Description
The Grayson Cluster School Foundation provides funding for grants and scholarships available to the schools in the Grayson Cluster. The purpose of these is to enrich and extend the educational opportunities available in our communities schools.

Legal Information
Diane Schatell, Director    770.963.7189 diane_schatell@gwinnett.k12.ga.us

As a 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions to the Grayson Cluster Schools Foundation are tax deductible. Funds are deposited and invested through the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia.

Board Members

History
In 2000, the Grayson Cluster Schools Foundation, a dream John Campbell, then principal of McConnell Middle School, became a reality. The dream was to find a means to build an endowment to provide funds, in the form of grants to teachers, to enrich and extend educational opportunities, and to positively impact student performance in the Grayson area schools. A board of local community leaders, parents and teachers was formed and the Grayson Cluster Schools Foundation was born.

Mr. Campbell felt that emphasizing quality schools would positively influence growth and development in the Grayson community. The foundation will enable teachers to request funding for projects outside the scope of the regular curriculum. The mission of the Foundation is not to fund athletics or buildings, but, rather, to support a wide variety of academic projects.

Two examples of innovative projects funded by the Foundation are a hydroponics lab at McConnell Middle School and a joint venture of Grayson and Pharr Elementary Schools that brought in an author who hosted a writing program for kids and included a workshop for parents and teachers. The Foundation also provides college scholarships for two Grayson High School graduates each year.

Quality schools attract families who value education and move to the area because of those schools. Good teachers also want to go where they are valued and respected. They want to teach in a community that values education and good teachers.

In 2001, local developer Tom Perdue, recognizing that great schools attract home buyers who care deeply about their children’s education, made a generous donation to the Foundation of $25,000. This was the springboard that allowed the Foundation to start the annual grant giving to the teachers in the Grayson schools.

Because of the generous contributions of businesses and individuals, as well as Foundation fund-raising events, it has been able to award grants every year since. However, it has not yet been able to fully fund all of the grant requests it receives. To accomplish that goal, the Foundation will continue to build its endowment.

If you are interested in funding the future of students in the Grayson cluster, please consider supporting the GCSF. The Foundation is incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization and donations are tax deductible. The endowment is administered by the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia, which handles charitable endowment funds for many organizations throughout Gwinnett and northeast Georgia.

@ 2007 Grayson Cluster School Foundation. All rights reserved.