Orange schools to ask businesses for funding help
The Orange County School Board on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a plan the chairman hopes will raise millions of dollars for district programs in coming years.
"Increasingly, we are going to have to look to ourselves to fund programs we need, like mentoring," said board chairman Bill Sublette, citing diminishing government money.
The board approved a committee that will develop a "philanthropic strategic plan" by May 31. It would identify district priorities that are unfunded or underfunded. The list could be taken to area businesses to seek specific donations.
Sublette said he also wants to call together the area's biggest businesses for a summit on the needs of the nation's 10th largest school district. The plan appears to be unique in the state.
Dick Batchelor, a consultant who helped the school district pass a half-penny sales tax increase for new schools in 2002, called the board's plan "a very smart move." He said there's no such thing as reaching out too much to the community. "I think there's been a void of that."
Ray Gilley, an Orlando public relations director who served as chief executive of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission from 2001 to 2010, said he thinks the business community would embrace a strategic plan.
"It will help them make the case for why investing in education is a good thing to do for community- building," Gilley said. And a specific list of priorities will help businesses match their own giving goals.
The committee developing the plan would include five School Board members, five school district staffers and five foundation board members.
The plan will be most effective if it includes principal and teacher ideas, Gilley said.
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This article first appeared in the Orlando Sentinel. View original here.