Agency Details:

Lake Washington Schools Foundation

Mission: The Lake Washington Schools Foundation supports academic excellence and success for all students. Vision: The Lake Washington Schools Foundation makes significant financial and volunteer contributions to the Lake Washington School District by fundraising and building community support that will enrich educational experiences for all students.

Description:
Since the Lake Washington Schools Foundation was established, the Foundation has raised over $800,000 from our generous community of Redmond, Kirkland, and Sammamish parents, businesses, and community leaders, allowing the Foundation to fund programs that have touched almost every student in the District; programs that enrich and inspire learning, help and encourage at-risk students, and improve academic performance.

The Lake Washington Schools Foundation offers multiple grant programs designed in conjunction with the Lake Washington School District to address specific needs. Programs include:
Enrichment Grants for innovative educational projects that support the District curriculum and provide an opportunity for teachers and staff to pursue new approaches to engaging students;
Access Fund to help low-income students defray some of the costs of attending schools, such as classroom fees, lab manuals, and graphing calculators;
LINKS a district-wide mentoring program developed to bring at-risk students together with caring adults to support their emotional, social and academic needs.;
New Teacher Grants of $200 to teachers with less than one year of experience, let staff know that our community values and appreciates the important role teachers play in the lives of our students.

History:
In 2002, Dr. Don Saul, Superintendent of the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) began a project to re-form a Lake Washington Schools Foundation. Neighboring school districts have a history of successful schools foundation but for a variety of reasons the communities served by the LWSD had been unable to sustain a Foundation. There had been two previous attempts to create a Foundation.

• The first Foundation was started in the mid 1980’s by the Redmond Junior High Principal, Kitty and Pat Vache, and other community members. The Foundation was in place for 10 years but active for six. Their most successful program was Project Impact a mentor/scholarship program targeted at at-risk junior high school students. John Danz was a major contributor with a $100,000 donation to Project Impact. According to Mr. Vache’, the Foundation ended because it had no paid staff, it did not have a close relationship with the District, and it could not get new people involved. Those involved with the Foundation were innovative volunteers that were unable to take the Foundation to the next level and did not want to fundraise.
  
  
• The second Foundation was formed in 1998 by Richard Cole and Dave Asher. It was more of a project-based Foundation with the initial goal to develop a web site that would allow volunteers to register with the District for placement in volunteer positions. This Foundation had notable community members on the board but eventually lost members due to a lack of objectives and technical problems completing their project. The Foundation also lacked awareness in the community. The Foundation contributed its remaining $7,000 to the current Foundation.
  
  

To establish the current Foundation, Dr. Saul enlisted the services of the Executive Service Corps for assistance. Led by Linda Hendrickson, the consultants compiled a list of 175 community members. Each person received a personal invitation from Dr. Saul to an initial meeting in November, 2004. About 40 people attended with 15 indicating further interest in establishing a schools foundation. Those 15 became the Foundation Steering Committee in January, 2005 and ultimately became the Founding Board. The Foundation received its Certificate of Incorporation in February 2005 and tax exempt status in June 2005.
The first board met and elected corporate officers in March, 2005.

Contact people:

Byron Shutz, Board President, (phone), (email) Sherry Wartelle, Board President, (phone), (email) Lisa Wylie, Office Manager, (phone), (email)

Main office number: (425) 702-3414
Office fax number: (425) 702-3449

Address:

16250 NE 74th Street Redmond, WA 98052 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.lwsf.org

Directions:

The LWSF office is located on the first floor of the Lake Washington School District Scarr Resource Center which is located in the NW corner of the Redmond Town Center retail and office development.

Miscellaneous Information

Liability
	No
Does your organization welcome court-ordered community service volunteers?
	No
Does your organization have volunteer positions for youth 12-18?
	No

Last updated on October 24, 2009