Boost for schools

The days are long past when PTA bake sales bought the extras that have become essentials for public schools. The schools have come to depend on the largesse not only of the parents of students and members of the community, but of the teachers themselves, some of whom spend hundreds of their own dollars each year on school supplies.

Deep cuts in the Cape Girardeau School District's budgets over recent years, including $1.2 million this year, have made the Cape Girardeau Schools Foundation necessary.

The foundation originally was formed to raise money to build a track at the old Central High School on Caruthers Avenue. The foundation was resurrected in 2001 and since has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the schools through a series of small fund raisers.

Now the foundation has hired Angie Bender, a former member of its board, to become its first paid, full-time director. This move makes sense.

Until now, the foundation has been run by volunteers who have served well. But if community-wide support for the foundation is to take off, providing an identifiable leader and champion of the cause is the next step. Bender is the former sales director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau. Prior to that she raised funds for seven years for the March of Dimes, the Humane Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Bender plans a change in the way the foundation raises money, a move away from small fund raisers toward building the foundation's membership. Foundation members will be offered different levels of sponsorship. Corporate donations also will be sought.

Bender started work as the foundation's director this week and will move into the board office in two weeks. Hiring her seems a worthy investment in the Cape Girardeau schools' future.