School District 51 Foundation - Executive Director Angela Christensen - Full Circle Podcast with The Christi Reece Group

Do you know that School District 51 has a foundation that supports our schools, teachers, and kids? Christi sits down with Executive Director Angela Christensen to learn more about all the great things the Foundation is doing for our local schools!

Learn more about the D51 Foundation HERE!

Transcript

Christi: 0:00

The Full Circle Podcast, compelling interviews and incredible tales from Colorado's Western Slope, from the mountains to the desert. Christi Reece and her team hear from the movers, shakers, and characters of the Grand Valley and surrounding mountain towns that make the Western Slope the place we all love. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll love with The Full Circle. Hi everyone, I'm Christi Reece and welcome back to the Full Circle Podcast. I am honored to have today as our guest the Executive Director of the District 51 Foundation, Angela Christensen. Welcome, Angela.

Angela: 0:36

Thank you, Christi. What a treat. I've really been looking forward to coming and chatting with

Christi: 0:40

you. Well, me too. We've always enjoyed chatting with each other. I think we get excited about school issues and helping students and helping teachers and helping the district. It's such a big, important part of why people come here. They want good schools. And so thanks to the foundation for everything they're doing.

Angela: 0:59

Oh, thank you so much. We have had tremendous community support. And it has made all the difference because of the key role that all of our public schools play literally across Mesa County. And it makes a difference for bringing people in keeping people here and just our quality of life more than anything.

Christi: 1:17

Yeah. Well, let's start with a

Angela: 1:25

up here my dad went rafting down the Colorado River and he just fell in love we were living in Indiana and he just said to my mom we've got to come out here and so we moved out here a lot yeah well it's gorgeous I'm sitting here looking at the view behind you it's unbelievable so we came out here I was about 10 or so and just grew up here graduated from Grand Junction High School and went away to college yeah and it was so exciting to be able to come back here I spent the beginning part of my career as a teacher at Palisade High School and spent about six years doing that. I taught at Colorado Christian University for another six years as an adjunct professor and also an adjunct professor at CMU. Awesome. And my husband and I, he grew up here, and we have three children, three fantastic

Christi: 2:22

children. And I read you guys were born on the same day, like 15? 15 minutes apart.

Angela: 2:26

Yes. I know that is a little crazy, but we were born on the exact same day, which anytime I'm filling out paperwork, people are like, really? Did you make a mistake? So no, it's kind of fun on our birthday morning to look over at each other. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Same age. Yeah. And that's kind of fun. But we have three kids and they all went to schools around here. And I started getting involved with like the PTA at the kids elementary school. And I also started realizing the needs in our schools and seeing the ways that we were raising funds were bingo and bake sales. And Our schools need a little more support than that.

Christi: 3:06

Well, and those PTOs are so wonderful, valuable. They get the parents involved, but it's school by school, right? And so there may be a school that doesn't have a very active association and they can really suffer for that.

Angela: 3:18

And so when I was asked to join the board of directors for the D51 Foundation, and that was quite a while back, about 12 years ago or so, I just said, yeah, this feels like a really good The things that I had done really felt like it would make a great connection.

Christi: 3:38

And remind me, the association was formed in what year? Was it 2010?

Angela: 3:43

2010. So this is our 15th birthday. And so that has been really exciting to celebrate. And so I served on the board of directors for four years. And then the executive director position became available. And I just, I remember talking to my husband and he said, Oh, Angela, this just seems like it'd be such a great fit

Christi: 4:02

for you. And I think everybody would agree that it has been a great fit. And I think when people think of District 51, your name or your face just pops up like you are such a big part of why it's successful. Well, thank you so much. I will be celebrating

Angela: 4:18

nine years here in October.

Christi: 4:21

So how did the District 51 Foundation get formed? Who was the impetus behind that? Right.

