Liberty County school board members soon could create another way to help bolster children’s education.
Superintendent Dr. Franklin Perry has proposed creating the Liberty Education Foundation to augment what the school system does.
“We are excited about establishing the Liberty Education Foundation,” he said.
By-laws have been created, and the foundation — if the board approves it at its April 29 meeting — would have a board of seven to 12 members selected by the school board. The idea is to have companies and corporations donate to the foundation, giving the school system another way to fund programs and opportunities for students.
“The purpose of this should help us do what we need to do, to assist and support our students, our teachers, our staff,” Dr. Perry said. “We can do things for our children that we can’t do with our federal and state funds.” The school system’s funds, either from the federal government, the state government or local sources such as property taxes, have restrictions on how they are spent, Dr. Perry pointed out. Of the school system’s nearly 11,000 students, 60% are considered to be disadvantaged, Dr. Perry said.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time,” board Chair Verdell Jones said. “At this point in our lives, we are going to have to be financially creative for public education. It’s a big deal. I think we really need it.”
Large corporations can donate to the education foundation and write off the donation on their corporate tax filings.
“It’s a matter of how we can sell this to major corporations, the Deltas, the Fords, the State Farms,” Perry said. “To me, this is very exciting. It just depends on how well we can sell this.”
Under the proposal, school board members would choose a board to oversee to the foundation and its donations. The foundation also will be audited each year.
“Whatever we say we’re going to say we’re going to use funds for, we have to use it for,” Jones said. “It comes with strict guidelines.”
Perry said that the foundation also could help ease some of the pressure on local property taxes, if donations are large enough, for funding education.