The Prep Fund: Excellence and Innovation in Education
The Prep Fund is the school’s top fundraising priority, and every gift, regardless of size, makes a difference! These annual gifts provide for the extras that are necessary to achieve our mission of excellence and innovation in education. The Prep Fund provides Tools for Teaching and Learning; Professional Development; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging; the Arts; Athletics; and the Areas of Greatest Need at Prep.
Our mission of excellence is intentional as it is the very foundation from which we build our curriculum and extracurricular activities, and when you start with a strong foundation, anything is possible. You can expect to find our four pillars integrated into our lesson plans, gym classes, technology sessions, and our special programs. Help us achieve our mission of instilling respect, integrity, perseverance, and courage in each one of our students as we look to enrich the Charlotte Prep experience, through the Prep Fund, one student at a time.
How it Works
The Prep Fund is our annual funding opportunity that kicks off each year in mid-October. Participation from the entire community helps us reach our financial goal to fund our six areas of impact. Every gift, regardless of size, supports our talented teachers, the special offerings both inside and out of the classroom, and the programs that prepare our students for the 21st century world they will enter as adults!
Participation Matters!
All independent schools aim for 100% parent participation in the annual fund, and Charlotte Prep is no different. Your contribution, regardless of the amount, demonstrates your trust and commitment to Prep and helps build a stronger community. Your participation has a direct impact in our classrooms and on your student. Inevitably, the stronger our academic programs become, the better educated, equipped, and prepared your child is for his/her high school experience and beyond.
Determining Prep’s Greatest Needs
The school’s greatest needs are ultimately determined by the school administration along with the Board of Trustees. The Head of School directs the process and ensures that the Prep Fund impacts every child, every year. Funds are used for tools and technology in our classrooms; professional development; diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; the arts; athletics; and the areas of greatest need. Research-based classroom initiatives will enhance each student’s learning opportunities and add value to the student experience. Examples could include professional development, specialized classroom equipment, or program resources needed for a specific curriculum opportunity.
Giving Levels: The Prep Fund
These giving levels recognize total giving to the Prep Fund within the fiscal year (July 1-June 30).
Founders Circle*
$10,000 and above
Legacy Society*
$5,000 - $9,999
Head of School Circle*
$2,500 - $4,999
Prep Partners
$1,000 - $2,499
Pillars Society
$500 - $999
Tiger Club
$1 - $499
*Head of School Circle donors and above are invited to special receptions during the year.
Donor names are acknowledged and published in the annual report, unless a donor requests anonymity.
GIVE TODAY
The 2024-2025 Prep Fund: Excellence and Innovation in the Classroom
Help us reach our goal of $250,000 and 100% parent participation. Invest in our teachers, curriculum, and your children.
Tools for Teaching & Learning
- Launched Collaborative Classroom literacy program (K-3)
- Incorporated IXL online platform for personalized study games (3-8)
- Brought digital portfolio tool Book Creator to middle school
- Introduced teachers to Adobe Express for Education
- Added the Social Institute to our social-emotional learning program
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging
- MOSAIC MS Diversity Club
- Ten MS students attended the ACT Diversity Conference at Charlotte Latin
- Family community service day
- Family movie night
- Prep picnic
- Diversity speaker and trainer Rosetta Lee spoke to faculty, parents, and students on a variety of issues including cross-cultural communication, bullying, and gender bias in the classroom.
- BUDEE Programs: International Day of Peace | Veterans Day | Hispanic Heritage Month | Day of Service | Women’s History Month | Earth Day | Diwali | Black History Month | Lunar New Year
Safety & Security
A security consultant performed a campus-wide assessment. Security improvements and changes include:
- Campus-wide access control
- Intrusion alarm and detection system in all buildings
- Overhauled and expanded our CCTV and video archiving
- Installed an automated gate system and campus security fencing which completely surrounds the school
- Added SchoolPass, a visitor management system, which screens all visitors through watch lists before issuing a badge
- Privacy screening added to playground fencing
- Perry Weather System – an on-site monitoring and alert system for faculty/staff/students of current weather situations via audible sirens, text and email
The Arts
The Prep Fund covered the remaining cost to light up the faces of every Charlotte Prep student on our stage.
Professional Development
- 43 faculty/staff members received Prep Fund dollars for professional development
- Charlotte Prep hosted 2 full-day on-site workshops
- Faculty/staff attended 19 professional development conferences
Athletics
New sporting equipment including:
- Girls’ tennis uniforms
- 6 new volleyballs
- 15 new soccer balls
- New pinnies for soccer team
- 4 new basketballs
- Gymnasium lights (8th-grade gift)
Middle School
- New science tool, PocketLab, is an excellent system for our inquiry-based curriculum. The PocketLab Notebook is an interactive, cloud-based digital science platform where students collect, visualize, and analyze live data.
- New Spanish curriculum, Somos, uses comprehension-based and proficiency-oriented methods of teaching language while incorporating culture into daily learning and activities to help the students explore both the Spanish language and its people’s rich culture.
- Additional flexible seating that allows students to be more aware of the environment in which they learn best. Flexible seating promotes collaboration, creativity, self-reflection, and autonomy.
Lower School
- A new reading curriculum, Collaborative Classroom, for grades K-3. This curriculum is based on the science of reading, which is a systematic approach to literacy and is specialized for elementary students.
- A reading intervention program from Collaborative Classroom, SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words), will be implemented by our learning support specialists in both lower and middle school this year. SIPPS aligns with skills taught by classroom teachers while targeting specific areas where students need extra support.
- A new grammar program called Daily Language Instruction for 3rd and 4th grade. This program introduces and reviews the correct daily use of standard grammar, such as punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, and usage.
Early School
- New sheds were built for each of the early school playgrounds.
- Classrooms received new furniture, including bookshelves, chairs, sensory tables, easels, map cabinets, and library furniture. These additions allow for more dynamic and collaborative learning.
Professional Development and Summer Grants
- Two early school assistant teachers earned Montessori Infant-Toddler Certification
- Early School faculty engaged in workshops on topics related to language/reading and classroom setup
- Kindergarten and 2nd-grade reading curricular improvement grant
- 4th-grade social studies curricular improvement grant
- 4th-grade curriculum scope and sequence grant
- Art curriculum scope and sequence grant for grades K-8
- 4th-grade music curriculum alignment grant
- Responsive Classroom training
- Community Garden planning grant
- Women Band Directors’ Summer Conference
- Theater Education Conference
- American School Counseling Association Annual Conference in Chicago
- Affirming Community Together MS Diversity Conference
- NCAIS DEI Conference
- NAIS Diversity Leadership Institute in Atlanta
Charlotte Preparatory School's fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30 each year. Pledges are accepted throughout the year, with payments due by June 30. Gifts are credited to the fiscal year in which they are received. For more information, contact Heidi Kelley in the Development Office at [email protected]. Charlotte Preparatory School is a 501© (3) organization. All gifts to the school are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.
