Mentorship Program Signs Up More Students

While Brandi Mizell, 6, left, digs for more bones, classmate Mariya Schrum, 5, carefully brushes dirt Thursday from a dinosaur jaw bone in the playground of Anthony Elementary School as part of the Grants for Great Ideas program.

OCALA -- Kathy Wilson knew exactly what she was doing when she took pen in hand Thursday night and signed a contract to become a Take Stock in Children scholar.

"Signing the scholarship makes me feel really grateful that I was accepted and it makes me feel like I'm important," said Kathy, a 13-year-old North Marion Middle School eighth-grader. "I hope I become a really smart person and I hope I become a litigator. Or an actress. I'm good at both."

Fourteen-year-old William Wallace, a Dunnellon Middle School eighth-grader has similar dreams once he finishes school.

"I want to become a lawyer someday," William said. "I've strived my whole life.

I've always had dreams of becoming a lawyer, even in first grade," he added. "It'll be hard, it'll be tough but that's life."

Kathy, William and 31 other eighth grade students signed up with Take Stock in Children as part of the mentor organization's third class. The 33 new scholars boosted the total number of children in the program to 120.

All those students have pledged to maintain a 2.5 grade point average, attend school, stay out of trouble and stay drug free. In return, they get a prepaid scholarship for post-secondary education in Florida. To help them along the way, each student is paired with an adult mentor who will meet with them once a week to talk about everything from studies to social life and the tribulations of growing up.

Shanyka Dunning, 5, hands her mother Michelle Dunning what is believed to be a prehistoric apatosaurus bone she dug up Thursday with the help of her sister Shakyla Purter as part of the Grants for Great Ideas program.

Marion County Take Stock in Children has become one of the models for the state because of its effectiveness in finding quality scholars and mentors.

"A lot of people in Marion County realize that it's not a small town and the kids are faced with things that maybe didn't exist in Marion County seven to 10 years ago," said Suzanne McGuire, one of two Take Stock in Children coordinators. "A lot of the adults realize that they have a lot to give and make a difference."

Take Stock in Children is just one of several successful programs funded by contributions through the Marion County Public Schools Foundation.

When auditors from SchoolMatch, a private company based in Westerville, Ohio, examined the school district, it commended the district for having an outside fund-raising element like the Foundation. It also lauded the community for its strong support of the district.

Marion County Public Schools Foundation Executive Director Jaye Baillie said SchoolMatch already figures in how the foundation will support the schools.

"One of our challenges in working on our plan of work for next year will be to align the foundations resources with the recommendations from the SchoolMatch audit, making sure we're supporting the district's mission," Baillie said. "By doing that, we'll be in the best position to support our students and teachers."

Money and time are the two biggest resources people in the community offer the school system.

There are 14 different mentor organizations active in the county, said Cindy Marshall, executive director of the Big Sun Volunteer Service Center, which operates the Marion County Mentor Coalition.

"Young people need adult role models, even kids with strong family lives, when they get to be teen-agers and can't talk to their parents," Marshall said.

"We believe it makes all the difference in a child reaching their potential if they've had good strong adult role models," she added.

School advisory councils pump money into individual schools, as do each school's business partner. But the bulk of the money paid into the overall school system gets channeled through the public schools foundation.

With a budget of about $475,000, the foundation is funded by a combination of individual and corporate support, fund-raisers and state and federal grants. Salaries for the foundation's full-time staff are paid for by the school district.

"Every dollar raised from sponsors goes directly back to the students," Baillie said. "A lot of what we do is to provide educational enrichment through direct dollars back to the classroom."

"We like to view the foundation's money as risk venture capital allowing teachers to implement a long-held idea in their classroom," she added. "What we've found is once they get a successful grant through the classroom, they write for other state grants."

Through the Grants for Great Ideas program, the foundation doles out $45,000 annually to individual schools.

Take Stock costs about $55,000 per year. The Golden Apple teacher program costs about $40,000, with money going towards the awards program, as well as technology scholarships for teachers, and other teacher training.

This year, the foundation took on another high-profile program, the AmeriCorps Marion Reads! initiative, which provides reading tutors to more than 200 students. In all, that program has a value of $225,000 with about $50,000 in local money used to matched a federal contribution.

The foundation kicked in initial funding for the International Baccalaureate program at Vanguard High School, which serves 350 students on a college prep track and also helps fund academic tournaments, science fairs and teacher enrichment programs.

"Historically," Baillie said, "we've tried to serve all the students in the Marion County school district."