The Bubble Lounge
Get Mad for Plaid with HP Education Foundation Executive Director - Meg Boyd
Join us on the Bubble Lounge Podcast for a heartwarming and insightful conversation with Meg Boyd, the executive director of the Highland Park Education Foundation. Meg shares her unique journey from alum to parent and provides an insider’s look into the foundation's storied history, its remarkable fundraising feats, and the critical role it plays in supporting teacher and staff salaries in the district.
Discover the many ways you can contribute to the foundation, from volunteering with PTAs and Dad's Clubs to participating in scholarship reading. This episode is a testament to the power of community partnerships and generosity in sustaining high educational standards and ensuring the best possible outcomes for Highland Park students.
Tune in for this uplifting and informative discussion, and be part of the movement to support our schools!
This episode sponsored by Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency SA Oral Surgeons and Hello, Nanny! To learn more about our sponsors visit Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency, SA Oral Surgeons and Hello, Nanny!
Join us on the Bubble Lounge Podcast for a heartwarming and insightful conversation with Meg Boyd, the executive director of the Highland Park Education Foundation. Meg shares her unique journey from alum to parent and provides an insider’s look into the foundation's storied history, its remarkable fundraising feats, and the critical role it plays in supporting teacher and staff salaries in the district.
Discover the many ways you can contribute to the foundation, from volunteering with PTAs and Dad's Clubs to participating in scholarship reading. This episode is a testament to the power of community partnerships and generosity in sustaining high educational standards and ensuring the best possible outcomes for Highland Park students.
Tune in for this uplifting and informative discussion, and be part of the movement to support our schools!
This episode sponsored by Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency SA Oral Surgeons and Hello, Nanny! To learn more about our sponsors visit Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency, SA Oral Surgeons and Hello, Nanny!
This episode is sponsored by Kathy L Wall State Farm Agency Learn more at kathylwallcom and Stuart Arango Oral Surgery Learn more at saoralsurgeonscom. Welcome to the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson and today we are going to be talking all things Highland Park Education Foundation. I have invited Meg Boyd, the executive director, to come in and talk to us Because for years I have seen these Mad for Plaid signs in everybody's yard and I've always wondered what does this go to and I wanted to learn more about the foundation. So thank you for being here today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, martha.
Speaker 1:I'm thrilled to be here and talk more about what we do Well give me a little background about yourself, because I know that you graduated from Highland Park and you have a kid in the school system too, and so tell us what's going on there. Awesome.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I am a proud Highland Park grad of class of 1996, and I'm actually a third generation Highland Park grad. Very nice, and I'm actually a third generation Highland Park grad.
Speaker 2:Ooh, very nice my grandparents and my father and his siblings attended along with me and my brother and my husband and I are now raising the fourth generation of Highland Park kiddos, or Highland Park Scots, to graduate in 29 and 31. So two boys and we are proud to be parents, not only living in the district, but I'm also proud to be doing what I do for the Education Foundation and educating and bringing awareness of how we bring fundraising to the district.
Speaker 1:Well, I spent a lot of time on your website today and I was blown away just about the magnitude of things that you all do and all the money that you raise in the different organizations. So tell us what exactly the foundation is Awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, the foundation started in 1984. So we're actually celebrating our 40th birthday and we're thrilled to be launching into our 40th year of what leaders back in 1984 saw the vision for how can we, as a foundation, fundraise for the district Now the campuses have their individual fundraising with the PTAs and the dads clubs and the sports clubs, but, as a foundation, fundraise for the district? Now the campuses have their individual fundraising with the PTAs and the dads clubs and the sports clubs, but as a whole we needed to have a foundation to help support the district's greatest need. So those leaders got us launched and here we are today celebrating many wonderful programs that the foundation does. So our fundraising components are Mad for Plaid and our endowment campaign, which is called the Lead for Tomorrow endowment campaign two separate fundraising campaigns.
Speaker 2:We also have the Alumni Association under the foundation, which is an ever-growing number, obviously graduating 500 plus kids every year from the high school and that we're proud to say we have over 18,000 active alumni. So since the school started in 1924 with the first graduating class, we have over 38,000 Highland Park grads who've? Gone through the system, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:That is impressive. Yes, yes. Well, as a parent here in the school system, I feel like we get asked for a lot of money and you never know which group it's going to and what it's going to help fund. So tell us why it's so important to give money to the school.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So two things I want people to realize is we are very much in partnership with the PTAs and the Dad's Club and the Sports Club and the Foundation, and together we raise money to provide to the district, to provide the deficit that the district has every year due to recapture from the state, and what that means is that, collectively, all of these organizations want to make sure we have excellence in education. So how to best put it is the PTAs and the dads clubs and the sports clubs. They provide the tools at each campus Right, so they're providing the resources that each of those campuses needs. They're also providing some additional funding for special programs like Spanish and other music things that might happen. What the foundation is doing to support the district is helping the district's greatest need, and every year the district says our greatest need is X is helping the district's greatest need, and every year the district says our greatest need is X. And right now, for the past couple of years and ongoing, the district's greatest need is to support teacher and staff salaries.
