Foundation makes first donation to $890,000 football field

A nonprofit foundation created to raise money for outdoor athletic facilities and other Port Washington-Saukville School District projects has made its first contribution to the high school’s new $890,000 artificial turf football field, which to date had been paid for entirely by taxpayers.

The School Board on Monday accepted a $70,000 donation from the PWSSD Foundation and an assurance from the organization that it’s working to fulfill its commitment to the football field project, which was completed in August, by raising an additional $95,000.

“We understand this is the beginning and not the end,” Tom Ross, acting president of the foundation, told the board. “We know we have a commitment to the football field, and there is urgency on our part.”

The initial donation is the product of years of fundraising work that began after the decision was made not to include Port Washington High School outdoor athletic facility improvements in a 2015 referendum that cleared the way for $49.4 million of work at Port High and Dunwiddie Elementary School. 

A survey of district residents done ahead of the referendum showed that while there was significant backing for school improvements there was only tepid support for outdoor athletic facility projects.

With the understanding that the district would rely primarily on private donors to fund athletic facility projects, the PWSSD Foundation was created and the board settled on a nearly $8 million initiative that in addition to the new Astroturf football field is to include a new running track around it and bleachers, as well as artificial turf baseball fields and a new concession stand, restrooms, access road and press box.

To kick-start the project, the School Board chipped in $725,000 in proceeds from the sale of land the district had purchased in 1969 as a future school site that was no longer needed with the understanding the foundation would raise the balance of the money for the football field. 

But in April, with fundraising flagging, a divided School Board decided to cover the balance of the football field cost with money from the district’s fund balance and have the foundation reimburse the district. 

While some School Board members opposed the decision to tap fund balance to make up the fundraising shortfall, others said that by forging ahead with the project the district would inspire potential donors.

“I don’t want to delay the momentum the foundation is gaining,” School Board President Brenda Fritsch, who is also a member of the foundation, said at the time. “I think this will help show (potential donors) that this isn’t just a dream.”

Ironically, some people working to raise money for the athletic facility improvements now say it has proven difficult selling potential donors on a field project that is already completed and, one way or another, paid for. 

In addition to fundraising challenges, the foundation has also had to deal with internal strife. Earlier this year, its president, Jennifer Clearwater, a Port Washington resident and professional fundraiser who works as the director of philanthropy for Discovery World in Milwaukee, resigned.

The tipping point for Clearwater seemed to be the announcement in April that the Grafton School District had inked a $425,000 sponsorship deal with Acuity, a Sheboygan insurance company with which the Port-Saukville School District had been negotiating since 2016.

Clearwater was critical of the district’s handling of those negotiations as well as the communication between the foundation and School Board and the structure of the foundation, whose board of directors includes three school district officials — Director of Business Services Jim Froemming, who is a voting member, and Supt. Michael Weber and Fritsch, who are non-voting, ex-officio members.

On Monday Ross said the foundation is working to “reset and refocus.” 

“We have a lot going on,” he told the board. “We do have some larger donations we’re working on.”

To help with fundraising efforts, Ross said, the foundation is stressing that Port High’s new field benefits more than just its football program. Phy-ed classes use the field, and administrators have said it can be used as a practice site for other sports, especially when grass fields are too wet to play on.

“I tend not to call it the football field because people ask why we spent all this money just on football,” Ross said.