Annual Impact Report

ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT

www.WakeEd.org To engage, inform, and mobilize the business community and community-at-large in col- lab- ora- tion with the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to provide every student with excellent educational opportunities, highly effective teachers, and strong leaders. TEACHER INNOVATION GRANTS MORE THAN $67,000 GIVEN DIRECTLY TO WCPSS EDUCATORS

This year, we formed an unprecedented public private partnership with WCPSS. Thanks to your generous donations, we were able to give $67,542 directly to 26 educators. This money funded indoor gardens to bring biology to life for autistic students. It purchased books for students in underpriveleged schools. It created a digital classroom to bring STEM to life. Your contributions made that and much more possible. “Every school day, children at Lacy will become better readers because of your educational advocacy.” - Carol Longo WCPSS Educator STEMPACT WORLD CAFE Our annual STEM and Global Studies World Cafe paired more than 60 businesses and schools together at Biogen. Schools used focused networking time to brainstorm potential projects for classroom and school- wide engagement in STEM and global studies. These meetings led to

SummerSTEM “Our folks loved doing this, and it strikes me as a great example of just the kind of thing WakeEd is uniquely positioned to do.” - Caroline McCullen, SAS SummerSTEM immersed WCPSS educators in businesses and organizations that focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). The program exists to enrich the educator’s understanding of the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in STEM careers. FIRST STEPS IN LITERACY PARTNERS READ

“Our students will only be as In Partners Read, volunteers good as the people who invest dedicate 30 minutes every Friday morning to in them.” read with two elementary - April Love, WCPSS Educator school students. This year WakeEd placed more than 30 volunteers in eight WCPSS Elementary schools. One teacher reported that a student grew by five reading levels after beginning the program. FIRST STEPS IN LITERACY WAKE UP & READ “For more than 30 years, WakeEd WakeEd is a leading member Partnership has brought of the WAKE Up and Read businesses and community collaborative. This year, partners together – actively we helped collect, sort listening, collaborating and working – to give our and distribute more than children a solid learning 100,000 books for students foundation that will carry in underserved schools. them into the next stages of Through these efforts, we have their lives.” helped students start to build - David Fountain, Duke Energy a permanent home library. FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

WakeEd’s work to help parents succeed as their child’s first teachers requires that families have resources and training. We provided family resource toolkits supplementing WCPSS Letterland curriculum. In addition, we collaborated with Motheread to deliver workshops on literacy for parents. In addition, we co-hosted community events with Marbles Kids Museum and WCPSS Literacy leadership. ECONOMIC IMPACT REPORT + =

WakeEd partnered with WCPSS to fund a EVERY DOLLAR SPENT study by North Carolina State University AND RETAINED IN on the economic impact of our local public WAKE COUNTY BY schools in Wake County. Among other THE WCPSS CAPITAL things, the study found the high academic BUDGET RESULTS IN performance of WCPSS has helped raise property values in Wake County by more than $11.2 Billion. The study gained headlines in the News & Observer, WRAL, OF$2.23 WAKE COUNTY WUNC and many more news outlets. SPENDING COMMON CORE WakeEd believes WakeEd is a champion in the fight to keep North the ASRC Carolina’s curriculum standards high through recommendations Common Core. WakeEd has supported the will preserve standards since they were adopted by the state and rigorous academic wrote editorial pieaces and articles in WakeEdge standards for and In Context vocalizing why these standards students, provide are important. In December, WakeEd published an open letter to the Academic Standards Review stability and Commission urging them to keep the standards. professional Shortly after, the commission recommended that development for North Carolina keep standards high by supporting North Carolina’s Common Core. educators, and help educators and those who support them best align assessments.

SCHOOL FUNDING WakeEd co-hosted an education forum with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce that focused on moving “Beyond the Bucks” to really provide teachers with what they need. In addition, WakeEd led a group of business leaders to a county commissioners meeting to speak in support of WCPSS Board of Education budget proposal. County Commissioners ended up voting to give WCPSS $45 million in additional revenue next year. WakeEd continues to champion increases in funding for teacher pay and academic programs. STARS OF EDUCATION Our fundraising programs round out the end of our report. These programs support all of our efforts over the year and allow us to have the impact that we do. Stars of Education is our chief fundraiser for the year. This year, more than 400 individuals attended the celebration, helping to raise more than $60,000. Equally as important, at the event we honored those who are the educational backbone of our community. Our honorees are below. Vernon Malone Friend of Education Harvey Schmitt 2015 WCPSS Hall of Fame Class

Education Arts Community Service Valerie Schild Marshall Butler Nita Fulbright

Business Athletics Entrepreneurship Tom Oxholm Bobby Guthrie Gary Greene

Teacher Innovation Grant Recipients 2015-2016 TRIANGLE TRIVIA CHALLENGE

This year WakeEd made an extra effort to reach out to the next generation of leaders in Wake County to encourage them to invest in education. We started an annual trivia contest as a fundraiser for our programs and as an outreach tool to parents and young professionals. More than 70 people signed up for the event, which included door prizes provided by local businesses and a $500 cash prize.

CORNERSTONE INVESTORS With much appreciation and gratitude, WakeEd honors and thanks our Cornerstone Investors! At the level of investment of $10,000 and greater, they form the cornerstone of WakeEd’s financial foundation. Please join us in sending all of our Cornerstone Investors our largest thanks!

*includes in-kind services CHAIR Chair-Elect Doug Sprecher Don Esposito First Citizens Bank UNC Rex Healthcare

Monica Barnes Cara Greening Christina O’Neill ABC-11 WTVD Clancy & Theys Cisco

Chris Bell Sharon Gupton Katherine Peele SunTrust Bank Fonville Morisey Realty LS3P ASSOCIATES LTD.

Gordon Brown Jim Hartmann Natalie Perkins Alfred Williams & Company Wake County Manager Clean Design

Rob Buhler Doug Hornberger Jennifer Pittman MMI Public Relations Merrill Lynch Duke Energy

Rob Burlington John Hummel Marion Robinson SteelFab Inc. WLFL/WRDC TV State Employees’ Credit Union

Melissa Buscher, Chris Isley Jamie Royster Time Warner Cable BB&T Lenovo

Robin Costello Stephanie Jensen Sepi Saidi CED BASF Sepi Engineering & Construction

Matt Davis Rita Jerman Matthew Scialdone Paragon Bank Wake Technical Community College WCPSS Teacher of the Year

Damon Dishman Russell Killen Steven Slee Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Parker, Poe, Adams & Bernstein, LLP Fifth Third Bank

Scott Duda Mitch Lower Marcus Smith Cherry Bekaert, LLP Biogen PNC Bank

Hardin Engelhardt Rod Malone Julie Song Wake County PTA Council Tharrington Smith Quintiles

Don Esposito Scot McAlexander Walt Tippett Rex Healthcare Gateway Bank Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, LLP Eric Fitts Caroline McCullen WCPSS Principal of the Year SAS Cleon Umphrey Raleigh Durham Airport Authority Gary Greene Dr. Jim Merrill Greene Resources, Inc. WCPSS Superintendent Steve Parrott PRESIDENT [email protected]

Fran Carruthers Teresa Pierrie VP OF DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS [email protected] [email protected]

Ken Jones Heather Campbell DIRECTOR OF MARKETING DIRECTOR OF FINANCE [email protected] [email protected]