Schools turn to alumni for funding
By Doug Grindle Community Reporter

Marlborough - The Marlborough School District is trying to improve its future by getting in touch with its past.

The district created a new alumni association, Marlborough Public Schools Alumni, in August 2007 and the group has a new website that has been online for a month. Hundreds of people have signed up already, and it's just the beginning of bigger things, school officials said. Erica Tuton is the alumni administrator for the district.

The association is designed to make it easier for alumni of Marlborough High School (MHS) to keep in touch and for class representatives to contact former classmates for reunions. In addition, it will serve as the foundation for a new fundraising effort to help the district improve classrooms and buildings.

"Through the alumni association we can keep tabs on what the alumni are up to but also let them know what's going on in Marlborough now," Tuton said. "We've got 300 people signed up already."

The president of the association is Ward 6 Councilor Edward Clancy, who taught science at MHS for 13 years before serving as the school's vice principal for 23 years.

According to Clancy, the association will make it easier to organize reunions. Clancy said he discovered finding alumni was the toughest part of organizing a reunion when he helped with one last fall.

"We were having a difficult time contacting people and finding people," Clancy said. "We wished there was a database somewhere which we could access to find people, so we could get people to return for their reunions."

The district website is a social-networking site, similar to Facebook, Tuton said. Alumni are able to post pictures and information about their activities since graduating, and read about what is happening today at the High School.

"They can save a profile, post pictures," Tuton said. "They can reminisce [about] what they did in High School."

The association will also be used to help raise money for the district.

"We are still trying to identify more alumni, especially the successful ones," Tuton said.

Financially successful alumni will be invited to make donations.

"We have a tremendous amount of graduates from Marlborough High School who have done extremely well in life," Clancy said, "people we are proud of."

Eminent alumni include actress Marcia Cross, who appears on the television show "Desperate Housewives."

One part of the alumni website handles donations people may want to make to the district to improve buildings and upgrade classrooms. Donations will benefit the Marlborough Public Schools Education Foundation, which will disburse the money to improve the schools. The district is making an eff ort to upgrade the technology in classrooms, using Smartboards and other high-tech teaching tools.

School officials are meeting this week to brainstorm how best to contact likely donors.

The idea of raising money from alumni is a novel one for a public school district in Massachusetts, officials said, but it is widely used by private schools and colleges. And it could be useful because funding from the city's budget is not infinite.

"Colleges and private schools use this as a development program," Clancy said. "If they could fund certain things it takes the burden off the taxpayer. We are always looking for a way to fund things at the City Council."

Officials said they hope to organize an event in the spring to benefit the alumni association and the district.

"It's going to be a fundraiser for the foundation," Tuton said.

The website is at www. marlboroughalumni.com.