The Lake Oswego Review, Feb 7, 2008, By Cori Bolger
Friends, family members, students and co-workers of the late Jane Cohn gathered last week to dedicate the Lakeridge High School library in her honor.
 Relatives of the late Jane Cohn gathered last week to dedicate the Lakeridge High School library in her name. Front row, from left, Jamie Helling (Jane’s niece); Henry Cohn (husband); Kelly Cohn (daughter); Jenny Helling (niece); Carson Cohn (nephew); back row, from left, H.J. Cohn (son); John Helling, Jr. (dad); Millard Cohn (father-in-law); John Helling III (brother); Tammy Helling (sister-in-law); Linda Cohn (sister-in-law); Jill Bjork (sister); Connor Cohn (nephew); Scott Cohn (brother-in-law). Not pictured: Carter Cohn (son). |
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Cohn, who spent 22 years teaching in the Lake Oswego School District, retired from Forest Hills Elementary School in 2006 after she was diagnosed with liver cancer. She died later that year.
Led by Cohn family friends former Pacer Club President Mary Vigo and Ed Israel, a year-long fund-raising effort raised more than $100,000 to dedicate the library in Cohn’s name through the Lake Oswego School District Foundation*. More than 300 donors contributed.
The money will go toward supporting teachers in the district, which was Cohn’s wish, according to friends and family.
A silver plaque with Cohn’s photo and quotes from students now adorns the library entrance.
Her family, including relatives from Wisconsin, was in attendance at the dedication reception, along with husband Henry and children HJ, a senior at University of Oregon and Kelly, a freshman at Lakeridge. Other son Carter, a Lakeridge senior, was preparing for a home wrestling meet.
The emotional reception featured Company members singing “That’s Where the Music Takes Us” and Principal Mike Lehman singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Of Cohn, Superintendent Bill Korach said, “I immediately think of her presence, her integrity, her many talents and her tremendously positive contribution to others … her passing caused many of us to confront the pain of her loss, but her passing also helped us to reaffirm the mystery, the wonder and the possibilities of life.”
Henry Cohn thanked Vigo and Israel for their tireless efforts to honor his wife, who “wanted to be a second grade teacher since she was in the second grade.”
“This has touched our family so much,” he said.
A Lake Oswego resident since 1981, Jane Cohn was involved in the National Charity League, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and the Multnomah Athletic Club.
One parent described her as “the most child-oriented person I have ever met.”
The Jane Cohn Library is the third facility in the district to be dedicated in someone’s honor. The others are the Pamela G. Schreyer Black Box Theater and the Donald M. Lea II wrestling room at Lake Oswego High School. Dedications must be pre-approved by the school board.
*For more information on naming opportunities, please click here.
The Oregonian, Thursday, March 22, 2007, by Wendy Owen
Lake Oswego schools benefit from a powerhouse fundraiser that runs multimillion-dollar campaigns
The Lake Oswego School District is no longer in survival mode.
At least for now.
For the first time in the 21-year history of the Lake Oswego School District Foundation, the money it raises will go toward the icing on the cake rather than the batter.
Foundation donations will be used to add teachers and classes, rather than merely save them from being cut because of a shortfall in state funding.
The Lake Oswego School Board has already approved a business/marketing curriculum at both high schools. Chinese and Japanese classes are proposed for the two junior highs. And class sizes will shrink at the nine elementary schools.
"It's very, very uplifting," said Lake Oswego Superintendent Bill Korach, who usually is announcing teacher cuts this time of year.
The foundation started small in 1986 but has grown to a multimillion-dollar fundraiser, pulling in more than $7 million over the last five years and spreading that across all 13 district schools. It hopes to raise $2.2 million this year. By comparison, the district's general fund budget is about $53 million.
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Mike Cook
Foundation President 2006-07 |
"This is really a publicly funded, privately assisted school district," said Mike Cook, foundation president.
The organization's ability to raise such large amounts— over a three-month period, using parent volunteers—has impressed Kevin Matheny, an adjunct professor at Portland State University who studies nonprofit fundraising.
"That's staggering," he said. "There isn't an organization in (Portland) that wouldn't love to have volunteers generate that income."
In addition, the foundation appears to reap large amounts from a relatively small number of people, Matheny said. "That's even more remarkable."
Last year, nearly 3,000 families and businesses, about half of those the foundation contacted, donated $1.9 million. Of those, nearly 75 donors gave $5,000 or more, including four members of the school board and one member of the foundation's executive board.
Three other members of the foundation's executive board donated between $2,500 and $5,000 last year.
The only nearby district that surpasses Lake Oswego in donations is Riverdale, in Southwest Portland. There, about one-fifth the number of donors contributes at least $1 million each year—$1,450 on average, versus $630 in Lake Oswego.