Angela: 4:29

It's a 501c3. And it really, we credit Roy Bly as the founder of the D51 Foundation, but it was also a group of key community leaders, people like Norm Franke and Steve Meyer, Dan Prinster, John Williams, Dale Beattie, who just came together and said, lots of other school districts have foundations. Why don't we have one? And so they put in the hard work to create this foundation, and it has played a huge role. In these 15 years, we actually were reaching a milestone, which I'll celebrate here, which is we've raised $3 million in those 15 years. fantastic board members like you, Christy, who served on our board of directors and generous donors. Your company has been year after year a sponsor at our White Ice celebration, which we so appreciate. But you've just been supporters of so many different things and we were one of the first

Christi: 5:43

Circle Fund recipients. I still remember that. And we were really excited that our clients also voted to give funds towards the bond for Grand Junction High School because that you know as realtors we were like this really needs to happen and we talked to our clients about it and they all agreed and the vote came through and so we hope that that helped push that vote

Angela: 6:06

yeah well I'll have to tell you that is where the foundation has played a key role as far as the leaders on the foundation when you think about we've had four bond elections been successful in three of the four chairs for that have been foundation presidents we've had Kelly Flanagan ran the first one and other foundation people were very involved in that then Dan Prinster then Sarah Schrader co-chairing with Tim Foster and then most recently Curtis Englehart. Englehart, yeah, and Karen Troester, and now Curtis, I am excited to share with you, has joined our board of directors as well. We're so fortunate to have him. But really, the foundation has just tried to be a champion for, just like I was saying, the key that schools play in the economic success of our community. And so those, the passage of each of those, the first one, the mill has made such a difference in our adding additional school days the bond has we have a new Orchard Mesa Middle School

Christi: 7:16

it's so beautiful dual

Angela: 7:18

immersion has a gym now those would not happen if we had not passed that and then in 2021 to get a new Grand Junction High School and just the hard work it takes to run campaigns like that and then the most recent one is making differences as you drive around as anyone drives around drives around you'll see those banners up on schools that just say and I see the construction work that's happening at the schools right now yep and the sun set was taken off of the mill that was passed in 17 and those are game changers literally for generations in our community we just had not been successful in passing bonds and mills and I think people see it the only way it happens is with enough people voting and thank you for your support of all of those you have really I mean donate Well, my

Christi: 8:12

kids both went to District 51 schools, and we loved them. I mean, great education, great teachers, great staff. And we just wanted to make sure that... Teachers, I mean, they never get what they deserve, really. They work so hard and I think they're underpaid. And so I just thought if I can't raise teacher salaries, I'll do what I can to help them in other ways. Well, that definitely

Angela: 8:39

makes a difference. I too, I've got three of my children. Our oldest son graduated from Mines. He has a fantastic degree. He got a great education here. My daughter just graduated from Baylor University. Congratulations. Thank you. That was fun to go to. And then our youngest is going to be a junior at Mines over in Golden. And my hope, I guess, secretly is that they'll all move back here and bring future grandchildren down the line, down the line. But anyways. Just putting it out there. Yeah, just putting it out there. But really, schools will play a huge role in that. Even if you don't have kids in the district. I mean, if you want a good... great doctor, we have to have strong schools because people who are thinking about moving here look at all of those things. And so

Christi: 9:29

it's been exciting. There's so many things we could talk about. Let's talk first about fundraising. What are your major fundraising events? How do you raise $3 million over that many years? Well, we have a

Angela: 9:43

fantastic board of directors. We've really worked hard to get the key community to leaders who are so well respected and they go out and talk to people and secure donations I know when you were on the board you were doing that just like our board members are we have our president is Tawny Kelly and we have a vice president Keller Cabero and we've just added three new members I talked about Curtis we also have Sam Meyer which is kind of sweet since that his dad helped start it that was definitely fun and we have added one more and that's Tyler Dahl and he is the regional president of Alpine Bank and just did a fantastic fundraiser. We were the recipient of their golf donation a little over $5,000 which I just was, it was fantastic. But our big event really is, we have one big event in February. It's always the first Saturday in February. It's called a White Ice Celebration

