THE SUPERINTENDENT OF the Ann Arbor Public Schools, Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift considers “both organizations, the AAPSEF and the PTO Thrift Shop as tremendous partners in our work on behalf of Ann Arbor children.” Mary Cooperwasser, a former Development Officer at the Eastern Michigan University School of Business, was hired by the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation in February of 2013. Cooperwasser stressed that the Foundation receives many requests for funding and can’t fund them all, including after school buses for middle school students.
Ann Arbor Board of Education Trustee Andrew Thomas, who is an ex. officio member of the AAPSEF Board of Directors told The Indy, “It is my expectation that AAPSEF will contine its mission of supporting innovation and excellence in the Ann Arbor Public Schools in 2014.”
PTO Thrift Shop Director Ann Farnham, however, posited that the AAPSEF decided against funding the after school buses because of financial constraints. Donations to the organization have dropped in recent years, and the foundation went several months without an Executive Director prior to Cooperwasser’s hire earlier this year.
According to PTO Thrift Shop Director Ann Farnham, AAPS officials, who control a $183,000,000 million dollar budget, asked the PTO Thrift Shop officials to facilitate direct donations to the AAPS.
“We installed a PayPal button on our website,” explained Farnham, but there have only been two donations made thus far. I just don’t think there is an appetite among the public to give money directly to the AAPS.”
Dr. Jeanice Kerr Swift disagrees: “I don’t agree that the public has not yet embraced the Thrift Shop as a way to make donations – our partnership with the Thrift Shop has grown in level of support and popularity in Ann Arbor Public Schools.”
To be sure, the public has embraced the PTO Thrift Shop which is celebrating 20 years of supporting enrichment programs in the public schools. The organization is projected to do over $1 million dollars sales in this fiscal year.
“We make 250 to 300 sales each day,” said Farnham, a native of Canada whose kids attend Community High School. Those small sales add up. In 2010-2011, the Thrift Shop donated $110,000 to the AAPSEF, and in 2014 hopes to pay for between $300,000 and $400,000 dollars worth of enrichment activities for AAPS students, including $40,000 to fund after school buses.
In August of 2013, after the AAPSEF decided not to continue its funding of after school buses for middle school students, AAPS officials quietly canceled after school programming, according to Farnham, including clubs and sports.
Farnham describes getting an angry text from a friend with children at Scarlett Middle School asking what was going on and why after school programs had been canceled. It was then that Farnham contacted AAPS officials.
Farnham and her PTO Thift Shop Board members came up with $40,000 to pay for after school buses two days each week, and in essence, saved after schools clubs and sports for thousands of middle school students.
“These enrichment programs, sports, clubs, are so very important,” said Farnham, “When kids apply to college these days, they are expected to have participated in volunteering, music, sports and other after school activities.”
In 2010, the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation donated $371,333 to the AAPS.
Mary Cooperwasser repeatedly stressed that the AAPSEF funds educational programs, has done so for over 20 years and intends to continue doing so. However, Cooperwasser took over an organization whose income was shrinking. Ann Farnham said, “When I met with Mary she said she was going to be looking at everything.”
It was Cooperwasser’s desire to “look at everything,” that led some to believe she had plans to change the direction or scope of the AAPSEF does. However, Cooperwasser vehemently denied that any such plans were in the works.
“Absolutely not,” she said. “The Foundation has funded the AAPS for decades and will continue to fund the AAPS.
Board of Education Trustee Christine Stead wrote in an email, “We are increasingly looking for assistance from our community – all possible sources and partners that support our mission. Certainly the AAPSEF has played an important role, and we hope they will continue to play an important role in supporting our district. Similarly, the PTO Thrift Shop has been instrumental in supporting the AAPS (their support won the ‘deal of the year’ award last year for non-profit organizations). We will likely reach out to more partners – foundations, organizations, parents and community members so that we can maintain high quality services in a state that is hitting the bottom of the U.S. in most K-12 public education-related measures.”
Stead went on to comment on rumors that Cooperwasser was planning to make significant changes with respect to the type or number of grant applications funded.
“I personally am unaware of any announcements that the AAPSEF is going to discontinue their support of the AAPS, or ‘withhold funds.’ As an example, the recipients for the Karen Thomas Fund were announced earlier this week. My hope is that we can collectively come together as a community to maintain a strong public education system in Ann Arbor – through whatever means available to us. I expect that the AAPSEF will continue to be part of our community of partners that we increasingly need.”
In 2011, the foundation donated $331,494 to the AAPS. The majority of the money went to support teachers and educational programming in specific disciplines, including sciences and the humanities, according to 990 income tax forms filed with the IRS by foundation officials.
If Dr. Swift hopes for the same kind of direct support from the PTO Thrift Shop that the AAPS gets from the AAPSEF, she’ll be disappointed.
Farnham stressed that the Thrift Shop “funds specific programs. We do not give money to the AAPS general fund. We look at receipts, we are very careful to make sure we get what we pay for.”
If Farnham sounds like a bit of a control freak, she is, and it’s meant to install confidence in donors.
Farnham and the AAPS have an extensive cross-promotional program under the auspices of which the PTO Thrift Shop “purchases” ads in AAPS event programs, such as the AAPS Orchestra Night program, as well as the display of other promotional materials, including banners.
Farnham attends each event to make sure that the Thrift Shop logo is displayed when and where it should be.
The Thrift Shop’s largest single expense is $338,000 paid to workers who staff the shop, followed by $148,000 for rent. In 2011, the Thrift Shop gave away $163,117 in grants to organizations, including:
$17,080 to Huron High School, $15,770 to Pioneer High School, $16,450 to Skyline and $9,290 to Community High School.
The AAPSEF, on the other hand, took in less in donations that did the Thrift Shop, some $530,155 in 2011, the most recent 990 income tax form available. However, the organization has amassed assets of close to $1,000,000 thanks to aggressive fundraising which included a $35,000 advertising campaign, as well as two fundraisers. A harvest dinner netted the foundation $25,991.
In order for the PTO Thrift Shop to up support given to AAPS enrichment programs, it would have to cut support of programs at individual schools within the district.
“I can’t tell you how many times the Thrift Shop Board has come through with money for specific programs,” said a parent who volunteers regularly at the PTO Thrift Shop, but who asked to remain anonymous.
When asked if AAPS officials really can’t come up with the $300,000 the PTO Thrift Shop donates to fund enrichment programs each year, Ann Farnham did not hesitate before answering: “I really don’t see where they can cut. I work with the people in their finance department. There are fewer of them than there used to be. I really think they wouldn’t be able to find the money.”
Fortunately for Dr. Jeanice Swift and thousands of children who attend the AAPS, Ann Farnham is committed to seeing that 5th graders have music enrichment, middle school students can get a bus home after school and high school athletes have new uniforms.
“We were a low income family for many years,” said Farnham. “We didn’t have $25 extra dollars. I love it when people come up to me and say, ‘Ann! I just bought clothes for my kids at the Thrift Shop.’”