Wealth helps, of course, but so does an unwavering mission, Matheny said.
"If donors realize their gift is going to get results, they're going to support that," he said.
Every year, the Lake Oswego foundation advertises the tally of teaching jobs it's saved.
Its mission is "sustaining the tradition of outstanding schools in Lake Oswego" and it has vowed to do so by paying for teachers—not stadiums, not computers, not artificial turf.
While the foundation has never wavered from that mission, it had a glitch of sorts in 2003 when it ventured outside tried-and-true strategies by investing in a Gresham-area bingo hall.
The venture went sour, leaving the foundation with a $51,800 loan debt. A foundation board member's relative who had loaned the foundation $20,000 forgave that debt. Board members paid the rest out of their own pockets.
Bruce Kerr, who resigned from the foundation over its decision to use gambling to pay for teachers, said the group learned a hard lesson but didn't let the schools suffer as a result.
"Once they realized what went wrong, they fixed it without any impact on donors or kids," he said.
But had the outcome been different, "it would have had a far-reaching impact," Kerr said.
Four years later, few admit to remembering the incident.
"It couldn't have been that big of a deal," said Bryn Torkelson, a major foundation donor.
Torkelson said the foundation's reputation is important, but in the end, "it's about the kids."
All the kids, to be exact.
Donors cannot earmark their money for a specific school, no matter how hard they try. Some parents have been known to offer to "buy" a specific class for their child's school.
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Mary Puskas
LOSD Foundation Director |
Equity is essential, said Mary Puskas, foundation director. Donations are never publicly broken down by school.
"We're very careful not to pit the schools," Puskas said. "We don't operate that way; we operate as a whole."
Most Lake Oswego schools hold auctions to raise their own money, but the district doesn't allow those funds to be used to add teachers.
The high school foundation phone-a-thon, which wrapped up at Lakeridge High School last week, is a good example of how the fundraiser works.
In an empty library, a group of moms dialed other Lakeridge parents. Experience has taught them to use cell phones, which identify them to other parents by name.
In pleasant voices, the moms asked friends, neighbors and acquaintances for money. This year, the high school tried "affiliation" calling—football parents calling other football parents, drama parents calling other drama parents, and so on.
"We've got six teachers in Lakeridge that otherwise we wouldn't have," parent Nina DeConcini told one potential donor. In her first 45 minutes, DeConcini had left seven messages, received two donations, had two "nos" and gotten one disconnected number.
Across the room, Fran Gerson, a football mom, was hitting 100 percent on her calls. Eight people had given between $10 and $250 each.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen other volunteers are contacting major donors—those who give $2,500 or more.
The major-donor team, which foundation president Cook helped develop, is a group of big givers who contact other big givers. In many cases, they know one another.
"A certain class of donor needed something other than a phone call," said Cook, one of the major-donor callers.
Chris Dussin is among the foundation's largest contributors; he gave $25,000 this year. He didn't require a call, however. He simply sent a check to the superintendent.
Dussin, president of the Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant chain, has three daughters in the district, two of whom transferred from Riverdale, where they live.
Dussin said it's not just his desire to see the district improve that swayed him. It was the credibility of the superintendent.
"I trust him," Dussin said. "He's the reason I have faith in the system."
While the district and foundation work toward the same goal, board members from both sides said that's where the crossover should end.
"I deliberately keep my distance," said Bill Swindells, a school board member.
Swindells is a major donor to the foundation, as are others on the board. Some of them also work the phone-a-thons. But none supports having a school board member also sit on the foundation board.
And this year, as the school district adds new electives to the junior highs and high schools, foundation board members have no more voice than any other community member in shaping the classes. The school board makes the final decision, Korach said.
"I oftentimes get challenged on my input to the district," Cook said. "At the end of the day, it's the school board's job to work with administrators on how to allocate the money."
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The Foundation Kicks Off its Realtor Recognition Partnership
Left to Right: Mary Puskas, Foundation Director, Barbara MacIntosh, homeowner and Susan Stier, realtor and a former Foundation board president, hang the first rider board sign.
The timing was perfect for homeowners Brian and Barbara MacIntosh (a Foundation board member) to help launch the Foundation's new Realtor Recognition Partnership in mid-February at their home on Fairway Road in Lake Oswego. They chose Susan Stier of Windermere, and former LOSD Foundation board president, as their listing agent.
"We made the decision to choose Susan not only because of my involvement with the Foundation but also as parents with a child in the District," said Barbara. "We wanted a realtor who knows the difference the Foundation makes in providing a world-class education for our kids. Susan was the perfect choice for a number of reasons. She has consistently supported the Foundation at the Starkweather level, and we know she will do a great job selling our home."
