Central Illinois Program

Soaring Schools! Program

Education has been part of The Lumpkin Family Foundations mission since its early days. Over the past few years, however, the nature of our work in this field has evolved, along with The Foundations underlying philosophy for all of its work. More and more, we seek active engagement in situations where we feel we can offer more value than just financial resources. Soaring Schools! , a school reform program that seeks to instill excellence in public high schools in East Central Illinois, illustrates this philosophy.

A Soaring Schools! grant makes resources available to help high schools develop their human and leadership capacity. The Foundations first (of six) core values supporting this work is that a school is a learning community where each member strives to be the best s/he can be. Simply stated, our work is focused on helping schools figure out how to accomplish this.

In practical terms, this may mean financial support to free up teacher and administrator time for learning or structured dialogue with the community or even for site visits to high performing schools throughout the country. The Foundation participates in the schools ongoing discussion, playing the role of critical friend, providing an objective perspective on the schools activities and progress. At present, Mattoon High School is participating.

The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant proposals for this program. If your high school is in East Central Illinois and is interested in learning more about Soaring Schools!, please contact:

Bruce Karmazin
bruce.karmazin@consolidated.com
217-234-5915