Community Foundation of the Ozarks

Getting education majors out of college classrooms and into schools and getting students out of schools and into their communities can give rural educators an advantage over their urban counterparts.

That’s one of the principles that underscore Missouri State University’s new Rural Education Center announced recently at the West Plains campus where the program will start by serving 34 school districts in its seven-county region.

The program, developed in concert with the place-based philosophy of the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership and approved by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, will offer professional development for rural educators and administrators. It also will focus on resources and hands-on classroom experience for would-be teachers – both of which will benefit rural students in some of the most impoverished counties in the United States.

“This is going to be a collaborative hub for our Ozarks Teacher Corps’ model to recruit, prepare and retain teachers,” said CFO Senior Fellow Gary Funk, who announced that the Rural Schools Partnership is providing a $5,000 start-up grant to market and promote the Rural Education Center.  “We are doing things here that are not being done anywhere else in the country. We all look forward to working with everyone in the future.”

The program will be coordinated by Dr. Don Hamby, an instructor at MSU-WP, who has an intrinsic commitment to rural education as a native of Dora, a town of about 1,000 in Ozark County.

“Our kids deserve a world-class education,” Hamby said. “Location shouldn’t be a detriment.”

Hartville Schools, which is in the region served by the Rural Education Center, provided on-site training for the fall meeting of the Ozarks Teacher Corps. At the MSU announcement, Hamby cited its Superindentent, Dr. Sharon Hayden, for her efforts  to  maximize resources in a small, rural district.

“The creation of a Rural Education Center will have a profound effect on the educators in rural Missouri,” Hayden said. “I look forward to the resources, inspiration, and opportunities to serve the unique needs of school professionals in Missouri’s rural areas.”

More scholarships, technology improvements, and dual-credit tuition assistance will be available to students and educators in Hermann, West Plains, and Willard as the three latest school districts to celebrate their successful efforts in the Cooper Challenge grants for educational endowments.

The CFO awarded $15,000 to Hermann Schools and the Community Foundation of the Hermann Area, Inc., for the CF Dual Credit Scholarship Fund endowment, which offers tuition assistance for students taking college-level classes that count for both high-school and college credit.

The Hermann area raised $43,071 for a total of $58,071 to complete the Harry Cooper Supply Company Campaign Phase II Challenge for members of the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership during 2010.

“We are so pleased to receive the Cooper Challenge Grant,” said Dr. Chris Neale, Hermann Superintendent and President of the Community Foundation of the Hermann Area, Inc.

The Willard community celebrated its $11,000 Cooper Challenge Grant on center court during the halftime of the Willard vs. Republic basketball game on Feb. 15.

The Willard Children’s Charitable Foundation and Willard schools raised $22,314 for a total of $33,314 applied to the Willard Educational Endowment Fund, which is designated for scholarships for Willard graduates and grants to the Willard School District for technology infrastructure to enhance educational performance.

“The WCCF Board of Trustees would like to thank the Community Foundation of the Ozarks for their continuing assistance, the Cooper family for their tremendous generosity, and our fantastic community for your remarkable support in the establishment of this new $33,000 endowed fund to support the children of our community,” WCCF President Danette Proctor said.

The $5,000 Cooper Challenge Grant for West Plains, along with $10,000 raised by the West Plains R-7 Educational Foundation, will go into the endowment fund and board members are still determining their distribution plans.

“We certainly appreciate the Cooper family for this match,” said John Richards, president of the West Plains R-7 Educational Foundation. “The school has a lot of needs and we’re going to use it to the best of our ability to help as many students as possible.”

A total of 26 southern Missouri rural schools participated in the year-long challenge grant opportunity, which raised nearly $1 million from generous donors and the Harry Cooper Supply Company to build long-term sustainability for these districts. The districts are: Alton, Aurora, Ava, Bolivar, Bradleyville, Cassville, Dallas County, Dora, Eminence, Fair Grove, Fairview, Gainesville, Hermann, Hollister, Houston, Lockwood, Logan-Rogersville, Monett, Nixa, Reeds Spring, Seymour, Valle, Warsaw, Weaubleau, Willard and West Plains.

During the first six months of the  fiscal year, a total of 139 new funds have been established at the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. That’s quite a pace, considering a record number of 231 new funds were established during the full 2010 fiscal year.

The largest number of new funds were established by agency partners, the schools and non-profit groups the CFO works with to build endowments and assist with capacity building and other services. We welcomed 81 new agency partner funds during that six-month period, bringing the total number associated with the CFO to 378. A number of those new funds are for members of our Rural Schools Partnership.

We’re also continuing to see growth in our scholarship programs, with 20 new scholarship funds established from July through December. We’ll be posting more information in early February on the new scholarship opportunities available for Ozarks students through the generosity of these donors who put a priority on making higher education accessible for all students.

The new funds also include seven Giving Circles to support interests ranging from heart health in West Plains to helping neighbors in need through the Finley River Community Foundation. Giving Circles are a new type of fund the CFO is emphasizing to encourage groups of people bonded by shared interests to support their charitable passions.

For more information about our CFO funds, please contact Winter Skelton, Director of Donor Services, (417) 864-6199.