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New Education Foundation To Support LUHS District

Dean S. Acheson photo

A community group is looking to create an independent charitable foundation to channel monetary and other donations to the Lakeland Union High School District to support both education and projects.

Mike Handrick, a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy, explained the structure and goals of the proposed Lakeland Union High School District Foundation, Inc. to the school board. The board directed Administrator/Principal Jim Bouché to work with Handrick’s group on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) needed to formalize the relationship.

While the primary focus of the foundation would be to raise money for scholarships, it would also fund projects not within the budgetary guidelines or for which tax dollars cannot be expended. It would not fund basic education requirements. Handrick said the foundation’s scholarships would not only go to LUHS students, but also to elementary feeder schools and to the community’s lifelong adult learners.

“The high school over the years has been the beneficiary of a number of post mortem bequests that come from estates --life insurance, leftover assets, what have you,” Handrick said. “How nice to be able to offer a more formalized foundation process so those folks can engage and build their legacy plans while they are alive, enjoy the tax break, and see some benefits of their hard work and where their money is going.”

The foundation would be completely separate from the LUHS School Board. The MOU spells out the role of the school administrator as an ex-officio member of the foundation board. The MOU also gives the foundation the right to use LUHS District in the foundation’s name and for fundraising purposes. The group plans to have district students help design the foundation’s logo.

Handrick would serve as volunteer executive director with a 5- to 7-member board. Once “a suitable executive director” (likely a paid position) is found, Handrick would then have no official role with the foundation. “Instead, I will serve as an outside volunteer authority to the foundation and to donors.”

As seed money (or start-up costs), the foundation will use upwards of $30,000 that remains from a $51,000 of an estate bequest to LUHS. Among those costs would be $5,000 to $10,000 for legal fees to become a tax-exempt foundation.

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