RIDGWAY — Being able to accept tax deductible donations in support of various STEAM projects within the district, the St. Marys Area School District Foundation will expand on the opportunities available to Elk County students.
St. Mays Superintendent Brian Toth spoke about the foundation at Tuesday’s Elk County Commissioners meeting.
Toth stated the district has been considering creating a foundation for a long time, but it was about three years ago that it became serious about the idea. The district has since been approved by the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED).
The foundation is approved as an educational improvement organization, which means that businesses can make contributions to the foundation and take advantage of educational improvement tax credits.
The foundation’s first contribution was received from Quala-Die Inc. in June 2016. Quala-Die contributed $40,000 and requested the money be used for career and technical training.
Toth explained that 80 percent of the money went towards career and technical training and the remaining 20 percent will be kept by the foundation for operational expenses. The $32,000 that went towards career and technical education has been used to purchase a state-of-the-art 3D printer and a new CNC machine.
Toth said that students in the district have already begun to use the printer to print out various things such as a small vice that is completely functional. He added the 3D printer has also been used to create plastic prototypes of projects that students are working on in metal shops.
The CNC machine will replace an older machine the district already has, although Toth said the district will not be getting rid of its old equipment. Instead, the district will keep the old CNC machine in hopes of giving students some education about how to repair a CNC machine.
Toth said the hope is to fix the old machine and have two working machines. He added the district has a lot of projects in the area of STEAM that businesses can contribute to through the foundation.
Toth said the district is looking into forming partnerships with local businesses so the district can align its curriculum with what jobs require of students.
“We’ve got kids doing real life work from elementary through high school,” Toth said.
He added the district currently has some unique projects ongoing as some students are learning to program a robot and took third place in a competition in DuBois, while other students are getting construction experience through building dugouts for the softball field.
Toth said district students get experience with real life working conditions as they have been at the softball fields this week in cooler temperatures and in muddy conditions.
Toth said if businesses do not want to jump through the hoops to take advantage of the educational improvement tax credits, the foundation has also obtained 501©(3) status, which allows the district to accept tax deductible donations from individuals and businesses.
This opens the foundation up for a lot of possibilities as Toth said the foundation can help to fund the projects that he had discussed, or the foundation can be used to administer a scholarship in someone’s honor.
Contributions to the foundation help to offset some of the district’s other expenses.
Between the $40,000 contribution from Quala-Die and a $25,000 grant from the Elk County Community Foundation, the district has received $65,000 for STEAM improvements.
Toth said this is the same amount the district would spend on hiring a new teacher, which it had to do twice this year as it had a large kindergarten class enter into the district.
While this foundation is set up to support the St. Marys Area School District, Toth said there is an opportunity for children in the other two Elk County school districts to benefit from the foundation and the many programs ongoing at St. Mays.
He said the three schools work together to benefit from each school’s strengths. Toth said that if a student wanted to participate in St. Marys’ programs from another district, something could likely be worked out between the two districts.
Such an arrangement can be seen as students from the Ridgway Area School District participate in a vo-ag program at Johnsonburg Area High School.