Speaker 2:So that is what the foundation is called to do right now.
Speaker 1:So, Meg, we love telling stories on the Bubble Lounge. Do you have any stories of how the donations have gone on and really made a big impact in somebody's life? I do.
Speaker 2:Martha, and this is two really cool stories I want to share about educators in our district. One is I want to ask a question is how many people remember their high school librarian? I don't, you don't, right. So a high school librarian plays a pivotal role, played a pivotal role in my time in the high school in the 90s, and obviously libraries have changed with technology and so forth.
Speaker 2:But there's a librarian at the high school who unfortunately has since passed away, but her name was Susan Rhodes and she was a librarian at the high school for 25 years and everyone remembers her, mainly in the 80s and 90s, and the role that she played was she welcomed people to the library, she made you feel important, she made you feel special, she took time to get to know your name and this is someone who's not teaching a core class right, we're coming to the library for resources. When she passed away, a group of educators and parents said we want to establish a legacy fund in honor of Susan Rhodes and in order to do that at the time, there was a certain dollar amount that had to be met. Well, what happens when Scots find a way? That group of educators and parents and community people raised over $25,000 to establish a fund for Susan Rhodes, the high school librarian.
Speaker 2:So that's one example of an educator as a librarian who people remembered, and that's just a touching point of what it meant to have strong leaders in our schools. The second is everyone remembers a great coach. Everyone remembers the impact coaches have and coaches are educators. They teach in the classroom but they also spend time after school coaching whatever sport it is. And there is a legendary track coach named Coach Jim Mouser who coached from about 1967 to about 1994. He started as the men's track coach and then he found his niche with the women and became a very disciplined coach for the women's programs of cross country, which was starting around the late 70s, early 80s on into track, and so he just recently received a Distinguished Alumni Award through the foundation and the Alumni Association.
Speaker 2:But what was very telling is the amount of people who showed up for this 88-year-old man who's still alive, and from that he had seven full tables of 10 of former runners and former athletes who ran under him to show up to honor him for that event. He had the most tables of all the honorees who were getting honored that day. But what's even more telling is after that event and it gets me emotional thinking about it is these athletes said we want to establish a legacy fund for Coach Tim Mouser and what he did for us. So they have funded a legacy fund in honor of him to signify they want to not only give back financially, but they also want to collectively pull people together to say we believe in this coach, we believe in this educator. When we were a runner, we didn't like him when he was coaching us, we didn't like him.
Speaker 2:When he was coaching us, we didn't like him because he was hard he was mean and on snow days he would call us back in the day. There was no texting, he would call and say all right, girls head to the germany park. I've the snow's on the ground, but I've shoveled two lanes for us to practice and the girls would show up begrudgingly, but they would show up up because of the respect for him. Well, this group of athletes from all decades have established a legacy fund in honor of him because of the significant impact they had on their lives.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, you literally gave me chills during that story. That was amazing. That is so touching.
Speaker 2:I love that and that's the power of teachers and that is why we as the foundation are really investing in educating people of our teachers need to have the dollars to do what they need to do.
Speaker 2:Well, sure, I mean, teachers are the catalyst to our students and if you have strong educators they will propel these students to go off and do great things.
Speaker 2:And we want to recruit, we want to retain the best of the best and the fabulous part is is the dollars we're raising through the foundation are helping with that talent and that talent is what makes Highland Park unique and that what makes a tradition of excellence and exemplary education who we are and that what makes us proud. In 100 years of graduates have walked through those Highland Park high school halls and somewhere a teacher has made an impact on those individuals. I go back personally to my first-grade teacher at UP Elementary and everyone's like a first-grade teacher and I'm like, yes, a first-grade teacher has a significant impact on me and Mrs Goodloe will be someone I will always treasure in what she did to teach me, to train me, to coach me to the fundamentals of the simple things of reading and writing, sure, but I remember her day-to-day schedule like it was yesterday, oh my gosh and I had that at UP Elementary in first grade and she's a teacher that I will always remember. That is amazing.
Speaker 1:I wanted to give a personal thank you to our good friend and show sponsor, kathy Elwall State Farm Agency. We have known Kathy for more than 15 years and there is no person we trust more when it comes to insurance than Kathy Elwall. Kathy is always available to help you find the right insurance for your family needs, whether it's covering your home, auto or providing a life insurance policy tailored to the unique needs of families in Highland Park. My family trusts Kathy with our insurance and we hope you will too. Please visit kathylwallcom to learn more and let her know that Martha from the Bubble Lounge sent you. So in looking at your website today, I couldn't help but notice there is a huge team of people that run this foundation. I mean, how many people are in the office?
