March 2, 2000

Seattle School District to receive $26 million from Gates Foundation

By LAURENCE M. CRUZ
Associated Press Writer

SEATTLE (AP) -- The Seattle School District will receive $26 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- the first of $350 million the foundation will invest in education programs over the next three years, foundation officials said Wednesday.

Of the total, $250 million will go to education projects in Washington state to promote leadership and high-achievement models in classrooms, schools and districts, said Tom Vander Ark, executive director for education at the foundation.

"It's an extraordinary time when there is an unprecedented sense of urgency and focus in helping all students achieve," Vander Ark said in a news conference at the foundation's headquarters here.

Joseph Olchefske, superintendent of the Seattle School District, said he was thrilled with the grant.

"There's a revolution going on in K-12 education, around the idea of standards, around the idea of being a high-performance district," Olchefske said.

"We hope to be a leader in that revolution. This gift, this grant, helps accelerate us on that path," he said.

The $350 million is divided into four grant programs, one of them national, the other three focused initially on Washington state and expanding across the nation, foundation spokesman Trevor Neilson said.

Money for programs with a Washington state focus includes:

• More than $150 million in grants to districts to improve teaching and learning and enhance student access to technology. Of that, $50 million will be for 10 school districts in Washington state and $100 million for 20 districts across the nation, spokeswoman Jenna Buffaloe said.

  "We're looking for school districts that have really got it together but maybe don't have the resources to make their plan a reality," Buffaloe said.

• Teacher leadership grants totaling $70 million, including $45 million earmarked for Washington state and $25 million for national support. The grants are "aimed at aiding teachers who are leaders in using technology to help students achieve," Neilson said.

• School grants worth more than $30 million will be available for a model school program aimed at helping a single school within Washington school districts perform better.

Nationally, $100 million will be invested in a leadership program aimed at giving superintendents and principals in public and private schools access to leadership development with a special focus on improving student learning through technology.

Of the $26 million grant awarded to the Seattle School District, Olchefske said $5 million will be spent on the district's core technology infrastructure, including high-speed Internet access. Another $13 million will be spent on equipping class rooms and training teachers to use the tools, and $6 million will be spent on helping schools -- mainly high schools -- become more personalized in structure.

"This is not about technology to us ... It's about quality instruction at the child level," Olchefske said.

In January, the foundation became the world's richest, surpassing London's Wellcome Trust after the Gates, Microsoft Corp. founder and his wife, Melinda Gates, donated $5 billion in Microsoft stock to the foundation.

Last fall, the foundation announced a $1 billion Gates Millennium Scholars Program for minority students, with $50 million gifts over 20 years. It also gave $750 million over five years to help immunize poor children around the world.