TISD Foundation Kicks Off 2012-2013 Campaign

TYLER — The Tyler ISD Foundation has raised $50,000 of its $150,000 campaign goal for this school year. The announcement was made at the foundation’s recent kickoff luncheon. The campaign continues through March 1, 2013. Also at the event, six honorees (pictured) were inducted as second year members of the foundation’s prestigious Honor Roll. Following are brief sketches of the honorees and their contributions:

C.C Baker was principal of John Tyler High School and Billy Hall was principal of Robert E. Lee when John Tyler burned in 1981. The students of John Tyler were transported to the Lee campus and were welcomed with streamers and welcome signs, all created by Lee’s student body. The TISD Foundation’s Larry Goddard points to “the leadership and collegial relationship between Baker and Hall.”

Bonnie and Tab Beall are long time donors from their personal funds as well as Mr. Beall’s law firm, Perdue Brandon Collins Fielder and Mott LLP. Goddard says upon calculating the growing Beall Family Endowment, and with creative planned giving processes such as paid life insurance policies, the Bealls’ Endowment will have a corpus in perpetuity for students who might not otherwise have an opportunity for higher education.

According to Goddard, Jill Fondren is the Payroll Coordinator for Tyler ISD and carefully prepares the detailed work of creating exact payroll and with many deductions for close to 3,000 employees. Goddard says Mrs. Fondren kept the bookkeeping for the Foundation on her own time for fourteen years and prepared the IRS 990 form for nonprofits, which Goddard terms a highly complex form. No findings from auditors were ever found while Mrs. Fondren prepared the books in collaboration with the Foundation, which now uses a community CPA firm.

Finally, a well-known and popular Tyler ISD graduate, Kathey Comer, is credited with sustaining the foundation after the small group of founders had passed on. “Mrs. Comer, through her tenacity of finding the right directors at the right time, led countless meetings on campaign and event planning,” said Goddard. “Her upbeat speeches in the board meetings provided pure genuine guidance that has made the Tyler ISD Foundation a strong entity in Texas and the United States.” Mrs. Comer is honored in memory of her mentor, Mrs. Pat Oge, founding member of the Tyler ISD Foundation.