From Keisha Green, PTA President
Now that we’ve approached the end of our fall fundraising season, my thoughts have shifted to a new Joyner entity, one I’d like to welcome. This is the inaugural year of JYJ’s new Foundation. You may be like me and somewhat perplexed by the concept of an elementary school foundation. Of course, I’m familiar with university endowments, but the idea of an elementary school effort originally baffled me. Yet after completing a bit of research, I discovered that the concept is not as new as I originally believed.
Before I share links to other school foundation websites, I’d like to enlighten you on distinctions between the PTA and the Foundation. We are TWO DIFFERENT organizations, and we have two different missions. Our boards are completely autonomous. We DO NOT share funding resources or bank accounts. We DO share human resources, including Joyner parents, teachers and staff- our only interchangeable assets. Our organizations balance each other’s missions to promote Joyner’s students receiving a quality education.
JYJ PTA
- 501c3 Organization
- Parent and Community driven organization
- Funds Social Enrichment Opportunities, Academic Enrichment Events, Cultural Enrichment Opportunities, Funds Wellness Events and Teacher Appreciation Activities
JYJ FOUNDATION
- 501c3 Organization
- Parent and Community Driven Organization
- Will fund or supplement Teachers’ salaries, Teacher Assistants, Teachers’ bonuses, and Enrichment Teachers
Hopefully, this list gives you more insight into what we do and why we do it. I’ve often said that it’s our mission to ensure that Joyner is our children’s “happy place,” and from what the Foundation has shared, it’s their mission to ensure that there are enough leaders to facilitate the “happy process” of learning.
As an International School with a global focus, we all realize the importance of our Spanish teachers and their contributions to our students’ learning. Last year, parents were greatly disheartened by the loss of beloved teachers along with diminished classroom instruction time for our youngest learners. This year, we’ve returned to daily instruction and larger class sizes. Of course, we want daily instruction for ALL students, and we also want minimal stress for ALL teachers.
Due to the generosity of 440 parents, grandparents, teachers, and staff, we collected nearly $23,000 during our fall fundraising drive. Your contributions allow us to continue to provide exceptional opportunities to our students, and I THANK each of you for your support. Soon, the Foundation will be ramping up their efforts and seeking your help as well.
Interested in seeing what other schools are doing, check out these links….
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