The Examiner U-46 News FeedU-46 Board set to vote on entity funding proposal By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 is set to vote on $88,000 in funding for the Alignment Collaborative for Education (ACE), which originally was promised to be fully funded through private donations, at its upcoming meeting on Monday, Jan. 9.
The item was presented on Dec. 12, 2022 and it is the same amount requested as last year. The $88,000 last year was a 73 percent increase from the $51,000 approved in 2021, and U-46 taxpayers remain the largest individual funders of ACE.
ACE, comprised of business and government entities with a stated purpose to serve U-46, was founded in 2013, and then Superintendent Jose Torres promised it would be completely funded by fundraising which current Superintendent Tony Sanders reiterated in 2016.
That promise is no longer valid, and Nancy Coleman, ACE’s executive director, made no promises last year not to ask for future increases saying “the more students that we serve, the more funding that we’re going to need.”
In a letter with this upcoming request from Coleman and Bill Wright, ACE’s board chairman, ACE states it has reached “over 6,000 students for the calendar year 2022,” and the goal is for over 8,000 by May 2023.
ACE expects $233,645 in revenue for 2022-2023, but no ACE budget was provided. Last year, ACE said it had $220,000 in revenue with 65 percent going towards two full-time staff, Coleman and executive assistant Adriana Armstrong. A third staff member has been added, according to the letter.
“School District U-46’s funding of $88,000 generously supported 38 [percent] of Alignment’s needed operational budget with the remaining 62 [percent] being funded from business, community, municipal, and post-secondary support,” the letter stated. “With that level of support, Alignment was able to add a program manager, Edgar Montes, to the Alignment team, allowing the organization to offer more programming resulting in serving a record number of students.”
In September, an ACE presentation stated the group helped organize several events and opportunities, such as a job fair and a summer internship for juniors.
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