By Craig Williams

There is a difference between providing children with what they need and giving educators the freedom to imagine what might be possible.

In Olentangy Schools, just north of Columbus, Ohio, that distinction has shaped an unusual partnership between a rapidly growing public school district and the community it serves. The Olentangy Education Foundation exists in the space between the two.

"This is the booster club for the entire district." That's how Julie Feazel describes it, and the phrase fits. Individual Olentangy schools have PTOs, athletic boosters and music boosters. OEF takes the broader view, raising private dollars to invest in ideas generated by educators across a district of more than 24,000 students, ideas that can travel a long way.

Olentangy itself is a story of extraordinary growth. Formed in 1954 when several rural farm schools came together, the district operated for decades on a scale nearly unimaginable today, its original building housing students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The first standalone high school opened in 1990, the first standalone elementary school in 1994. By 2027, Olentangy expects to open its 18th elementary school. Its fifth high school is scheduled for 2028. Today it is Ohio's fourth-largest school district, behind only Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati.

Feazel has watched much of that transformation firsthand. Her husband attended Olentangy schools when the district was still small. His father taught and coached there. His mother drove a school bus and advised cheerleading. Feazel began volunteering in the district in 1997 and served on the Olentangy Board of Education from 2006 through 2021. Her two children graduated from Olentangy High School.

Through all that growth, she says, the challenge was never simply building enough schools.

"We were also growing academically."

That pursuit, growing opportunity along with enrollment, is where the foundation found its place. Created in the 1990s, OEF raises money for opportunities that fall outside what a public school system can reasonably support with tax dollars. Districts must first meet enormous obligations: staffing classrooms, operating buildings, transporting students, providing mandated services. Those responsibilities consume resources quickly.

The foundation asks a different question: what could a teacher do with a little more?

Sometimes the answer begins with $500. Sometimes it requires $10,000. Teachers apply directly, and every proposal is weighed against three ideas: how many students will benefit, how long the investment will keep producing value, and how closely it aligns with district curriculum. The foundation avoids disposable, one-time purchases, looking instead for ideas with staying power.

Across Olentangy's elementary schools, 17 art teachers recognized that students with autism, physical disabilities and other specialized learning needs faced real barriers to full participation in art class. They could have simply requested equipment. Instead, their proposal paired adaptive tools with professional training through Ashland University, so the teachers themselves became better equipped to teach those students. The result was more than a purchase. It was an investment in capacity that outlasts any single school year.

Another OEF investment reached just 15 students, ages 18 to 21, who receive specialized educational services. Through a Columbus-area hospitality training program, they learned practical skills over multiple visits, from working in a kitchen to welcoming and serving guests. The grant exceeded $10,000, funded live at OEF's biggest night of the year. For a young person preparing to leave the structure of public education, learning to enter a workplace and imagine oneself as an employable adult can carry consequences for decades. The investment was in independence, confidence and dignity as much as it was in job skills.

OEF awarded approximately $100,000 in grants for the 2026-27 school year, backed by corporate partners, community fundraising and individual families, with named funds letting donors support causes meaningful to them. Its endowment has grown beyond $1 million. The foundation's largest annual fundraiser reflects the community itself: held at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, "ZOOlentangy" opens the school year with grant recipients sharing what community investment made possible, giraffes occasionally joining the festivities, and this year's sponsorship goal of $95,000 already exceeded before the doors opened.

Behind that number sits real governance. The foundation's roughly 60 grant applications each cycle are reviewed in full by its volunteer board.

"We want every grant to be reviewed by everyone on the board."

Perhaps the most important part of the OEF model happens before any check is written. When teachers submit proposals, they reveal what they're seeing in classrooms. If multiple educators request similar resources, district curriculum leaders can recognize an emerging need and build it into future budgets. The grant process becomes something more than philanthropy. It becomes a listening mechanism, letting teacher imagination inform institutional decisions.

Foundations like OEF do not replace public investment in schools, nor should they. They occupy different territory: experimentation, enrichment, possibility. Behind each grant is a teacher who looked at students and thought, I know something that could make this better. Behind that teacher is a community willing to listen.

Feazel believes that model extends well beyond Olentangy. Education foundations across the country operate at vastly different scales, she notes, but each offers residents and businesses a direct way to invest in the schools serving their communities.

Public education necessarily begins with what every child must have. Communities like Olentangy remind us what can happen when we also make room for what a child could have, and what an imaginative teacher might do with the chance to provide it.