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Atlanta ISD trustees voted unanimously to hire a consulting firm to organize and market a private foundation that will allow Atlanta alumni "an avenue to leave a legacy" to their high school alma mater.

The board voted to spend $15,000 to fund the start-up of the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) Atlanta Education Foundation, which Dr. Jo Velvin, a retired East Texas educator and consultant for Foundations Development Consultants (FDC), based in Colorado, said numerous school districts have begun to "enhance programs and bring innovations" to the classroom.

"It will take people with passion to make it work," Velvin said as she gave numerous examples of Texas schools that had developed foundations successfully.

She said the founder of the company for which she works had "tweaked" the process of creating foundations "to a fine art" and the money AISD spends will be used for marketing materials and business operations.

She said the most successful foundations have "working boards" that include community representatives from all walks of life. She urged the school board and campuses to work closely with alumni groups, which she described as the "backbone" of the program.

"Not one dime raised (through the foundation) goes to anything that tax dollars will buy," Velvin said. "Taxes pay for the basics and foundations are the ‘icing on the cake.’"

Foundation funds can provide grants for teachers, pay dual-credit college tuition and books, and more.

The teaching grants raise teacher morale, Velvin said. As a former classroom instructor, Velvin said she could remember not having enough money for groceries because she spent personal money for various materials for her classroom which her school district could not afford.

Among the school districts FDC has helped begin are Carthage, Lindale, Goliad, Royce City, Van and Liberty.

She noted Royce City, near Dallas, is not a rich district and it doesn’t have a lot of industry or retail businesses. Even so, Royse City’s foundation raised more than its $100,000 goal in its first year – even in a bad economy. Velvin said teachers alone contributed $34,000 during its first year, which inspired the rest of the community to give.

Velvin said three things are critical to the success of school foundations:

1. A superintendent who believes in and supports the foundation;

2. Someone to oversee the foundation’s business on a daily basis, a professional executive director who will run it like a business; and

3. A working board of directors that includes professionals who can advise on various legal and financial matters, as well as members of the community who love the school district.

She said the executive director is a paid position but all others are voluntary.

"Typically, the school district pays the beginning expenses, which including the consulting start-up," Velvin said.

The director’s duties include organizing fundraising events, bookkeeping, getting donations, correspondence, etc. – the daily work of running a business.

"The directors are usually business people," she said.

For example, when Carthage began its foundation its director was paid for 20 hours per week; now that director is fulltime.

"Eventually, the foundations pay for salaries," Velvin said,.

In the 10 years Velvin has worked as a consultant for FDC, she said "every single community has stepped up with various and asunder funding" and their foundations are successful.

FDC’s consulting fee include "marketing materials that are key" to the success of the foundation.

Hailey, who succeeded Velvin as superintendent at Henderson ISD, noted the success of that district’s philanthropic foundation and noted that people who contribute, especially wealthy people, are "going to give their money somewhere." He said one major contributor had given $300,000 while he was alive and then left more than $2 million to the Henderson Education Foundation when he died.

"I always say we got Baylor’s money," Hailey said, because had Henderson not had an education foundation that donor would have given the money to his college alma mater.

According to the IRS’s Web site, "Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are commonly referred to as charitable organizations. Organizations described in section 501(c)(3), other than testing for public safety organizations, are eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in accordance with Code section 170.

"The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501(c)(3) organization’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transgression with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.

"Section 501(c)(3) organizations are restricted in how much political and legislative (lobbying) activities they may conduct."

Atlanta area residents will have the opportunity to "meet and greet" Peter Luo, a successful restaurant owner from China, during a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 29.

The event is being held at the J.E. Manning American Legion Hall located on North Louise Street in Atlanta.

Luo’s success began with the mentoring of Meredith McLeod Dunton of McLeod, who taught several years in China.

"When I met Peter, he was maybe 16 or 17 and working at Carole’s Diner," Dunton said.

Dunton said she was asked by the restaurant owner, a young Chinese woman, if she could teach Peter and another employee to cook Mexican food.

"I was living in an old apartment at the time and I had the boys come there," she said. "The first thing I taught them to make was a tortilla."

After the first visit, she said Peter was the only one to return for a second lesson.

"He wrote everything down, took notes on everything I taught him," Dunton said.

Because they didn’t have a lot of time, she said she only taught him to make one dish at a time.

The restaurant owner then opened a second restaurant and Peter began training another cook with what he had learned.

"During that time, I was asked to give a demonstration at a three-year cooking school," Dunton said.

She said she went to the restaurant and had a brochure from the school and after seeing it Peter said one of the English phrases he knew, "I wish."

Dunton explained Peter came from a poor family and quit school after the seventh grade and couldn’t afford to attend the school.

"I went back to the school and asked if a student could attend if he was a paying student," she said.

The school honored her request and Peter was able to attend a third-year class for one year.

In December of 1997, when Dunton came back to the United States, she had already purchased her return ticket when she found out her return airfare was covered.

"As it turned out, the money they gave me to return home was the exact amount of money Peter needed for tuition and books," she said.

As such, Dunton entrusted a close friend to dispense the money to Peter each month as needed and she had another young couple to act as Peter’s "big brother and big sister."

After leaving, Dunton said she learned that while Peter was in school he had a tape player with English tapes and he listened to them constantly and stayed at the school, not even leaving on the weekends.

"When I spoke with him, he said his dad had told him to take advantage of the opportunity for a better education and not to waste it," Dunton said. "So he didn’t. I think he ended up being a teacher’s pet."

During a visit to China, Dunton said she met a couple in a store who asked if she could help them in opening a store, which ended up being a restaurant. When asked if she knew a cook, Dunton said she thought of Peter.

During his time with the restaurant, Dunton said Peter had very little time off. "He worked long hours and would go two months without a day off," she said. "He was not treated as a valued employee."

Dunton said Peter always dreamed of having his own restaurant and after going to Beijing to help open a second restaurant for the couple, he met an American student who was majoring in business who began helping Peter with a business plan. "She would give him an assignment each week and after a year his plan was finished," Dunton said.

Although he had a plan, Peter still did not have the funding to open his own restaurant until he met Agnes Yan and Torres Zhang.

While Peter was able to do the cooking, Yan and Zhang handled the financial aspect and the decorating.

In his first restaurant, Dunton said teachers and administrators from the cooking school would come in to eat and that made Peter feel good.

Starting out with one restaurant in Cheng Du, the business has since expanded into a chain of seven restaurants with around 200 employees.

During the reception on Thursday, Luo, Yan and Zhang will share a program about their business journey and Dunton will share her experiences with Luo.