MIDLAND, Texas —
The “Partners in Education” program, which was formerly launched and managed by the Midland Chamber of Commerce, will now be managed by the Midland Education Foundation.
“We are reassuming the Partners in Education [PIE] program," said Anita Gamertsfelder, director of the Midland Education Foundation. "It's a program that connects community, business and faith partners directly with our campuses, our teachers and our students to help bring on resources, volunteers, mentor programs to invest and pour into teachers and students on the campuses.”
Gamertsfelder says these partnerships allow schools to do things for their students and staff that normally they wouldn’t be able to or would have to go out of their way to raise money for because of budget reasons.
“A local school budget is 100% committed to educating a student, but sometimes there's those extra things that speak into teacher retention," Gamertsfelder continued. "Maybe a school needs to provide a Christmas lunch or back to school burritos. Or maybe it's incentives for students that are doing a great job and reading all the books they're supposed to read. These are the things that are really outside of the school budget where a partner in education can come in and help meet that need.”
The MEF will still be working closely with the MCC on the program and they’re hoping that they can get more businesses, big and small, to become a part of it in the future.
“This program that the Chamber grew and incubated is a perfect fit to come over to the Education Foundation because we're already set up with the structure, a Board of Governors to oversee that donation and to make sure that our Partners of Education are well taken care of,” Gamertsfelder added.