THE NEWS

Ed Op Fund – New School Year, New Faces, New Initiatives

Summer is traditionally a quiet time for the Ed Op Fund. As students, faculty and staff enjoy a well-deserved rest after a packed school year, the Fund’s board also takes the time to take stock, reflect on newly created opportunities and prepare for the new school year. However, the summer of 2025 was somewhat different. New faces arrived on the board from across the local community as some long serving members took a step back – and, most excitingly, a new, fully endowed initiative was proposed and agreed upon in the September board meeting. It’s promising to be another great year in the making.

One of the great strengths of the Ed Op board since its inception has been the stability of its core membership, bringing a vast bank of institutional knowledge about the district to bear in its mission. This summer saw the departure of several long serving, and indeed founder, members. Mary Deitrich, Sandy Danussi, Donna Moody, Keith Clark and Kaitlin Patenaude had all given trusted and expert advice whilst on the board for many years and we were sad to see them step back, albeit excited for their new ventures.

Chairman Roger Catania paid tribute to Deitrich and Danussi, ‘Mary and Sandy were among the early founders of the Educational Opportunity Fund — part of the group meeting on Saturday mornings hoping to create something new that would help LPCSD students. Sandy had retired from teaching English at LPHS, and Mary had retired from her position as middle and high school social studies teacher before being elected President of the LPCSD School Board. Both were already highly committed to the children of Lake Placid and Wilmington. They each envisioned the Ed Op Fund as a means to provide students with a leg up in life. Both gave particular attention to students from low-income and working-class families. They knew that for many students, an extra boost could go a long way to bring learning to life and open the possibilities for a successful future after high school. Over the past ten years, Mary and Sandy supported teacher and student grants, advocated for putting books in the hands of students, championed field trips at many grade levels, raised needed funds, and helped usher the Ed Op Fund from its humble beginning as a nice idea to a thriving community organization that changes lives for the better. Thanks, Mary and Sandy, for all you have done for our students and entire community.’

Vice Chair Sibyl Quayle also spoke warmly about Donna Moody’s role on the board and as a member of the communications committee. ‘Donna joined the Ed Op board following her long career as the Athletic Director at Lake Placid Middle/HIgh School. Her enthusiasm for education, and her experience working with middle and high school students, brought a unique and valuable perspective to the Ed Op board.  She played an integral role in raising student awareness of the Ed Op mission and of the opportunities we can offer to them.  She did this by initiating fun activities such as a paper airplane toss at basketball games and by helping to coordinate a Family Skate Night on the speedskating oval, now an annual event. The board was lucky and grateful to benefit from Donna’s creative energy.’

Keith Clark and Kaitlin Patenaude were both board members representing the LPCSD itself. Clark was the creative force behind the Community School’s Program that gave so many opportunities to kids throughout the school year and, crucially, across holiday times. His energy and enthusiasm drove these initiatives onwards, bringing fresh ideas and impetus to every meeting and providing sound counsel to the board as a whole. Patenaude, the LPMHS representative for several years, brought her passion for literacy and books to the flagship Summer Reading Program, as well as driving this area of the curriculum in a more general sense with her day to day work with the kids. She memorably reflected on the power of reading in an article for the LP News, and her insight into what was currently ‘hooking’ the students made that program all the more powerful. We wish all these colleagues the best of luck in their new adventures.

Clearly, there were positions to fill! And our nominating committee has been hard at work recruiting new faces to help us carry on our work. Margie Gallagher joined us in the spring of 2025 and reflected on her career and why the Ed Op was a good fit for her. ‘I have lived in Lake Placid since I graduated from St Lawrence University in 1981. I spent my 30-year career as a Special Education teacher in the Lake Placid Middle/ High School. It is a wonderful school system that does amazing things and feels like a big family. I learned about the Educational Opportunity Fund because it was established by friends and longtime colleagues. The opportunity gap in this area is very real and I am extremely honored to be a part of this group to help the mission of providing rich experiences for all students.’

At our summer meeting in July, we were also delighted to welcome two new community members onto the board, Pam Lawless and Erica Heidt

Lawless was a teacher earlier in her career and reflected, ‘As a member of our community, I have witnessed that “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not”. The mission of the Ed Op fund aligns so closely with my personal view for child advocacy. I so look forward to partnering with our community, school district, colleagues on our Board, and children to find opportunities to enhance learning and life chances for the students we serve.’

Heidt is a 1998 LPHS graduate, who returned home in 2021 and works as an occupational therapist for preschoolers. She feels similarly passionate about her involvement and is ‘excited to be a member of the Ed Op board and help provide ongoing development of our community’s children and investments in their future’.

Rounding out our new board, we looked to the school district itself and we are delighted to welcome three more new members. Brenden Gotham has taken over the role of Community School’s Coordinator and is off to a flying start, organizing a raft of programs over the summer break. He has worked in the school district for 21 years, teaching English, History and Drama as well as Driver Ed. He’s looking forward to ‘…being a part of the great work already being done to help ensure students have the resources, support, and opportunities they need to succeed and thrive’. Stepping into the breach as our Middle / High School rep, we welcome Emily McConvey (who joins her mom, Patti, on the board). A 9-year faculty member at the school, the last 6 years as a Special Education teacher, McConvey is eager to impact the students in a new way. ‘What excites me about working with the Ed OP board is being able to give input on how the board can continue to support our students and staff, while connecting with our community on all generational levels. I am a proud alumni of LPHS and also serve on the alumni association board, helping build the vast network of LPHS alumni across the globe and keep them connected online. I plan to bring some of these ideas to the Ed Op board and grow our online presence, reaching many more people in our community and beyond. I know my daughter will benefit one day from all the wonderful, inclusive programming that the board puts forth and I am so grateful to have a chance to work alongside the board and be a part of the process’.

We completed our board reshuffle with the recent nomination of John Burdick, a proud father of a 2008 LPHS graduate. From 2001 to 2024, Burdick worked for the district as teacher, Athletic Director and Dean of Students. He retired last year but the lure of the classroom keeps him coming back as a substitute teacher and he is delighted to continue his involvement in this new role.

So, a lot of change and a lot of new energy to harness. And that new energy got its first outlet in our September board meeting, as we gathered to plan for the coming school year. Reflecting on a great year of fundraising and support from the local community, the board unanimously passed a proposal to add to our increasing number of endowed initiatives, securing opportunity for students in the long term. Joining our existing endowment of the 5th grade trip to Albany, we are delighted to announce that we will be fully endowing the 6th grade trip to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake, ensuring all our students are able to experience this wonderful local learning hub. We initially funded this trip as a one-off initiative in 2024 but, having looked at the interest and excitement the trip generated, along with the clear educational benefit to all 6th graders, we are proud to have added this to our portfolio of endowed initiatives. The work to close the opportunity gap continues apace and we are so grateful for our supporters far and wide for their generosity, which has allowed us to keep moving forward with our mission.

Our work continues. October 15th is our fall deadline for both student and teacher innovation grants, the first time we have combined these two groups to help streamline the grant proposal process. We’re looking forward to seeing what exciting new ideas our teachers and kids can generate for our consideration. Proposals should be completed using the appropriate online form on our website – www.EdOpFund.org

You can follow and support our work on our website, on Facebook and on our new Instagram page (thank you, Emily) and we look forward to reporting back on the new initiative proposals and how we can continue to help. Enjoy the changing leaves and the last of the summer sun.

Simon Shergold, on behalf of the Ed Op Board