The Realtor Recognition Partnership provides member realtors with rider board signs that attach to "For Sale" signs indicating their support of the Foundation. Recognized Realtors also receive a listing on the Foundation web site and will be placed in the Foundation's annual realtor ad in the Lake Oswego Review.
For more information about the Realtor Recognition Partnership, click here or contact Foundation Director Mary Puskas at (503) 534-2302 or email puskasm@loswego.k12.or.us. If you'd like to join, click here for a downloadable form.
The Foundation Receives it’s First Check from
HomeStone Mortgage Foundation supporters and Lake Oswego residents Amy & Don New and Mary Lou & John Burton, recently closed on new home mortgages. This would not be news except that their loans are the first to qualify for HomeStone Mortgage’s new “Heart of HomeStone” program. HomeStone recently presented the Foundation with a check in the amount of $4,974.80 in their names, along with one other Lake Oswego School District family. |
 The “Heart of HomeStone” Program presents the Foundation with it’s first check, in the amount of $4974.80. Pictured are Amy & Don New and Mary Lou & John Burton who closed loans with HomeStone; lenders Joanne Kantor and Jimmy Drakos; Foundation President, Mike Cook, Foundation Business Partnership Chair, Barbara MacIntosh and Foundation Director, Mary Puskas
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Mortgage bankers Joanne Kantor and Jimmy Drakos, partners in HomeStone Mortgage have joined the Foundation’s Business Partnership Program and will be generously donating 20% of the loan fee of each mortgage closed that is referred in by the Foundation or is an LO District family, alumni, grandparent, etc...The Heart of HomeStone Program applies to new or refinanced residential and commercial loans.
The Foundation is pleased that HomeStone Mortgage has taken a lead as a business supporter of the Foundation, making a guaranteed minimum donation of $10,000 against a percentage of their business. For more information on this or other exciting business partner programs, please contact Foundation Director Mary Puskas at (503) 534-2302 or email puskasm@loswego.k12.or.us. Back to top of page. |
Physics never sounded so good to students
by Wendy Owen
Stereo physics lets Lakeridge High students plug into the science behind sound
It was physics, but with stereos.
Students in the stereo physics class at Lakeridge High School stepped outside one recent day to watch Daniel Seashore crank the volume on his truck's stereo.
Wearing protective earphones and holding a decibel meter, the senior soon had the door panels on his truck vibrating to the beat.
His classmates laughed. Seashore had won the decibel contest, reaching 132.7, roughly the volume of a single-engine airplane.
 It's not surprising that the lure of stereo physics isn't so much the physics as the stereos. Stereos are Pied Pipers for teenagers, but learning the principles behind how stereos work and how they're built requires knowledge of matter and energy --physics.
The decibel experiment, which included measuring sound levels throughout the school, was part of a lesson about sound waves and the study of sound travel.
Jake Gregory, who placed second in the decibel contest, thought he had lost out when the class was canceled about two years ago because of budget cuts.
"I was bummed," he said. His sister's friends had taken the class and raved about it.
So when the semester-long class was reinstated this year thanks to the $1.9 million that the Lake Oswego School District Foundation raised last school year, Gregory, a senior, was among the 30 students who found a seat. Another 30 will take the class next semester.
Roger Oakes, who also teaches anatomy at Lakeridge, developed the stereo physics curriculum several years ago with school board approval and taught the class for three years before it was cut.
Oakes has tinkered with stereos since he was a teenager. During a college science class, he realized physics could be used to explain how stereos work, whether through electrons flowing through circuits to speakers or the dynamics of sound waves.
"This is a way to make (physics) relevant to the students," Oakes said.
He also throws in anatomy lessons, specifically lessons about the inner ear and the potential damage to it from loud music.
"It's not your average class," said Triina Merilo, a senior. "You don't get to take apart and put together stereos in any other class."
Merilo is one of two girls in the class and, apparently, a good listener. During a lesson on psychoacoustics --human perception of sounds --she correctly determined while blindfolded which of six speakers around the room had emitted a beep.
"We have two ears for a reason," Oakes said, explaining binaural, or stereo, hearing.
Merilo, who is also taking sociology, algebra 2 and English, plans to combine her knowledge of stereos with a college business major and run a company.
Stereo physics is an elective class, which means it is expendable. Budget cuts may again eliminate it from the course list.
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The Oregonian, October 19, 2006
District will try to close the fundraising gap
by Wendy Owen
West Linn-Wilsonville Schools chief would like residents to include the foundation in their wills
Last school year, the Lake Oswego School District Foundation raised $1.9 million. The West Linn-Wilsonville School District's foundation was a conduit for $8,600 in scholarships.
