benefit from the contribution. 

“This is the feel-good part of the job for me,” said Rachel Weingartner, who took over as executive director of the foundation this spring. “It’s really what we’re all about.” 

The foundation was started in 1992 and raises money for the schools to supplement state and local funding. It is guided by a 36-member board of community volunteers who have helped build the foundation’s $9 million endowment through various fundraising efforts. 

“We fund gaps between a basic need and what makes Mountain Brook so special,” said Key Hudson, a Mountain Brook High School alumnus who is president-elect of the foundation. 

Mountain Brook Schools presented its fundraising request to the foundation in April. Hudson said it didn’t take long to approve the request, though the foundation couldn’t fulfill every item the schools asked for. 

“There’s always more than we’re necessarily able to fund,” Weingartner said. 

Of the total amount awarded, the foundation allocated $200,000 for technology upgrades. The bulk of those funds will pay for the Google Chromebooks that are given to students at the junior high and high school, along with teachers at the elementary schools. 

Another portion of the technology allocation will enable the four elementary schools to implement SeeSaw software in their classrooms. SeeSaw allows teachers to build digital portfolios of students’ work — like video footage of a presentation or a picture of a handwriting assignment — and share that content directly with parents through an app. 

“I’m able to see real-time how she’s doing, how she’s performing,” said Hudson, whose daughter attends Mountain Brook Elementary.

The next largest allocation included in the foundation’s grant is for professional development. The money funds the Institute for Innovation, which encourages educators to experiment with creative teaching methods; provides summer learning stipends for teachers and faculty; and will pay for the high school to host the Google Ed-Tech Summit next summer. 

At the summit, teachers will learn how they can best integrate technology into their classrooms.

“I’m excited and thrilled the foundation gave us the opportunity to do this,” said Missy Brooks, MBS director of curriculum and instruction. “I think it will really benefit the teachers.”  

A smaller chunk of the foundation’s grant money goes to the school system’s libraries. Each library uses the funds it receives to update its collection of books, magazines, software and supplies.  

“We are really what keeps our libraries funded,” Hudson said. 

The foundation raises money throughout the year to ensure it can make a sizeable contribution annually. 

Its primary campaign, Give 180, asks Mountain Brook parents to contribute $1 to the foundation for each day their child attends school.

The foundation also raises support through its Grandparents Club, an elementary school track and field meet and general giving. 

According to Weingartner, the schools foundation raised about $487,000 during the 2018-19 academic year. She would like to top that figure in 2019-20.  

“There’s always more room for growth,” she said.