This couldn’t have turned out better if it was planned.
After a neighborhood group declined in a vote to fund grants to elementary schools that applied for them, Oak Cliff neighbors raised $34,000 over a few days to make sure the schools have everything they asked for, with some cash left over.
Members of Go Oak Cliff, Texas state Rep. Raphael Anchia, current Rosemont Early Childhood PTA president Emily Ruth Cannon and other donors are touring five elementary schools today to deliver checks.
RECPTA raises about $30,000 a year through its annual auction and party. Members voted earlier this year to invite Oak Cliff elementary schools to apply for grants. But in a meeting last week, members voted down funding grants to schools besides Rosemont.
Former RECPTA member and Go Oak Cliff board member Amy Cowan set up a Go Fund Me that raised about $25,000, and Anchia and Todd Williams, CEO of local education nonprofit Commit, donated another $9,000 or so.
“The remainder of the money will be totaled and a plan will be announced soon for its use,” Cowan says.
In other RECPTA news, all but one of the 12 board members who had agreed to serve beginning June 1 have stepped down.
A letter from would-be president Sonya Hebert says they are planning to create a separate nonprofit that “mirrors what we were hoping to accomplish through RECPTA this past year. Through this organization, we aim to support families through friendship, mentoring, education, advocacy, and potentially fundraising for community and member needs.”
Hebert calls it a “win-win.”
“RECPTA alums win back what they thought this year’s Board had taken from them — namely, RECPTA’s time-honored, exclusive support for Rosemont Elementary and RECPTA’s adherence to the procedures, polices, and rules governing Texas PTAs. Those more in line with the vision of this year’s Board will find that this new organization offers them the community, the relationships, and the support they need in navigating parenthood, while also contributing to the North Oak Cliff community.”
