Later this month, all graduates of Falls Church’s George Mason High School for the last 54 years have been invited to return to their Alma Mater. Like cicadas it’s something that happens only periodically, in this case, every five years. Recent graduates and long term alumni will be renewing friendships and comparing notes on the direction their lives have taken after graduation. All those present will have benefited from one of the best school systems in the nation.
At the same time, the Falls Church Education Foundation, a new and largely unknown movement to provide support for the schools, will be starting its work to educate the alumni and the public about their goals. An initiative to keep Falls Church schools performing at their historically high standards, the Falls Church Education Foundation is working to establish a permanent endowment for extra curricular programs and projects.
Mary Ellen Shaw, the superintendent of the Falls Church Schools since 1997, has been working with the Falls Church Education Board targeting future issues for the school system. Shaw said the quality of the schools is based on two factors: the small size of the schools and the dedication of the community to promoting education.
“Many families moved here in order to allow their kids to get a good education,” said Shaw. That same focus on education is evident in the attitudes of the students, she says. “The peer pressure is to be good students.”
Shaw talked about the goal of the foundation to continue the schools’ good work. “As we get larger we have to keep working on how to preserve that focus on individual attention,” she said.
The Falls Church Education Foundation was spawned from the Business in Education Foundation (BIE). Founded in 1985, the BIE provides supplemental funding for programs beyond the traditional curriculum: sports, arts, and teacher education.
With the BIE, money is raised and then spent to fund specific programs or projects. Working separately from the endowment, the BIE is required to return to fundraising whenever the funds are depleted.
The endowment that the board is creating will establish a principle fund to provide additional assets in the form of interest. The interest is used to provide annual funding for school programs, while the principle funds are never spent.
The ambitious goal of the foundation is to create an initial endowment of $10 million over the next five years.
One of the foundation’s top priorities is to provide money for supplementing teacher education and leadership programs. Bob Young, chairman of the Board, talked about making the school system a place where teachers want to work. For Bob a focus on teachers is a top priority. He said that the foundation works toward, “improving the quality of schools, and that is primarily a result of quality teachers and…teacher retention.”
Young hopes that the foundation will be able to provide fellowships to teachers to help them develop new courses, receive additional education for themselves, and even a possibility of sabbaticals.
Young talked about some concerns that people have had about the fund. “There is a built in fear that whatever funds we provide, the council will deduct those from what they give us.” Young pointed out that the council has always fully funded the school system and did not see the creation of new supplemental funds as changing that.
While still in the formative stages, the foundation has already started receiving donations. It recently opened its offices at 450 W. Broadway and named Donna Englander the Executive Director of the Foundation.
Englander has strong connections to Falls Church. She has been living in the area since 1995. With two children attending Falls Church schools and experience as a local administrator, as the former director of the Child Development Center, Englander said she has both the passion and experience to take on the task of insuring the future of the schools.
Englander is presently working to create a solid infrastructure for the foundation, but noted that she hasn’t started from scratch. “The work [in forming the foundation] started months ago. I am just carrying forward what the Board has already done,” said Englander.
While the foundation has yet to start its campaign, there have already been large donations made to the cause.
Steve Sprague is the husband of Nancy Sprague, a former teacher and administrator in the Falls Church and Fairfax school systems. On November 1, Nancy died of Cardiomyopathy, a fatal inflammation of the heart. Three years before their daughter Beth had died from Cardiac Arrythmia, an irregular heartbeat. Mr. Sprague said the conditions were unrelated.
Beth’s death had led Mr. and Mrs. Sprague to create an award at George Mason High School, where Beth had graduated, called the “Spirit of GM”. Following Mrs. Sprague’s passing, Mr. Sprague expanded the scholarship to become the Nancy and Beth Sprague Scholarship Fund.
In May of 2004, he was approached by Superintendent Shaw to make a donation to the Endowment. He pledged $100,000 in memory of his wife.
While the donation includes continued funding for the scholarship, he would like the majority of the money to go to establishing funding for the types of teacher leadership programs that Mrs. Sprague had advocated during her lifetime. The programs will focus on finding teachers who act as leaders in the schools and bring them together for training and to develop education strategies.
Shaw talked about the leadership challenges that teachers face. “A lot of our teachers serve as leaders in their curriculum areas,” said Shaw. “They weren’t necessarily trained to lead other adults…and leading adults can be very challenging.”
As both a teacher and an administrator, Mrs. Sprague would always return to one phrase, as a guideline for any decision she made: “Is it good for the kids?” said her husband. He said, while working with teachers and administrators, she never forgot the people for whom she was working.
Other contributions have come from commercial donators as well. Jan Zachariasse is president of Waterford Development, the group that created The Broadway mixed use development. Zachariasse and Waterford donated ten thousand dollars to the foundation.
For Zachariasse, the health of the school system is a top priority. "The City's excellent school system is a cornerstone that has made the City of Falls Church such a desirable place to live," said Zachariasse.
He believes that his donation will inspire others to do the same. "We hope that our corporate citizenship will be an example other local businesses will follow," he said.
The foundation shares the hope that more businesses will be thinking of the school endowment as a way to contribute to the community.
But commercial donations aren't the foundation's primary focus at this time. While it will be targeting corporate donors, Englander thinks that a substantial part of the funds will be coming from private donors. "It's still too early to tell, but I think we'll see a good portion of our support from individuals who feel they owe something to the community," said Englander.
Englander is hoping for more than just monetary contributions. The foundation is going to be asking people to contribute their energy in preparing for the upcoming year and acting as liaisons for the foundation to the rest of their classmates.
Being conduits for information is perhaps the most important thing that the alumni can do at this point in the campaign. Public knowledge and support is vital to making the foundation a success. "A year from now I would like to see a keen sense of awareness among citizens of Falls Church about our goals, programs, and activities," said Englander. She said that the biggest part of the campaign would be in educating people and businesses about the foundation and its goals.
As the outreach begins outreach Englander is eager to face the task that lies ahead of her. "Being on the ground floor of launching this organization is very exciting for me," she says.
On June 25, George Mason High School alumni are invited to attend a reception that will introduce them to the foundation. It will be their first chance to see whether the future of Falls Church schools will shine as bright as the past.