Public Education Foundation - Partners for Strong Schools

Education groups announce merger

9/3/2009  | Chattanooga Times Free Press

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By Kevin Hardy khardy@timesfreepress.com

The Public Education Foundation and the College Access Center, both in Chattanooga, announced the merger of their operations this week.

Dan Challener, president of the foundation, said the merger was “just common sense” because both organizations work to achieve similar goals.

“We saw a great opportunity for synergy,” Mr. Challener said.

Susan Street, founder of the College Access Center, said the merger “just came together” because the two organizations had worked together on many projects in the past.

The College Access Center, which has been absorbed by the foundation, was created in 2003 to help more Hamilton County students make it into college, Ms. Street said.

The center provided a part-time college adviser to all the high schools in Hamilton County Schools.

The advisers worked closely with the schools’ guidance counselors to guide students toward college, she said, and now are continuing their work under the Public Education Foundation’s name.

“It’s just been completely seamless,” Ms. Street said. “They’re in the schools now.”

Mr. Challener said no staff members were lost in the transition, although the College Access Center’s executive director left the organization several months ago because she moved from Chattanooga, leaving an unfilled position.

The merger will save money by bringing both operations under one roof, he said, and three board members from the College Access Center have moved to the Public Education Foundation’s board of directors.

The foundation, which had been focused on giving research and training to educators to increase student achievement, began making college attendance a priority for local students, Ms. Street said.

That duplicated some of the work being done at the College Access Center, she said.

“The more we worked with high schools, the more we realized there really needed to be more support for students who wanted to go to college,” Mr. Challener said.

The merger might make it easier for donors to give money, without having to choose one organization over the other, he said.

“For people who want to support this work, there’s one place,” he said. “And that’s the Public Education Foundation. It is, we think, really important work. We would love to have more community support for it. We’ve been blessed so far, but we’d love to do more if we had more resources.”

WHAT IS IT?

Public Education Foundation — nonprofit organization that works with Hamilton County Schools to provide research and training for educators with the goal of increasing student achievement in the district.

College Access Center — provided part-time college counselors in all high schools operated by Hamilton County Schools to help make college more accessible for Chattanooga youth

Sources: www.pefchattanooga.org and www.collegeaccesscenter.org