Although median household incomes in the two districts are fairly close, the donations to education are not.
The districts are more evenly paired when it comes to parent-group fundraising for individual schools. Both have schools that raise $30,000 to $100,000 a year.
But the West Linn-Wilsonville foundation finishes in fourth place among area districts. The Sherwood School District's foundation raises about $40,000 every year. The Tigard-Tualatin School District's foundation raises about $100,000.
Goal for the year
Re-energizing the floundering West Linn-Wilsonville foundation, known as Teach the Children, is one of Superintendent Roger Woehl's goals this year. He doesn't have a plan yet, but he said he would like to bolster the endowment.
Given the fundraising competition for individual schools, Woehl is seeking a different source for the endowment --asking people to include the district foundation in their wills.
Once established, an endowment would take pressure off the foundation to raise money annually. The funds to pay for additional teachers, the foundation's focus, would come from the interest gained on the principal.
The foundation has about $71,000 that's restricted for an endowment, said Bill Knowles, business manager for West Linn-Wilsonville. The foundation also holds an additional $42,000 in unrestricted funds.
Adding to an endowment, however, is still in the idea stage.
"I don't really know what sells endowments to people," Woehl said. He helped establish Teach the Children about 14 years ago, when he started as superintendent. "It has never had the support or level of donations similar to Lake Oswego," he said.
But it had a few good years.
About six years ago, discord within one family resulted in the district receiving about $250,000 in a bequest, Woehl said.
In 2002, cuts in state funding reinvigorated donations to the foundation, which raised about $173,400.
Its last strong school year was 2003-04, with $64,300 in donations.
"It's always been puzzling"
Theories abound as to why West Linn-Wilsonville's foundation is struggling while its neighbor has hauled in millions over the years. Several people pointed to the geographic divide between West Linn and Wilsonville, which they said makes it more difficult to pull together the school community.
"It's always been puzzling," said Tom Bruggere, a West Linn-Wilsonville school board member. "I don't think any higher value is placed on education in Lake Oswego compared to our district."
"Maybe we have more loyalty to individual schools or maybe we just didn't have momentum to keep the foundation moving," he said.
Barbara Soisson, principal of Wood Middle School in Wilsonville, has the perspective of having worked as an educator in Lake Oswego for 15 years.
"I think people (in Lake Oswego) feel more empowered about where their dollars are going," she said. "I think that is possible with the (West Linn-Wilsonville) foundation, but people need to see that."
Lake Oswego uses the donations to its foundation to pay for teaching positions and advertises that fact. This year, it hired dozens of new teachers, including reading and math specialists at each elementary school.
"I don't think it's overnight (success)," said Mary Puskas, Lake Oswego's foundation director. "You have to build a lot of credibility in your community."
When Lake Oswego started its foundation in 1986, it also struggled to catch parents' attention, she said.
"It takes a long time to pull all the individual schools together in order to support the foundation," she said. "Most parents first want to take care of their child's school."
Twenty years later, the foundation has groups of parent volunteers making fundraising calls from each school on behalf of the district.
Lake Oswego limits funds
Lake Oswego's secret may have been in limiting the funds that individual schools can raise. Parent-teacher associations and similar groups cannot raise money for teachers --only foundation money can be used for that. So parents who want to ensure smaller class sizes give money to the foundation.
Most of the Lake Oswego foundation's funds come from families. Last school year, the list of top contributors included 20 donors, at least 19 of which were families, who gave at least $10,000 each. An additional 50 donors, including 47 families, gave between $5,000 and $10,000 each.
"It's a very consistent message that it's all for one and one for all," Puskas said.
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LOSD Foundation Partners with eScrip and The Charity Group
eScrip is a wonderful way for shoppers to give back to the schools without a penny out of their pocket. Registering with eScrip takes less than 5 minutes. Please go to www.eScrip.com or call 1-800-700-5655 to register or for more information.
The Charity Group offers you the ability to turn unused items into a donation. Click here for more information.
Business and Realtor Support
The business community has demonstrated outstanding support for the Lake Oswego School District Foundation through our Business Partnership Program. The Downtown Business Association, The Chamber of Commerce and Lake View Village have all stepped up to the plate with various fundraising activities designed to support the Foundation.
Click here to view the list of supporting businesses and please be sure to thank them!
The realtors in our community are the ambassadors of our school district. We appreciate these top-level professionals for supporting the Foundation through our Realtor Recognition Partnership. To view the list of Recognized Realtors click here.
Along with businesses in the community, the Foundation has also received significant funds from many corporations that donate through their matching funds programs in which the employer matches the gift that an employee has made to the designated charity. Please click here to see if your employer will match your gift.
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