By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — At least one member of the Board of Education is not as pleased with the Freehold Borough Educational Foundation as he expected to be.
In comments made at a recent board meeting, board member Peter DeFonzo said that in his opinion the foundation "was not doing what it set out to do."
In an update of the foundation’s progress and accomplishments reviewed at the board’s Oct. 21 meeting, school district administrator Anthony Tonzini said the foundation had raised more than $25,000. Much of these funds were received through a recent charter membership campaign, as well as through staff solicitation and school vendor companies, he said.
Tonzini said another annual donor campaign would be held in the future to raise additional funds. He reported that $9,200 in grants were awarded to 20 teachers in borough schools by the foundation’s directors.
In commenting on the report, DeFonzo said he didn’t see any parental involvement in the foundation, a fact which concerned him.
"We’re not writing for any grants either," he said. "I don’t see the foundation writing to large companies and corporations. You’re going back to the same people you visited last year for money with your campaign. This is not what I expected."
DeFonzo said he was under the impression that the foundation would be appealing to large corporations for funding.
"We gave them (the foundation) $12,000 and I just don’t feel they’re doing what they set out to do," he said.
DeFonzo also questioned why a consultant the foundation hired to help it raise funds was not writing to large corporations seeking grants.
Board President Lynne Coulson suggested that Defonzo review the contract the foundation had with the consultant in order to see exactly what it called for.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Kalafat noted that the foundation is an entity that is completely separate from the school district. She said it was never part of the plan to involve parents in the foundation, but to specifically look for other people from outside sources to help.
"There are people who continue to come out every month to help us," Kalafat said. "They work very hard and many of them don’t even have children in our school system."
The superintendent added that the foundation directors are careful not to compete with fund-raisers being held by the school PTOs.
Kalafat told DeFonzo that "in all fairness," there were no representatives from the educational foundation to address his questions and concerns and that the board meeting was not the proper forum for his comments without representation from the foundation.
DeFonzo agreed that the meeting may not have been the proper forum, but said he wanted to make his "displeasure" with the foundation known.
Kalafat said she was very pleased with the work the foundation has been doing.
"They have offered support and good will to our school," the superintendent said.
Asked for a response to DeFonzo’s comments, Lynn Reich, vice chairwoman of the educational foundation, said the organization enlisted the services of Ken Grounds, from McCormack Group, a Michigan consultant that works with foundations and nonprofit organizations.
She said Grounds was hired to help organize the fund-raising efforts in the most effective way to achieve what the group wanted to do — raise money for school projects that would not otherwise be funded.
"We consulted with the Board of Education and hired a consultant," said Reich.
"If there was already a template that worked, why waste time? We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. This was a route that would allow us to get where we needed to go."
Reich said Grounds helped the foundation raise a considerable sum money.
"Before Ken Grounds we had $768 in the bank. He did his job," she said, adding that the foundation does not get involved in fund-raisers similar to those run by the local PTOs.
"The PTO raises funds by community volunteering. The kind of fund-raising we do is different," she said, comparing the foundation’s fund-raising efforts to that of hospitals or cultural foundations.
She said that in order to appeal to large corporations for funds, an organization needs "to develop a track record."
"You need to show them what you’ve already done and then present your case. By focusing our attention in one direction, we have taken two giant steps toward establishing ourselves as a viable fund-raising organization," Reich added.