Monday, December 2, 2013

Katzes donate $250,000 to schools


Katzes donate $250,000 to schools

Mercury founders extend their history of giving to Durango District 9-R
By Chase Olivarius-Mcallister Herald staff writer

If funding for K-12 education were a medieval tale of war, Colorado public school students would find themselves in the position of an imperiled princess: surrounded by fire-breathing dragons (politicians), imprisoned in a moldy, stone tower (the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights) and battered by a cruel and ongoing winter (the national economy).

In this bleak landscape, Marc and Jane Katz – the white knights of public education locally – again are coming to Durango students’ financial rescue. On Monday, the Marc and Jane Katz Family Fund announced it is giving $250,000 to Durango School District 9-R.
Marc and Jeff Katz are founders of the local technology-oriented payment company Mercury.
Durango schools Superintendent Daniel Snowberger said the money is coming at a critical time for public education in Durango.

“It’s a big gift,” Snowberger said. “We’re looking at a $1.6 million annual deficit, and this is significant. Marc – he’s just a tremendous supporter. I’ve gotten to know him and Jane, and they are definitely very passionate about education in Durango, both public and private.”
Of this year’s $250,000 gift, the district will use $200,000 to begin using School Vault, a software tool that tracks student progress and revolutionizes the way teachers assess students’ progress in mastering state curricula. The remaining $50,000 will go to innovation in the schools, including teacher training.

Andy Burns, president of the Durango School Board, said the Katz family’s track record of giving to local education is extraordinary.

“They’ve been unbelievable to the district and also to Animas (High School), as well,” Burns said. “They wholeheartedly support education and our vision of high-quality education.”
Burns said the money would permit the district to “usher in a new area of 21st-century assessments that will really allow our students to respond to state assessments and nationally, Common Core, in a way we’ve never done before.”

In terms of money, it’s been an unusually dreadful year for K-12 education across Colorado.
Since the recession in 2008, school funding has plummeted in districts across the state, forcing teacher terminations, the closure of music programs and the decimation of after-school and extracurricular programs.

Then, in November, voters roundly rejected Amendment 66, a measure that promised to reform the state’s outmoded funding formula and pump new money into schools with a two-tier income tax.

While Snowberger said the district still is facing tough choices, he said the Katzes’ generosity is unparalleled.

Last year, they gave the district $150,000, on top of $200,000 in 2011; in 2010, they gave $100,000.

“Over three years, that’s an incredible amount of money,” he said.
Snowberger said El Diablo, Durango High School’s student newspaper, owed its Mac Lab to the Katzes, and because of the Katzes, students had been able to bus to community college.
cmcallister@durangoherald.com

See the story here: http://durangoherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131202/NEWS01/131209936/0/NEWS06/Katzes-donate-$250000-to-schools-&template=printpicart