By Todd Engdahl
The Colorado Legacy Foundation has announced receiving nearly $1 million in grants, the bulk of which will be used to promote health and wellness in schools.
Although it’s a stand-alone foundation,
Legacy is an outgrowth of education Commissioner Dwight Jones’ 2007
“Forward Thinking” document, and the foundation is closely connected to the Colorado Department of Education.
Of the $968,080 in grants announced this week, two grants totaling $868,080 come from the
Colorado Health Foundation, which last month announced a $10.8 million initiative to support school-based health care programs around the state.
The grants to Legacy will be used for a two-year health and wellness initiative focused on school districts. According to a CDE statement, “The grants will be used to plan and hold an all-day health and wellness summit, to help districts create health and wellness plans, provide incentive grant funding and technical assistance to districts to work on health and wellness policies.”
Health in recent years has become a priority for some Colorado policymakers. But, health-and-school bills have gained little traction in the legislature during the last two sessions, primarily because of budget limitations and partly because of local-control issues.
A bill to create a healthy schools grant program died in the 2008 legislature. Healthy snacks and mandatory recess bills were introduced in 2009 but didn’t pass. Such measures generally have been supported by health interest groups but viewed cautiously by mainline education interest groups.
In tight financial times, even some education programs that have received legislative approval are funded with “gifts, grants and donations,” meaning CDE or other groups have to raise private money to get programs started.
The health foundation money is probably the biggest example to date of such a “gift, grant or donation.”
The Colorado Health Foundation grew out of the former HealthONE Community Foundation. Colorado Health has assets of more than $900 million, divided between an investment portfolio and an ownership interest in HealthONE, the metro area’s largest hospital system.
The Legacy Foundation also announced receipt of $100,000, part of an earlier $250,000 grant from the
Rose Community Foundation. That money is used for work on improving teacher quality, including a white paper on teacher effectiveness scheduled for completion this fall.
(Interestingly, the Rose foundation was founded in 1995 with proceeds from the sale of Rose Medical Center to HealthONE. The foundation provided major funding for the work that developed Denver’s ProComp teacher pay system.)
In addition to health and wellness and teacher effectiveness, the Legacy Foundation publishes
best practices guides and sponsors the annual Commissioner’s Cup program, which recognizes districts and schools that achieve results by applying best practices.
Legacy’s board includes Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, State Board of Education member Elaine Gantz Berman (both strong advocates of child health and wellness) and former DPS Superintendent Jerry Wartgow. Jones is an ex officio member. The foundation’s executive director is Helayne Jones, an educational consultant who also is on the Boulder School Board and the board of Rose Community.