Today's Date: March 22, 2023
Vehicle Acquisition Network (VAN) Embraces Inclusion and Celebrates Women in Leadership   •   PACKIT® EXPANDS ITS POPULAR LINE OF FREEZABLE BABY PRODUCTS   •   Educational Media Foundation Announces CEO Transition   •   HSAI INVESTIGATION ALERT: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Announces Investigation into Hesai Group and Encourages Investors   •   Presidio Medical™ Announces Executive Appointment   •   DRAFTKINGS ALERT: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. Announces that a Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against DraftKings Inc. a   •   Shareholder Alert: Robbins LLP Informs Investors of Class Action Against United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI)   •   Karuna Therapeutics Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock   •   Sun Life U.S. named a #GirlsClub Top 25 Company Where Women Want to Work   •   Hyundai Motor Presents Re:Style 2023 with Global Designer Jeremy Scott   •   Ecolab Survey Reveals High Expectations for Water Conservation   •   U.S. XPRESS INVESTOR ALERT by the Former Attorney General of Louisiana: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates Adequacy of Pric   •   JAG Institute Releases Annual Report Indicating Increased Rate of Childhood Bereavement   •   Health Canada provides update on supply of infant formula in Canada   •   FIBRA Prologis to Host First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call April 19   •   The Bair Foundation Partners With the State of Virginia To Help Foster Children Who Have Waited Over a Year To Leave Residential   •   Ecolomondo Announces the Grant of Stock Options to Purchase 1,450,000 Common Shares   •   Government of Canada takes steps to address overrepresentation of Indigenous, Black, and racialized people in the criminal justi   •   FATE DEADLINE ALERT: Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. Reminds Investors that a Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against Fate T   •   Minnesota Students, Educators Call on Lawmakers to Act on Flavored Tobacco
Bookmark and Share

$55M Plan To Improve Charlotte's West Corridor Grad Rates Unveiled

 CHARLOTTE, N.C.  -- The CMS Investment Study Group, a committee of foundation and community leaders established to explore the most effective role for philanthropic giving in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), has announced today the creation of a program called Project L.I.F.T. (Leadership and Investment For Transformation). The program will seek to provide $55 million in private funding to support additional services and educational enhancements for CMS students in the West Charlotte corridor, defined as West Charlotte High School and the middle and elementary schools that feed into it.  

The group said that their plan will cost $55 million to implement over a five-year period.  The project will focus on enhanced teacher and school leadership quality, more time spent on task (including extended day, out of school time, and pre-kindergarten programs), access to technology, and policy changes that will allow school leadership more freedom.  An extensive outreach program is also planned to engage community and business leaders, faith communities and others in ensuring that students get the most out of their educational opportunities.  

The group has begun to raise the needed funds and many of the family and corporate foundations represented on the study group have indicated their intention to provide financial support to the project, for a combined $40.5 million so far.  The following organizations announced their intentional gifts:    

  • Belk Foundation

$1 million

 
  • Foundation For The Carolinas

$2 million

 
  • Wells Fargo Foundation

$2.5 million

 
  • Duke Energy Foundation

$5 million

 
  • Bank of America Charitable Foundation

$10 million

 
  • C.D. Spangler Foundation

$10 million

 
  • The Leon Levine Foundation

$10 million

 

$40.5 million

 
   


The fund created by the gifts will be held at Foundation For The Carolinas.

Anna Spangler Nelson of the C.D. Spangler Foundation and Richard "Stick" Williams, president of the Duke Energy Foundation, who co-chaired the group, summarized the group's findings and recommendations. "We aimed to impact the most basic measures of student achievement – the graduation rate and overall performance," said Nelson.  "Through reading and research, an intensive series of meetings with national experts, and meetings with the West Charlotte community, we have identified the actions we can take that are most likely to make a difference for this community's students."

"We believe this approach, combined with our exceptional educational leadership and strong community partnerships, will make a sustainable impact in student achievement," said Williams. "While Project L.I.F.T. will be something truly innovative and special that makes the most sense for our community, its outcomes will serve to address what is clearly a broader, national issue."

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman said, "This astonishing generosity in a time of budget cuts is especially important for the schools in the West Charlotte corridor, where gains have been made recently in proficiency rates."  He added, "With the dollars that are being provided, we will put into practice measures we know will work.  This group has looked at data with a practical mindset to find the things we can do that have produced results in communities across the country."

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, who participated as a member of the study group and is a West Charlotte alumnus, said, "This extraordinary gift marks yet another turning point in our community and proves that what unites us - a shared interest in the success of every child - is so much stronger than anything that divides us. We can no longer afford to allow up to half of our students to fail to complete their high school education. The achievement gap is not unique to our community but what is unique is our capacity to close it. Let Charlotte-Mecklenburg be the American community that eliminates the achievement gap." The West Charlotte corridor was chosen as the focus of the effort because of West Charlotte's graduation rate of 51%, the lowest in the CMS system.

Nelson and Williams added that the gifts announced so far are conditional, and will not be considered as final until the fundraising goal of $55 million is reached. An intensive fundraising campaign targeting other foundations is already under way.  

Project L.I.F.T. originated when representatives from The Leon Levine and C.D. Spangler Foundations met in the summer of 2010 to discuss how to make their giving to local educational causes more impactful.  Both foundations have a history of giving generously to educational causes.  With help from Foundation For The Carolinas, they formed a committee made up of 13 members representing family and corporate foundations, as well as community leaders with a passion for education.  They determined to address the system's top educational needs as defined by the community, in a series of community forums held last summer by the board of education.  

Project L.I.F.T. will move soon to appoint an executive director to oversee the work, and plans call for some of the measures to be in place in time for the start of the 2011-2012 school year, with a full rollout in 2012-2013.  While the executive director will report to the school system, a board made up of investors will provide accountability.

 


STORY TAGS: BLACK NEWS, AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWS, MINORITY NEWS, CIVIL RIGHTS NEWS, DISCRIMINATION, RACISM, RACIAL EQUALITY, BIAS, EQUALITY, AFRO AMERICAN NEWS



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News