September 5, 2023 — Lee County high school students interested in pursuing careers as teachers are now eligible for up to $36,000 in college monies through a new program created by the Lee County Education Foundation and The Temple Sloan Family Foundation.

The new Temple Sloan Lee County Teaching Fellows program will award its first set of two “Sloan Scholars” beginning in 2024. The application opens Oct. 1.

LCEF board members recognized the post-Covid recruiting difficulties faced by Lee County Schools. That began an effort to find funding to create a program that would encourage Lee County’s best and brightest students to commit to becoming an educator, and to return home and begin a career in a classroom.

The Raleigh-based Sloan Foundation quickly stepped up to do just that.

Read More

June 19, 2023 — The resumption, at Greenwood Elementary School in January, of the Lee County Education Foundation’s “Head of Class” award and ceremony signaled, perhaps in some way, an unofficial emergence from the pandemic for students in Lee County’s schools.

But post-pandemic studies and conversations among local educators revealed an unwelcome leftover from Covid-19: the decline, or even the loss, of soft skills, plus an increasing difficulty in the ability of many students to establish strong interpersonal relationships.

That drew the attention of LCEF Chairman Susan Keller. It impressed upon her and her board members that the Head of Class project — LCEF’s flagship prize, which awards $50,000 to the faculty and staff of the most-improved elementary school in Lee County — was in need of some kind of a companion program at the middle school level.

Read More

November 30, 2022

The Lee County Education Foundation, with support from the Worthy Lands Trust, presented the first McSwain Team Teacher Awards to 10 outstanding Lee County elementary teaching teams Wednesday afternoon. Education Foundation board members, Board of Education member Sandra Bowen, Lee County School leadership, winning team members and their principals all attended an award reception at W.B. Wicker Elementary School.

Winning teams’ students showed exceptional growth and proficiency in their team subject. Each team member received a certificate of appreciation and a monetary award for his/her exemplary performance as an educator. Awards were presented in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade reading, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade math, 5th grade science, as well as kindergarten, 1stand 2nd grade mCLASS growth and proficiency.

Read More

October 3, 2022
Sanford, NC - The Lee County Education Foundation proudly announces the formation and implementation of The Durable Skills Project. First Bank has committed to giving the Lee County Education Foundation $50,000 to fund this newly announced initiative in Lee County.  A program formed through a partnership with Lee County Schools and the Boys & Girls Club of Central Carolina, the Durable Skills Project will reach 120 students across the 3 Lee County Middle Schools. It begins this week at East Lee Middle School, SanLee Middle School, and West Lee Middle School, teaching lifelong usable skills for the real world.

The Durable Skills Project provides support to middle schoolers through mentorship and programming geared towards life skills like effective verbal communication, self-control, and goal setting. Utilizing established, proven Boys and Girls Club curriculum with an added focus on communication, the Durable Skills Project will help students build a framework for long-term success.  Trained Boys and Girls Club staff will be on the middle school campuses meeting in person with students and leading them through this innovative program.

Read More

March 4, 2022

SANFORD — Rob Patterson, the Regional President of First Bank in Sanford, has joined the board of directors of the Lee County Education Foundation, Chairman Susan Keller has announced.

“I am personally honored to be a part of this outstanding organization and hope to make a contribution enhancing the educational opportunities of our young people in Lee County,” Patterson said. “First Bank has long embraced education as the silver bullet to improving the quality of life of the communities that we serve. We take this responsibility seriously and continue to support educational initiatives with both our time and financial resources.”

The Foundation, organized in 2003 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, works to mobilize financial resources and fund programs to improve Lee County student achievement. Since its inception, LCEF has provided gifts and grants of more than $1 million to teachers and schools within the Lee County Schools system.

Read More

November 17, 2021

SANFORD — Not long after it was formed, back in 2003, the Lee County Education Foundation began awarding small grants to local teachers.

A few hundred dollars here. A thousand or so there.

Founder Dennis Wicker’s vision, though, was always much bigger.

On Thursday, in the atrium of W.B. Wicker Elementary School, LCEF Chairman Susan Keller distributed checks totaling $150,000 to the principals of each of the 17 schools in the Lee County Schools district. In awarding the grants — thanks to a partnership, for the second year in a row, with the Worthy Lands Trust of Sanford — LCEF surpassed a significant milestone: including the small grants early on, the series of $50,000 “Head of Class” grants awarded to elementary schools beginning in 2011 and the $75,000 given during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and then again Thursday, the foundation has now contributed more than $1 million directly to schools in the county.

Read More