Speaker 2:We are blessed to have eight staff members who are constantly working on the many projects and programs that are in what we do. So not only do we have the alumni program, math for Plaid, lead for Tomorrow, we also have a scholarship program for seniors to apply for, and those were set up by donors long ago to recognize and honor people who were meaningful to them, and that is money that our graduating seniors take with them to college, which is a huge gift. And we also have other programs that the communication, the marketing, and so we wear very even though there's eight that seems like a lot we wear multiple hats and it's a gift to have the talent that we do, because these eight staff members truly are professional and intelligent and have brought so much growth to the foundation, which I'm very thankful for.
Speaker 1:Well, in addition to the eight members, there's a huge team of the board. Looked like it was very big. And now is everyone that works on this an alum.
Speaker 2:No, excellent question.
Speaker 2:So we have a foundation board and we have an alumni board and they're two separate boards.
Speaker 2:But what the beauty of our community is and what makes the foundation so special is people are what make this community and the people who move here, the people who were either a Scott by birth or a Scott by choice.
Speaker 2:So I'm an alum who grew up here and I'm proud to return here. But there's people who moved here and they've become a Scott by choice, who aren't an alum, but it's so incredible because they want to get involved in the schools. They volunteer through the PTAs, they volunteer through the Dad's Club, they volunteer at their local campus, but they're also coming to serve at the district level for the foundation, and so we're thrilled to have a team of 40 plus foundation board directors and advisory. The advisory are just as key. They're non-voting, but they're there because they had a significant role as directors and we need that experience, we need that longevity and that institutional knowledge. And so together, the directors and the advisory board of our foundation are the governing board to help steer us, and they are all volunteers who really are instrumental in allowing us to open doors to fundraise.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, that's the thing about this neighborhood is, people love to volunteer, they love to give their time and they're just so generous with it, and I just love that about the community.
Speaker 2:Yes, there's two things. That I often say is it's a gift to have time. Time is just as important as the resource ie the gift, but it's so amazing when you see people do both, and that's where it just shows how powerful our community is and how invested our people. And people want our schools to be the best, and we are the best and we're recruiting, retaining the best teachers, because our students are having 99.9% graduation rate to go off to college better prepared than anywhere else.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of going off to college, I noticed that you had a very long list of scholarships. I literally couldn't believe how many people have started different scholarships.
Speaker 2:Yes, those scholarships are endowed, so they are in perpetuity. Where those scholarship has an investment policy off of it, that that money set up by those different families or individuals, whatever it was in honor or in memory of someone, has been a meaningful impact. And it's awesome when our seniors apply for it and everything's done anonymously. So the selection committee we have 100 volunteers who read all those scholarships oh wow. And they are very good at selecting through a system. How that works. And so we have deserving kiddos going off with something significant left to them to go off to further their career.
Speaker 1:Well, you were saying before we started recording that this is the beginning of your fiscal year. It's just starting up.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:You'll be knocking on our doors right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I say happy new year in July and we're very excited to start the new year off. We had a very successful fundraising year last year. We actually had a record setting year for MAD for Plaid and it was amazing to see the turnout of people going. We get it, we understand, and the neat thing about MAD for Plaid is that money we raise it during that year and then we give it away that year. So 100% of the MAD for Plaid money goes to teacher and staff salary and the district cannot afford for us to not meet the need of that number, and so the district asked for 1.7 this year and we actually raised more than 1.7. Well, that is impressive.
Speaker 1:Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you. So that's our annual campaign, with Mad for Plaid, and then Lead for Tomorrow is our endowment campaign, meaning we're leading for the future and we're setting up funds by families, corporations, individuals who want to leave a legacy for the next hundred years of Highland Park. And that's what the Lead for Tomorrow campaign is doing, and it's a five-year campaign that will end in 2026. So that money will apply towards the future and go towards giving back to the district whatever the district's greatest need is.
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Speaker 2:Well, right now the district has said this is our greatest need to focus on teachers and staff, and so that's what we're doing. But there's also programmatic funds that we have received over the years, back when we started that help fund different initiatives at the high school. So there's a Palmer Science Fund, so when the science teachers need some funding now we're able to give off that fund to supply whatever tools they might need or additional resources. We also have a great partnership with La Fiesta. They're very good at recognizing the need to give back to the schools and they are a huge proponent of this community supporting multiple organizations in the park cities, and they recognize the need also to give back in certain ways, and so they partner with us to then give money to the district through what the district needs as far as immediate needs that year, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I know they just had their big gala they did Well that's so great. There's just so many entities that are feeding into us and I love that so much. Yes, so there's actually a lot of tax benefits both for a person and their business, giving back to the school right.
