GEARY — Last month Geary school officials announced their intention to revive the Geary Public Schools Foundation, to benefit student scholarships and other endeavors, with the aid of a large donation from the estate of Geary alum Frank Austin.
The school board elected to put $100,000 of Austin's donation toward the revitalized foundation. On Monday, Geary Superintendent Sean Buchanan said the foundation could help support student scholarships, technical education, teacher incentives and more.
Currently, Geary is not formally aligned with any vocational-technical school, or vo-tech, such as the Caddo Kiowa Technology Center or the Canadian Valley Technology Center. Buchanan said the foundation could help students who are interested in vo-tech courses.
"We're hoping that, if we had kids that are interested in that vo-tech route, the foundation could help us get there," he said. "There's real funds here to help kids out that are interested."
Buchanan said that to get started, foundation members will have to "get together, come up with some parameters" and decide how best to determine student needs and allocate funds. The foundation could also help out Geary staff, he said, with incentives like stipends and donations.
And of course, as Austin's family desired, the foundation can help students with scholarships for higher and technical education as they move on. "Whatever the kids are looking to do, we want to help them," Buchanan said. "But again, I don't want to make all those decisions myself. ... I don't want to be the only person who has a stake here. I'd love for the community to get involved and say hey, here are families who are in need of this or could take advantage of this.
"I don't want there to be any obstacles to our kids pursuing whatever avenue of their education they want to after they leave here."
Buchanan said the Geary Public Schools Foundation used to be a robust organization and hopes that bringing it back will be a positive for the whole community.
"We just kind of want to get it back," he said. "I think it will really help our kids."
The foundation is scheduled to meet at the Geary High School library on Monday, April 18 at 4 p.m. Any community member, parent, alumnus or supporter is welcome to join and attend.