Speaker 00: 10:48

and

Christi: 10:49

for For those watching and listening, you got to go. It's the party of the year. It really is so fun. It

Angela: 10:54

is fun. That is really what we have worked on. And it is, we encourage our guests to wear white, gold, silver, and people have really been playing it up a lot. Last year, we had over 800 guests at the CMU Ballroom. But it really, it's all different folks, Christy. It is teachers, it's principals, it's business owners, it's parents, but it's a fantastic way to come together and and just say, we celebrate this and we want to honor our schools, our outstanding academic growth schools are recognized and our white iced award recipients. And those are staff members who are just going above

Christi: 11:32

and

Angela: 11:32

beyond.

Christi: 11:33

Yeah. And I think anybody that has attended and watched those awards being given out, it just gives you goosebumps. There's people behind the scenes that don't get recognized very often doing great work. And I think we all can remember the people that made a difference in our lives when we were in school. And sometimes it was the janitor right or the the cafeteria person or the school nurse you know not all just teachers

Angela: 11:58

no it's not and that's been really exciting we had the head cafeteria woman out at Central High School this past year that was recognized. We've had a custodian and we've had tons of teachers who are just when you start reading those applications and they're nominated by their peers. Anyone can nominate someone else. You just start hearing about the fantastic things that are happening day in and day out in our schools across School District 51. But that's really our biggest fundraiser. But we have fundraisers all the time during the month of August. Head out to the hot tub And they are donating 1% of their funds throughout that whole month. We also are in the midst of Stuff the Bus. If you happen to be out at the mall right now, school supplies

Christi: 12:44

are always needed. School starts pretty soon,

Speaker 00: 12:47

Angela. It's early. I know. It's coming up, isn't it? Yeah.

Christi: 12:51

Well, let's talk about where those funds go. What is... Describe the mission of District 51 Foundation and where that money goes.

Angela: 13:04

And it's a really straightforward, easy mission in my mind. And it has stayed the same all 15 years. And that is raise funds for academic growth and achievement. Our schools are asked to do so many things. But the bottom line is they're there to grow kids academically. And so that's the first half of our mission. We're about raising money for academic growth. And the second half is to promote outreach to benefit kids and the community. And so finding ways to connect with our community just to share what's happening in our schools is our mission. As far as our funding priorities, I love them. They are one's. everyone can get behind. The first one is we support professional learning for D51 staff members to grow kids academically. It is so important, and I think this kind of comes from my education and past, just how important having the most highly trained teachers in our classrooms is for our students.

Christi: 14:08

Well, and I've talked to some of the teachers that have been recipients of these grants, and I think, if I remember correctly, one was in in the band program and would love an opportunity to go across the country and play with other musicians and learn new techniques for teaching the kids. And those things are expensive. And on a teacher's salary, they can't fit that into their budget. So this is exactly the kind of thing that District 51 helps provide.

Angela: 14:37

Absolutely. And over the years, we have donated over, I think we're now at about $160,000 to 400 staff members per professional learning because we know that is the way all research would indicate that's how you grow kids academically. So our first funding priority or one of the three is professional learning. The second one is technology and innovation. And we're really supporting those STEM programs. We've opened up grant cycles for that where teachers can say, you know what, this is the technology I would like in my class. This would really benefit my students and my ability to teach. And so we've worked really hard to support that, along with some fantastic support from Chevron. That has been a big push of theirs. And so that's been wonderful. And then the one that we added within the last couple years is student and staff wellness, because we know how important that is to every aspect of education. And so we have done that by supporting student and staff wellness grants. We just wrapped up our second round. We'll be opening up a third here when school starts again. But we've also incorporated what we're calling joy celebration events. And those are events. And joy stands for? Just one you. Just one you. And if there's just one you, then we better support you. And those are just things for D51 staff members to join together and have fun and make connections. And we've had a gathering where we sponsored appetizers at the Ale House and then probably are most popular is out at food bank of the rockies and staff members after they have already worked all day we have had the best turnout To go volunteer. right back to our District 51 PE programs, but also helps encourage kids to get out there. And they had the... people power to put together a run. We're a pretty small operation, Christy.

