Foundations cancel visits to St. Paul schools

Two national education foundations have canceled visits to the St. Paul Public Schools this month in the wake of Superintendent Meria Carstarphen's announcement that she's leaving at the end of the school year.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Panasonic Foundation planned to visit in early March to consider working with the district on issues such as teacher quality and strategic planning.

But neither showed up.

"Meetings ... to discuss evolving partnerships have been suspended," Carstarphen wrote in a weekly update she sends to school board members. "Both foundations indicated their possible willingness to resume discussions once the District's transition process has been completed and District leadership has been clarified."

The Panasonic and Gates foundations didn't return phone calls seeking comment Friday.

Carstarphen has focused a lot in recent months on working with corporate and philanthropic partners to increase giving and align it to the district's educational priorities.

Her decision to accept the superintendent job in Austin, Texas, raises the question of what will become of the relationships she's developed with the philanthropy groups.

The Panasonic Foundation's mission is to help break links between race and poverty and a student's academic success. Instead of awarding grants to districts, it works with them to help restructure their education systems.

The Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest, was planning a two-day visit to consider St. Paul for an initiative looking at better ways to measure teacher effectiveness as a way to improve student achievement.

It's unclear how much money the district might receive from the foundations. The amounts hadn't been discussed yet when the visits were cancelled, said Shirley Heitzman, the district's director of innovation and development.

"I appreciate that in these cases, our partners may want to wait and engage with the district once the leadership transition has fully taken place," Heitzman said.

In January, the district announced that it will be receiving about $1.4 million from the Traveler's Companies Inc. to help expand a program for students preparing for college, and invest in leadership development of principals. That relationship is not in jeopardy, Traveler's said Friday.

In recent years, the St. Paul district has received about $1 million annually from corporate and philanthropic partners, and about $10 million to $15 million in federal and state grants for education.

Education is almost always the prime beneficiary of philanthropic giving in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Council on Foundations. In 2006, Minnesota foundations and private donors gave $212 million to education. Not all of it stayed in Minnesota, however, because corporate programs such as General Mills' "Box Tops for Education" send money to schools nationwide.

No current corporate or philanthropic donors to the St. Paul district have pulled out in recent weeks, Heitzman said.

"They've been saying, 'We know the work needs to continue,'" she said.