As we reported in the November issue of MMSD Today, Phase I of the Foundation's Individual School Endowment Initiative (ISEI) is now complete! As of October, 2006 each of the 47 schools eligible for the Foundation's $5,000 Clay-Price matching funds had exceeded the $10,000 fundraising milestone needed to establish an individual school endowment. And, with the gift recently secured by the Foundation from an anonymous donor, Nuestro Mundo Community School now has its own $5,000 ISE challenge fund. Like all of the Foundation's endowments, the ISEI creates permanent funds that generate income year after year, to support innovative programs and projects that might not otherwise be possible.

This Fall, 30 schools had over $22,000 in endowment income available for grantmaking, an amount that will continue to grow over the years through stock market appreciation and additional fundraising. Of these, 21 schools chose to make ISEI grants at this time while 9 opted to reinvest their endowment income for use next year. This year's ISEI grants totaled just over $16,500, ranging from $100 up to a high of $2,849, and are in addition to roughly $64,000 in grants made in 2006 from the Foundation's other donor-designated funds and its annual unrestricted fund grants competition.

Schools use their ISEI grants to fund special programs and projects that are outside of the core school budget. The grantmaking process is managed at the school level by an ISEI Grant Committee. While these committees look somewhat different at each school, they usually consist of staff and parent volunteers who are willing to take a long-term look at the strategic needs of their school. This Fall, these ISEI Grant Committees awarded grants for a diverse range of programs and projects. Here is just sampling.

Math/Science/Technology. Several schools decided to use their endowment income to purchase of SMARTboards for use in both Math and Science classes. Two schools will use their ISEI grant funds to institute "Math Night" programs for both students and families. At Hamilton Middle School, ISEI grant funds will establish the Robomaster's Robotic Challenge while at Thoreau Elementary, ISEI funds will buy books, CDs and DVDs and support creation of music tracks to further the development of the school's Hip Hop Math Project.

Reading/Writing. Chavez Elementary's ISEI grants will buy K-5 videos that promote best practices in writing, resulting in a more common approach to writing levels across the grades. At Mendota Elementary, ISEI funds will buy variety of books for different focuses — classroom books for reading and spelling games, multicultural books for classroom libraries, ABC books for incoming kindergarteners and picture books that model 6 reading comprehension strategies.

Arts. Cherokee Middle School's ISEI grants will fund a visiting artist while at Gompers Elementary ISEI grants will support a Ballet Folklorico residency. Hawthorne Elementary's, endowment income will help fund a project in which students investigate their own family history and culture and create collages with color copies of family photos. Lincoln Elementary will use their endowment income to fund performances by a Chinese Acrobat and a Hip Hop group.

For ISEI Help and Information

The Foundation hopes that each of Madison's 48 schools will have their own endowment by the end of this school year. If you would like to see the entire list of ISEI grants, learn more about setting up an ISEI Grants Committee at your school, or how you can help you're your school's endowment, please contact Mary Bartzen at the Foundation for Madison's Public Schools at 232-7820 or mbartzen@mailbag.com.