Christi: 17:10

Yeah, I know. It's no small feat to put together a running event.

Angela: 17:14

Yeah.

Christi: 17:15

Some people think, well, just do a little thing. No, it takes a lot of work. Yeah,

Angela: 17:18

they've been great. They've been really good to work with. But in our office, it's just me and then it's Andrea Kreeves. She's now our assistant executive director. And then April Hart writes our thank you notes. And so we're kind of a small group, but we're able to accomplish a lot with our board of directors and with so many people choosing to donate to the foundation.

Christi: 17:41

Yeah. So obviously the, um, Sometimes we would like to think that the school systems build wellness programs and that we're trying to take care of our kids and our teachers' wellness at school. And the professional learning, that's not something that most school districts contribute towards, so that's wonderful. But I think that a lot of people think, well, technology isn't that, shouldn't that be the school district's responsibility? Why are we having to raise funds for technology? Okay. Can you explain a little bit? I mean, obviously, everybody has budget constraints. And you said that there's a process by which the teachers... request something in the technology sector that would help them out.

Angela: 18:30

Is that right? Yeah, that's a good question. We have really three areas that we support with technology because there are computers in the classroom and that is part of, you know, things that we have. The first one is First Lego League. And so we support that with a big influx of money to support that for high schoolers and for middle school and elementary. And so that has been one thing that really, I mean, it would be very hard to support that just through district funds. So we have done that. In addition, we've done those grants. And then the one that I'm very excited about are our 21st Century Digital Classrooms. When we first started working with the school district to say, well, what do you need? We want to, we started off giving, handing out nooks and then those kind of went by the wayside a little bit. But these 21st Century Digital Classrooms has been where we have put in and budgeted about $35,000 a year. With the help of School District 51, we were able to have 10 classrooms that are now... And what we find is in the new buildings, yeah, you've got all the new updated technology, but in most of our buildings... they need just a boost in their classrooms. And so this provides large interactive screens for the teacher to teach with, even things like that help with people who might have a little challenging time hearing things. But it really brings that classroom to a much greater level than it ever has been. And so those have been the areas that we have supported with technology.

Christi: 20:15

Yeah, the Nook, was that the laptop

Angela: 20:19

to read a book? And you could make it so that the font, I mean, and this we're talking like right when the foundation started. So that was, I remember this when I was on the board of directors. So like 13 years ago, but one of the big things was that you could make the font big. And that was such a game changer for so many students who just, you know, that it made it a little bit easier.

Christi: 20:42

But in the last 10 years, you supplied a lot of laptops for students to use. Is that correct?

Angela: 20:49

Yeah, we've really supported a lot of Chromebooks, but with the passage, and I have to tell you, Christy, with the passage of that 17 Bond and Mill, we were able to get the kids to a one-to-one ratio, which you just think, how would we have done school during the quarter we were off? School District 51 was off for that fourth quarter of the 2020. 20 school year but how would we have done that if we if our kids could not have had access to Chromebooks and so we really had been supporting those two but now we are at one-to-one and so it's kind of been exciting though to see some of these things like get whittled off the list yeah to some

Christi: 21:31

degree but they're no longer challenges

Angela: 21:33

how gratifying it is very gratifying oh the work I do it is a lot it's hard work but it is also work that is very rewarding to me because you can start to see the difference that it's making.

Christi: 21:49

Wonderful. Now, I know you work in tandem with the school board and the district leaders. How do you do that? How do you manage with, do you go to the school board meetings? Are you keeping up with all of the latest issues happening in the district?

