As a former educator herself, local philanthropist Charlene Spaulding has again made a long-term commitment to the children of Kerrville through the family trust.
Along with her niece Debbie Spaulding, who also has a teaching background in Arizona and helps with family business affairs, the family trust has stepped up this year to fund an innovative program in the Kerrville Independent School District.
“Charlene has now made a bold promise to support all third-grade students and teachers in Kerrville ISD, with a special focus on building upon the foundation of reading and math,” said Dr. Brent Ringo, KISD superintendent.
The Spaulding Trust was founded in memory of Lee Spaulding and previously funded the purchase and installation of ViewSonic interactive boards for classrooms across the district.
This year the trust has donated the funds to hire reading and math “level leaders” for each of the four elementary campuses to improve the learning for the children as well as work with teachers to improve teaching strategies.
“The specialists will be grade-level leaders and work one-half of the day directly with students and the other half of the day with the teachers. Debbie has a way to track statistically the progress of these kids from Day 1 of this school year until the end of the school year next May,” Charlene Spaulding explained. If successful, the funding will be renewed for a maximum of five years with the school district.
Ringo said data will be furnished to the Spaulding Trust by the school district at the end of each academic year.
The goal is to see a two percent improvement in reading and math scores for the students. If that is not accomplished, then the five-year grant commitment from the trust will be withdrawn.
“We are not obligated to complete the full five-year program if we don’t see the results we want,” Spaulding said.
Spaulding said her dreams have come true. Recently the Kerrville ISD school board officially named the career and technology area at Tivy High School for Charlene and Lee Spaulding. Ringo said the official name for the school’s wing will be the “Spaulding Career and Technology Education Wing” and an official naming ceremony will be held sometime later this month. Charlene was a business teacher at Tivy for many years.
Her second dream was the creation of a scholarship bearing her name which has also been accomplished. The third dream was the creation of this program to improve math and reading scores for the children of the school district.
“Lee would be so happy to see us helping children grow academically with this program,” Spaulding said.
“This donation goes above and beyond what we normally see in public education. The Board of Trustees and Kerrville ISD really appreciate this generous gift from the Spaulding Trust. It will have a rippling effect across the school district at all grade levels and create a lasting impact on this community for generations to come,” Ringo added.
