As my term as president of Fairhope Educational Enrichment Foundation comes to a close, please allow me to reflect on my time with FEEF and the future of our schools.

I am proud to have been a part of FEEF for the past six years, and am honored that the board members trusted me to lead them for a short time. I am proud of this community for continuing to support our schools and for continually seeking ways to improve them.

I am so proud of our schools. Every school has wonderful teachers and excellent administrators, doing all they can in difficult times to do the best for our children. I thank them for that, especially in these last few years when proration has made their jobs even more difficult than usual. If economic predictions hold true, this will not get better anytime soon, and our schools will need more support than ever.

FEEF is here to help provide that support. Since its beginning in 1996, FEEF has focused on providing educational enrichment. We do not take sides in political discussions and, instead, focus all of our efforts toward supporting our schools. While our community has debated city schools vs. county schools, FEEF has continued to carry out its mission of enriching education for Fairhope students.

From the beginning of the Yes We Can movement in Baldwin County, FEEF has been a part of the discussions with parents all over the county to develop a strategic plan for making our schools even better. We are blessed with a community that believes in the importance of education and puts their money where their mouth is when it comes to giving our children some of the extras that the county and the state cannot fund.

Regardless of where community members stood on the recent city school debate, I hope everyone will stay involved in the quest to improve our schools. Both sides of the debate have the same goal in mind: great schools for our children. Our schools are some of the best in the state, but with continued cuts in funding, the challenge has been, and will continue to be, to keep them the best. The need for adequate school funding does not change when the economy slows down. We want our children to be able to compete in this quickly changing world, and FEEF is here to help.

Citizens and business owners can help by getting on board with FEEF’s upcoming Phantasy of the Arts, returning again this year as The Battle for Mobile Bay. This signature event, scheduled for Sept. 17, is FEEF’s biggest fundraiser for FEEF grants to the schools. This vitally important program provides “outside the box” grants for our teachers and classrooms. 

I wish continued success to FEEF. I wish success to Donna Wegener, my successor as FEEF president, and all the new officers and board members. And mostly, I wish continued success to our students, as they struggle in large class sizes with limited funding for school supplies and materials. As a community, it is important that we all focus our efforts in the same direction and do all we can to make our good schools even better.

It has been proven over and over that it is not funding, or credentials of the teachers and administrators, or even classroom size, that make schools great. The path to great schools is parent and community support. I think we have that one covered.

 GINGER TAYLOR

Fairhope