Angela: 22:08

Well, I definitely need to be at things that help me understand a little better about the needs in School District 51. And School District 51 has been very gracious. I have all sorts of access. My office is right down there. As a matter of fact, on Wednesday morning, I'm preparing my welcome speech. Dr. Hill will be giving the opening and then I get to follow him and just welcome all of our principals and assistant principals and district leadership on Wednesday. But it is important. We have a You know, I always think the school board, number one, they don't get paid. I remind people on a regular basis that they are putting in these hours. And I have seen a lot of school board members over the time that I have been in this position who are all working hard, trying to find the best answers for our students. And so I do work very closely with them. I work very closely with Dr. Hill and his leadership team. But we are also independent. We're a 501c3. And the board makes the decisions about where the funds go. Right. But I do want to point out, this was something I was thinking of, is that over the past probably five years, we now have a teacher on our board of directors for the School District Foundation. And that's been wonderful. They serve a two-year term. And currently we have a principal. So Newt Klusmeier, he's the Fruita Monument High School principal. He's on our board. And Shannon Copenhafer, who's a teacher at New Emory. is on our board. But that really helps our board also be able to hear firsthand, not just from Dr. Hill, who serves on our board of directors, or Andrea Heights, the president of the school board, but to hear from other folks what are the needs. Because we want to be sure that the things that we are doing support our school district, you know, are appreciated. And boy, I will tell you, they certainly are. But I'm at events. I'm at in-services all the time. I'm in our schools. I'm hanging out.

Christi: 24:14

Yeah. Yeah. So you've talked about some of the great things that are coming up that you're excited about. What do you think are the main challenges facing our school district in the next couple of years that you all are gearing up for?

Angela: 24:27

I think definitely the declining enrollment has been an issue. But when I am talking to groups and I work really hard to try to get out in front of as many groups as possible, whether it's service organizations or schools, our ambassadors but the declining enrollment is an issue, not just in Mesa County, but it's in Colorado. Um, over the summer I meet with, um, executive directors who are doing the job that I do all across the state of Colorado. And it's interesting. Professional learning for you too. It is professional and it is fantastic. I always come back with good ideas, but they are dealing with that with school closure. They, we have folks from Cherry Creek and, uh, Pooter Valley, uh, Douglas County, Denver, um, foundation, but they're dealing with that and really across the whole nation. And so closing schools is something nobody likes to do. I mean, you don't come in and want to do that, but I feel like in making some of the smart choices that, and hard choices, I mean, anybody who was at the school board meetings or listening to the discussion, it's not easy. Nobody wants to do that, but you know, We also have to be cognizant of our community as far as we want to be good stewards of the funds that they've entrusted to us in the passage of these bond and mills. you have to make some hard choices. And I feel like there have been a lot of great choices that have been made that have been hard. But the bottom line is we need to keep our schools going and supporting them the best way that we can.

Christi: 26:13

Grand Junction High School is such a win it's such a beautiful facility and so many good things about it like it was under budget on time just win after win for that facility and I think everybody All the kids love going to school there, obviously. What's next as far as

Angela: 26:38

facilities? I did my student teaching there eons back, and it was in need of updates then, which was over 30 years ago. But it will receive huge changes that were really needed. Now, it was built on a better foundation than Grand Junction High School.

Christi: 27:20

So it doesn't necessarily

Angela: 27:22

need to

Christi: 27:22

be torn

Angela: 27:22

down. It does not. And sometimes people look at that, and with Grand Junction High School, it's like, There was no question. I can't tell you how many tours I gave and how many folks I talked to who know it cannot be salvaged. But Central is a different thing. And what's going to happen at that is just amazing. And Fruita Monument High School also will be the recipient of huge updates. That's wonderful. And our high schools really need it. Palisade, when I was teaching out there, I think it had been around for about two years. So it was a lovely new school. And so it's much more recent. But so many of our schools across the district really had substantial needs. And we're not talking fancy things. We're talking roofs or an HVAC. HVAC and safety and security, too. Yeah, and safety and security, although we did get a lot of that but like Palisade High School now will have a secure vestibule across the front and those are just things I mean I hate it that that's something that we need but you bet we want to keep our kids safe yeah Definitely.

