I am very disappointed in the Harper Family Charitable Foundation. Michelle Pols and I operate a not-for-profit private therapeutic day school for children with varying disabilities. We presented our school to Mr. Harper and asked him and his committee members to approve $5000.00 to pay for a fence that was needed to keep our children with autism safe and pay for new curriculum items that were needed for our Kindergarten autism class. The foundation’s qualifying criteria for this grant was that the organization requesting the funding must be directly involved in educating disabled children. Bridge to Ability Specialized learning center is a PreK-3 through 12th grade therapeutic day school that provides education and therapy for children with a variety of disabilities and special needs up to the age of 22. Mr. Harper approved Bridge to Ability for $5000.00 under the condition that we would give one of his personal care assistants, who has a Master’s degree, a job. It was explained to Mr. Harper that we are a small, financially struggling, non-profit organization with teachers already in place (four of whom have their Master’s degrees, are specially qualified to work with the needs of our children, and who provide their expertise for not much more than minimum wage). However, we could use substitute teachers. His PCA was interviewed. She asked to work as a substitute teacher on an as needed basis. Today, Mr. Harper informed Michelle Pols that he was withdrawing his approval for our $5000.00 funding, because we could not pay his personal care assistant the Master’s level pay rate she deserved. He further stated that because we didn’t scratch his back, he wouldn’t scratch ours. This is a very sad day for our students. They are in need of specialized services and curriculum. They depend on the kindness of their community in which they live. We have experienced the Harper Family Charitable Foundation to not be so charitable.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 01:58:24 +0000
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