By Holly Demaree
In 2001 the Hamilton Southeastern Foundation was created to help students gain an excellent public education and support the teachers and faculty to help them achieve that goal.
At that time, Hamilton Southeastern schools had 8,771 students and now the school system has more than 21,000 students. Freedom Kalb is the new executive director of the Hamilton Southeastern Foundation and she hopes to help the foundation broaden its impact.
“We offer individual students scholarships, award teacher and classroom grants as well as financially support district wide initiatives like Fitnessgram, HSE21 and the Academy of Finance,” Kalb said.
All of the programs are financially supported through fundraising events. There is an event every quarter and they are held within the community of Fishers. The fall fundraiser is the annual Mudsock game which was held Sept. 12 and is just one example of the kind of events HSEF creates to help fund its programs, scholarships and classroom grants.
“It’s funny that we have a relatively affluent area but a relatively poor district,” Kalb said. “We have less per-pupil funding than we did in 2008. So our need is great to support our individual students, teachers and all of our schools.”
Kalb said she believes that HSEF is making a difference and can make a bigger impact on the Fishers community.
“Right now we are limited by our fundraising capacity,” Kalb said. “The more funds we raise the more impact we can have on the students and the community. One major goal we have this year is to expand our dollars for scholars program to not only raise more scholarship funds but also introduce the students to community service and philanthropy and leadership opportunities. I am really excited about the potential growth of this program.”
Kalb said she would also like to focus on the teachers of the Hamilton Southeastern School districts and would like to grow programs that contribute to professional development programs for teachers.
“With many of the funding cuts in every district of the state, often times you see funding for professional development dry up,” Kalb said. “Teachers are the tools we have to reach and engage our students and it is important that we take care of them.”
