Brittany Kelley
KYLE — Hays CISD Education Foundation Executive Director Ida Musgrove gave an annual report to the Hays CISD Board of Trustees at its Sept. 22 meeting.
According to Musgrove, the board’s memorandum of understanding requires the directors to provide an annual report, which includes a cost benefit analysis, to the district each year.
She began by showing how the revenue raised from annual events has grown throughout the two years that she has been with the district, as well as the new events, such as the State of the District, which have been implemented to find new ways to communicate with the community, said the director. Additionally, the dollar amount in grants that the foundation has given back to the district has grown.
The foundation has also started to provide initiatives for the employees; this includes sponsors, so that departments do not have to pull out of their own funds for events and the teacher closet that launched in July.
“Just like any other business in the world, we need to celebrate our employees, we need to acknowledge our employees [and] we need to train our employees,” said Mugrove. “We help support where we can and where it makes sense.”
Also new is the campus ambassador program, said Musgrove, which provides a board member to keep in communication with a specific campus to aid it. For example, the director shared that a principal may need to apply for a grant, but could find it difficult to allocate time to apply for it; this is where the campus ambassador could step in to help.
In this upcoming year, Musgrove shared that the foundation has been collaborating with superintendent Dr. Eric Wright to provide campuses $1,000 to implement initiatives that could help improve attendance, as he stated that every 1% increase in attendance would benefit $1.5 million.
“[The memorandum of understanding] requires that what the foundation gives back to the district outweighs what you all have invested,” said Mugrove to the trustees. “We’re excited to say that we continue to increase that margin.”
For the 2024-25 school year, the district provided $156,001 in support, while the foundation gave $200,627 in grants and awards, totaling an “added value” of $44,626. The director did state that, personally, she doesn’t feel the “added value” is large enough, but that it is more than double what was presented for the 2023-24 school year.
Mugrove shared that in regards to the future, she hopes that the foundation is the most known organization in the area, if not the state.
“We all know about the state of public education and [that] maybe there are some inadequacies in regards to funding, but y’all are stepping right in there and taking this on,” said trustee Johnny Flores, thanking the foundation. “This is a time when teachers need that support more than ever.”
The Hays CISD Board of Trustees will meet next at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20.