Speaker 2:Yes, so at the foundation we are a separate 501c3. So when we were started in 1984, that was the whole goal to be a nonprofit entity separate from the district. So when anyone makes a donation to the Highland Park Education Foundation, whether through the Alumni Association, whether they make a gift to Mad for Plaid or they make a tribute in honor of someone, that is a tax-deductible gift to the foundation.
Speaker 1:And so what about companies out there? Do they do any matching or anything like that?
Speaker 2:Yes, we see a lot of our matching through Mad for Plaid, where a person is employed by a certain company and that company has matching that they can donate through their different company. So we encourage a lot of people and it's awesome to see when people do that and they're like my company is going to match my gift and it's just showing that they individually invest, but also that a company is investing not only in their person who works for them, but also for a nonprofit like us, right, I love that.
Speaker 1:So what about ways to give back that aren't monetary?
Speaker 2:We love the gift of time. The gift of time truly is a treasure, and that is something that we never take for granted, because we're in a society where time is taken from us in many different directions, whether it's work, it's career, it's travel, it's hobbies, it's family and how we like to get people connected to us. If you've just moved here, I have a great suggestion of how you can get involved, and I love the fact that you get involved at your local campus Join the PTAs, join the Dad's Club, support the school, do what you can, as far as any time you can give. Serve on a PTA committee, serve on a Dad's Club, open doors for carpool, serve cafeteria. Cafeteria, especially as you get older, is really the one chance where you get to see your kid in school.
Speaker 2:But then also with the foundation, if we encourage people to join our alumni board or join our foundation board or become a scholarship reader we need 100 volunteers to read scholarship applications and we it takes a village to do that and Math for Plaid we need people to help deliver Math for Plaid signs and put them in the yards. And then we have events where we need invitation stuffing. And we have events where we need invitation stuffing so literally you can get your hands in anything. But we highly encourage doing it at the school level and at the foundation level, how you see best for your time. But we will honor it, we will respect it and we will treasure the gifts that you can bring.
Speaker 1:Well, they do such a great job as soon as we get to elementary school is really recruiting us to the cafeteria and the library and all the things. And I feel like you just kind of keep your momentum going and just keep helping out where you fit in.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And we have a community that gives and a community that wants to see the success of our schools and of the programs. And it takes people showing up and it takes people to make sure certain things are running. And those cafeterias, they're little businesses on their own and they run a tight ship, but they also we save money by having volunteers run it.
Speaker 1:That's right and it's actually fun. You sign up with one of your friends and you can have a lot of fun and catch up, because we don't always get a chance to talk to each other as much as we can in the cafeteria.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And as a parent, I value that time in the cafeteria with. I sign up for the same shift with the same ladies and we come once a month and I get to see my kiddo because they're in the middle schools and so I treasure the time, not only as someone who's fundraising and volunteering for fundraising and volunteering for the district, so I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, that's awesome. You have a lot of enthusiasm and I love that. Thank you. Well, how can people learn more about?
Speaker 2:you all I love it.
Speaker 2:We're always here to educate. We invite anyone to contact me or any one of the staff to set up time to come visit our little house on the corner, not on the prairie, we're on the corner. Little house on the corner, right next to Highland Park. Highlander Stadium is where we are and we invite you to come, learn about our programs, learn how to get involved. We get it.
Speaker 2:If fundraising is not right now, we would love to have your time, and time is a gift that we treasure just as much as the fundraising. So know that there's ways that you can support your local school, you can support the foundation and we invite you to come to any event you would like to. We would love to take you to coffee lunch just to sit down and talk, because that's half of what we're successful, because of the ambassadors in the community who walk around telling the story and we're all storytellers of some sort and the stories that I just shared about those two educators. There's a thousand more right and I encourage to get to know our board members, get to know the foundation board, the alumni board and see how you can get involved.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it just sounds like an incredible group of people. Thank you for all that you guys do.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It is a true community that really rallies behind the district's greatest need. And Highland Park is unique. It's not like any other school district really in the state of Texas and I'll go ahead and say the country but it is one that really when you have a Highland Park education, you get it, you understand it and it all started no matter when you came in elementary, middle or high school and no matter how much you got involved or didn't get involved, you have an education that propelled you.
Speaker 1:Well, you have done an incredible job of just breaking it all down and explaining it to us. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you for the time and opportunity and appreciate all that you do too, thank you, and you can find more at hpeforg, and I'll put a link in the show notes for you. That's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson, and I'll catch you next time.