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Sep

20

David Brennan, family give $6million to wife, daughters, granddaughters’ school, Our Lady of the Elms


From the underappreciated Cleveland Scene blog, C-Notes:

This morning, the Elms announced that it had received a $6 million donation from Brennan and his wife, Ann — the largest gift in the school’s history. Turns out Ann is an Elms alum. So are her daughters. Her granddaughters are also currently enrolled at the school, which sends roughly 98 percent of all its students to college — unlike Rankin’s old school, OHDELA, where only 20 of 1,500 students graduated, she wrote.

Elms says it will use the funds for a massive renovation, including a new theater, gym, fitness center, commons area, and parking lot. The new construction will consist of recycled materials, energy saving design, and lots of Virgin Marys.

As an alum, I would never argue that the Elms doesn’t deserve such generosity. For years, the school has been running on meager funds to provide girls the best education possible. Despite out-of-date science labs and ancient textbooks, Elms girls excel in all their subjects. They pass AP tests with flying colors, score above average on their SATs and ACTs, are deemed National Merit Scholars, and, in the case of me, excel in the all-but-forgotten art of drinking Schlitz.

Still, one has to ponder the notion that these girls are receiving money that probably belongs to less fortunate White Hat kids. Through his donation, Brennan proves he knows the value of investing real money into education. The question is: why can’t he do the same for his own schools?

Cannot be better stated.  Thanks, Denise.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:55 pm September 20th, 2007 in Education, Government, Ohio 

Comments

8 Responses to “David Brennan, family give $6million to wife, daughters, granddaughters’ school, Our Lady of the Elms”

  1. 1 Keith on September 20th, 2007 6:39 pm

    “Through his donation, Brennan proves he knows the value of investing real money into education. The question is: why can’t he do the same for his own schools?”

    Because. . . he . . . doesn’t. . . really. . . CARE! Students at White Hat are profit units. The ones in the Catholic schools are the ones he and his wife most likely consider ‘the future’ and therefore are the real benefactors of his personal largess. People like Brennan make me ill and nothing will ever happen to his little scam because of all the legislators he pays off in Columbus. Grrr.

  2. 2 Jill Miller Zimon on September 20th, 2007 7:21 pm

    Hey Keith – thanks for reading and the comment. You’re reminding me that I should drive out on a beautiful fall day to Chardon and check out a new bookstore I’ve heard about.

    Seriously – what do you think of charters? My opinion has been that done properly, charters could be great niche alternative schools, but I want them to be nonprofit and want the oversight to be much much more regular and coordinated.

    You?

  3. 3 Keith on September 20th, 2007 8:16 pm

    Oh absolutely I agree with you. I didn’t support charter schools in Ohio and I still don’t simply because the whole system was set up to be gamed by people like Brennan. The whole idea seemed to be to let the free market cowboys loose to do exactly what they have done. Of course you have some charter schools run by people who didn’t start with state dollar reimbursements dancing in their heads and to those people I wish well. The problem is, as you know, in Ohio all is politics and all politics is who gets paid.

    The whole idea of the kind of oversight you and I would have wanted to see was fought from the beginning by the right because they claimed it would hamstring innovation. And nonprofit? What are you, some kind of socialist? (: I kid, but you know what I mean. The predominate zeitgeist hates nonprofit nowadays.

    We can dream, can’t we?

  4. 4 Keith on September 20th, 2007 8:16 pm

    PS Chardon is beautiful in the fall. Before that 125 inches of snow falls.

  5. 5 Jill Miller Zimon on September 20th, 2007 8:21 pm

    Ok! Now you’re depressing me! JUST KIDDING.

    Yeah. Sigh. I do agree with what you’re saying but I hope for the best, that the people who are sincerely motivated to give kids who really do need alternatives – and we KNOW that such kids exist – can still do what they want to, to help these kids. If you’re not familiar with E-Prep, I would encourage to take a look at it online. It’s definitely a success story, a not for profit that holds itself to very, very high standards.

    What I would like to see (ha ha, I know you’re going to say!!) is the state take the best practices of the charter schools that are doing the best with kids (meaning, kids are happy, families are happy, employers are happy with the grads, teachers etc. are happy) and make those the absolute minimums that charters must meet.

    Might have to wait for a change in the Ohio Legislature to at least one house being Dem majority, but I do think the idea of charters is salvageable. All in the implementation.

  6. 6 Keith on September 21st, 2007 11:56 am

    Agreed. It would be better for all students to have greater oversight of the charter schools with an emphasis on best practices. Saw the PD finally picked up on this today. Typical PD, a day late. . .

    Blessed Yom Kippur to you and your family

  7. 7 Remains of the Day, 9-21-07 | Writes Like She Talks on September 21st, 2007 12:10 pm

    [...] David Brennan, family give $6million to wife, daughters, granddaughters’ school, Our Lady of t… [...]

  8. 8 Jill Miller Zimon on September 23rd, 2007 11:49 am

    Thanks, Keith. I’ll try to dredge up the PD piece on it, though, in my post-fast fog, I’m not sure – I may have already looked and just forgotten it. Memorable work it must have been. ;)

    Oops – yup – I did see it. lol

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