Cedar Hill ISD looking for educational program options

by Steve Snyder of TODAY Newspapers

The Cedar Hill Education Foundation could be an important part of that effort.

With voters having turned down a 13-cent increase for the Cedar Hill Independent School District last month, it is looking for other ways to continue to run as many educational programs as possible.

The Cedar Hill Education Foundation could be an important part of that effort.

“With the failure of the tax rollback, we are trying even harder to come up with new ways for the public to support the district through the Education Foundation,” Executive Director Teril Woodward said. “We are looking at applying for grants from other foundations. We are meeting with the school board to brainstorm other ways to get some big money into our city.”

The foundation, now 6 years old, has awarded about $120,000 in grants to teachers to further their education in various ways. It has several fundraisers each year to raise money for those grants.

CHEF is honoring its founding donors from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 13 at the Government Center, 285 Uptown Blvd., with a Donor Wall Dedication. Along with that wall, it is hanging a tree celebrating the Carolyn Hunt Endowment and four trees with varying amounts from $2,500 up to $25,000, Woodward said. There, the foundation will add the names of the people and businesses that financially support us in the months and years to come.

The foundation also is hoping to honor its biggest donors with naming rights to some of the facilities in the school district. Woodward said minimum donation amounts are still under discussion.

“We have some more fundraisers to add, including the ‘Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' that was started last year and our new ‘Mystery Dinner Theater' that will be held for the first time this year on Valentine's Day,” Woodward said. “Those are fun for us all, and not only raise funds - albeit not huge amounts - but they enable us and our supporters to celebrate what we have accomplished and get ideas about what we can accomplish down the road.”

Woodward said that such events also increase the foundation's visibility, which will help it better help the school district, she said.