But a disagreement between program founders and the Park City Education Foundation has led to resignations as well as donor funds being withheld, one of the founders and donors, Tommy Tanzer, said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 8.
Bright Futures celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its formation last fall. Since the formal launch in 2016, the program has been administered and paid for by the Park City Education Foundation (PCEF), which is funded through grant awards and private donations, the foundation’s CEO Ingrid Whitley said.
To date, more than 170 Park City High School students have been involved in Bright Futures, according to the group’s website. By the end of this year, 25 of them will have graduated from college.
Whitley said the changes to the Bright Futures program are the result of a recent strategic planning process undertaken by the staff and board of the foundation.
“We went through a strategic planning process with our board of directors this year and evaluated everything that we've been working on for the last five or six years,” Whitley said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 7.
She said, at the program’s core, its values are equity and inclusion.
“One of the things that we discussed was not every first-generation student is getting support currently from the way the program is structured,” she said. “So, next year, we're going to be funding a position in the high school who will be working with every first-gen student starting in ninth grade all the way through senior year.”
Whitley said the program will continue to employ someone who will provide one-on-one coaching to high school graduates through their college years. The foundation will also provide students with financial support through college as it has for years.
But Tanzer, also a longtime Bright Futures donor, is upset. He is critical of the new direction saying the foundation board doesn’t understand the program’s needs.
In an email to KPCW, he wrote, “PCEF has never actively administered the program; that responsibility has always rested with the Bright Future founders and staff.”
In a Jan. 14 letter to the foundation’s board, the founding sponsors — Rick and Lynn Blei, Eric Garen, Moe Hickey, Franklin Morton, Ernest Oriente, Stacey Sayers, John Wendolowski and Tanzer — wrote they were dismayed they weren’t included in the strategic discussions about the future of the program. They said their historical knowledge could have been helpful in determining the future success or failure of the Bright Futures program as redesigned.
Tanzer is concerned that the program is getting dismantled from its original purpose.
“The Founders have been with the program from the beginning and are responsible for, through personal donations and active fundraising, the vast majority of the $3+ million raised for the program to date," he said. "We have invested our time and money because we care deeply about these students. We worry that their futures are now in jeopardy.”
As part of the restructuring, he added the Bright Futures advisory committee, of which he had been a member for more than a decade, was responsible for the day-to-day administration of Bright Futures, not the foundation.
“The people that ran the program, the founders, the people who are in the program that were paid employees have all quit. They've driven away every one of the founders, except for two," he said. "They've forced or had a resignation of the two people who've run the program. They forced the resignation of the people who were interacting with the students at the college, and they've driven off all the volunteers.”
But Whitley said the new program will be better than ever. She said it will be more inclusive and have more student participation. It will expand to include every first-generation student to benefit from Bright Futures.
She said, “We're excited to be able to create some efficiencies just working better with the school district, partnering with them on things that they're already offering, and that enables us to be more creative with how we're leaning in with support from a financial perspective.”
A list of those who resigned can be found here.
Former Park City Board of Education member and Bright Futures financial supporter Moe Hickey told KPCW the original sponsors are concerned that the program is getting watered down and doesn’t reflect the original intent of Bright Futures.
He said the premise of the program was to focus on the students with high aspirations and who self-selected to join the program. It was more than just getting good grades.
The program required students to attend a summer boot camp, get their parents involved and commit to volunteer hours outside the high school, Hickey said.
“When these changes started being rumored, it was concerning, because we do have programs that could support that community,” he said. “But this was a different type of program. I'm just concerned that when you take a program that's very specific and then you try to broaden it, you're probably going to diminish the overall result.”
The letter goes on to say that while the foundation’s changes are admirable, they are not the mission of Bright Futures and will weaken its ability to help college-bound students succeed.
Today, the program boasts a 98% matriculation rate from high school (compared to a 52% nationwide average for first generation students) and a 64% college graduation rate compared to only 24% of first-generation students.
Tanzer said he believes the foundation is attempting to add Bright Future’s substantial financial resources to its general operating fund while planning to curtail the historic activities that have supported the students in the program.
The letter from the sponsors said the new program “is not the program to which donors have contributed over $3 million since the program’s inception. Using these monies for any purpose other than funding the Bright Futures program under its current specific mission would be viewed as PCEF acting in bad faith by the founders and other donors who have restricted their gifts to Bright Futures. “
Jennifer Billow, vice president of advancement for the education foundation told KPCW that’s inaccurate and all Bright Futures restricted funds only go to Bright Futures.
Tanzer said he has resigned from the committee and rescinded his six-figure legacy gift and has requested a refund of his past donations. He is urging the community to join him in demanding the school board and state of Utah audit the foundation’s fundraising, spending and administrative practices.
He told KPCW the Bright Futures program represents a decade of his life’s work and that he won’t stand by as it’s dismantled. Tanzer has developed a website which he said documents the complete story of Bright Futures’ success.
