Founded on March 11, 1994, as a New Jersey not-for-profit corporation “specifically for the purpose of providing grants to the primary and secondary schools operated by SDOC, to further its educational activities,” the Foundation’s Board of Trustees consists of volunteers from all corners of the community and operates independently of the Board of Education, parent-teacher organizations, and booster groups. The Foundation’s status as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization was confirmed on October 20, 1997. CEF supports initiatives that would not otherwise be funded through the traditional SDOC budget.
Grant-making is structured around four principal goals:
1. Innovative Learning Spaces
2. Supporting Educator Growth
3. Fostering Student Well-being
4. Supporting Student Learning
Within those broad outlines, Foundation grants support the arts, classrooms of the future, literacy, professional development, social studies, social-emotional support, the future-focused education speaker series, and initiatives in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Foundation grants:
- Enhance the existing academic program, curriculum, guidance or counseling functions, and staff development of SDOC;
- Enrich—not duplicate or replace—the current curriculum and educational structure of SDOC;
- Reflect the goals of SDOC, including the Superintendent and Building Principal and Curriculum Supervisors, as well as the Technology Supervisors;
- Are innovative and creative in teaching and/or learning;
- Implement new and experimental methods of teaching; and
- Can be evaluated by some measure of quality and be expanded and replicated if successful.
The most impactful grants have been those that help SDOC stay at the forefront of implementing new educational research and technology. To that end, since its inception, CEF has granted approximately $1.7 million to teachers and administrators to support innovative and creative educational programs and special projects to enrich the experiences of all 4,200 students enrolled in the SDOC’s six public schools.