Christi: 28:29

Angela, if people want to learn more about the board, you have a website and information. You've got a lot of materials with you, which is great. And I always enjoy getting your annual impact, the graphics in there really make it easy to see all the good that you do. So how can people get more information about the District 51 Foundation? Sure.

Angela: 28:49

You can go to our website at d51foundation.org. And you can find us also just off of the main school district website, which I really appreciate We have an easy link right there. It lists our board members, our strategic plan, gives you an overview with our annual report. And we have seen with our White Ice, I mean, just more sponsorship, more. I mean, the trend has continued to be like that. And so people can find out more about that. We also have ambassadors. We started this years ago because we realized that just having board members go and talk at schools, people may don't know who we are. And so we've worked with principals at all of our schools to identify those key parents, the ones who everybody knows at each school, and there are those folks, and to get them involved with the foundation so then they can go back to their school and share a little bit more about what the foundation does, because it just takes time. We've been around for 15 years, but there's still lots of folks who want to understand what we do and how we support School District 51 and our Yeah. And if they want

Christi: 30:03

to give some money, they can also do that on the website, right?

Angela: 30:07

We would love that as well. You bet. There's a donation page and we sincerely appreciate that. Support, you know, for all of our programs just makes all the, I mean, that's the way that we are funded them, the way that we're able to do things. You know, sometimes people think, oh, there must be outside. No, it's our donors. That is the way that we're able to do things. to accomplish all of this.

Christi: 30:32

We talked at the beginning about the Blythe family and their participation in the creation of the foundation, but they also gave a really amazing gift. Was that last year? No. Two years ago? It's actually been about five years ago. No,

Angela: 30:47

it's a

Christi: 30:47

little hard to believe. Maybe those white ice parties just kind of... Yeah, they're just kind of blurring together.

Angela: 30:52

They donated, they set aside an endowment at Western Colorado Community Foundation, and that's also where we have the foundation's endowment as well. $100,000 and it has just made such a huge difference. And it's exciting with Keller joining our board of directors. That is Roy's stepson and his mom, Pamela Blythe. I mean, they've been such wonderful supporters of the things we're doing. It's just been exciting to see that continue to grow. But we appreciate, you know, as people start planning their legacy gifts, I mean, thinking of something that will help make us more sustainable. I have more and more people as they understand what we're doing choosing, hey, I want to leave a legacy and the foundation is the way or where I feel like it would make a big impact.

Christi: 31:46

So we sure appreciate that. Yeah, I agree. Good thing to include in your estate planning. Exactly, exactly. It's such a great organization to help schools across the district. Every every school in the district can benefit from the work that you do.

Angela: 32:03

Absolutely. And we're seeing that. Yeah, it's just, it's very fulfilling work to do. Definitely. I don't know if we have time. I have a little something fun to give you. This is our summer swag that has been kind of a hit across School District 51. Well, first of all, it has been hot. I don't know if you've noticed. It's been a little hot in Grand Junction. So I'm not going to pop this open, but it's a darling little sunscreen for the front of your car. Oh, awesome. Does it say... District 51 Foundation well it sure does okay good it definitely does and then who doesn't need a pair of sunglasses yeah and we've got our little logo on the side yeah uh-huh the headphones on there you yeah there you go yeah oh they are so cool most definitely you're so sweet thank you you are so sweet I

Christi: 32:56

really appreciate anything I can do to promote the foundation and spread the word about the good work that you do and encourage people to donate and And yeah, attend the fundraisers, stuff the bus coming up next. Yep. Right. You need school supplies. Right now it's happening. Lots of kids need school supplies. So get on the website, find out what's going on. And thank you, Angela, for joining us on the Full Circle podcast. Just love your attitude and the positivity that you bring to this role. It seems like even when times are challenging at schools and there are things that are always challenging. The District 51 Foundation and you specifically have a positive attitude about how we can make things better. So thank you. Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate being here today. Awesome. All right, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Full Circle Podcast. Bye. Thanks for listening. This is Christy Reese signing out from the Full Circle Podcast.