Endowment Fund Regrouping To Help Racine Unified Kids

A local non-profit is working to rebuild its endowment to help Racine Unified students. The Kids First Fund – part of the Racine Community Foundation – raises money and makes grants available to teachers and administrators within the Racine Unified system.

This past February, $12,480 was allocated to 28 different programs. The group will not, however, proceed through another funding cycle in 2012, said President Al Volmuth.

“We’re in the process of re-grouping,” said Volmuth. “We’re trying to get more structure, get more board members. We don’t want to get caught with an overabundance of requests and not be able to fulfill them.”

Of the 28 programs funded in 2011, there were 32 applicants, said Dwayne Olsen, chair of the Kids First Grants Committee. The delay in the funding cycle means the next disbursement of funds will not be made until the spring of 2013. The group also allocated about $12,400 in its 2010 funding cycle, Olsen said.

The grants, for which teachers apply, go toward enrichment activities for students. Any teacher at any grade level within the RUSD can apply for a Kids First grant. Volmuth said one issue the group faces is that knowledge of the grants is spread through word of mouth amongst RUSD teachers.

To solve that, Volmuth said the group is working to create a Publicity Committee, which will aggressively promote the existence of the grants to teachers and administrators. Additionally, the group will hold an awareness night this fall to explain its mission to those who may be unaware.

“We’re worried the supply of money will run out,” Volmuth said. “We want to come back in a big way and satisfy more teachers. We will start to promote this thing within the schools, and try and get teachers aware of what we have for them.”

Volmuth said he hoped to raise $20,000 for the next funding cycle, compared to the $12,000 to $13,000 the group currently allocates per year. Ideally, he said, the group would like to have two funding cycles per year, instead of one.

Kids First, started in 1994, benefits an estimated 4,700 students at 16 schools in the Racine Unified system. All money is donated, and Volmuth said donors are evenly split between individuals, grants, foundations and businesses.

“It’s becoming more close to home with people knowing what we do,” Volmuth said.

Kids First is perhaps most famous for what Volmuth calls its “Cadillac” program – the Fathers Being Involved initiative, or FBI, at S.C. Johnson Elementary School. There, 12 dads that roam the halls as hall monitors. The men become involved with the students and mentor them. Prior to the program, the school had a discipline program, Volmuth said, which has since seen marked improvement.

Kids First also allocated a grant to the music department at Starbuck Middle School, which was used to take students to the Lyric Opera House in Chicago. Another was allocated to the social studies department at Case High School, which was used to subscribe to a journal called Active History.

Olsen, the Grants Committee Chair, said the grants aim to fund enrichment efforts, like art. Olsen said the committee looks at how many students will be served, how much the teacher is asking for and how the project ties to the curriculum objectives of the school district. The committee also asks for a budget, Olsen said, and works to ensure the grants promote student learning and enrichment.

“I’ve been with [Kids First] 8 to 10 years, and many times people come up to me and thank me for the grant they received,” Olsen said. “With budgets being tight, and getting tighter, a source of funding for enrichment is really welcome on the part of the teachers and administrators.”

Volmuth added that he expected the new RUSD superintendent, in the wake of the resignation this week of former superintendent Dr. Jim Shaw, to be supportive of Kids First.

“A community is a reflection of its public school system,” Volmuth said.