The Pilot's News Briefing 10/16/26

Uh, earlier this week, I attended the Board of Education meetings for this month, uh, and they discussed the formation of two foundations to support the schools.

Um, foundations, of course, they would be nonprofits, and they would be governed by a separate board of directors that would be appointed by the school board or, um, over time, appointed by the school board.

This came about, uh, originally through a presentation that school board f- uh, foundation committee chair, David Hensley.

So he's not the chair of the school board, but he's the chair of the foundation committee.

Uh, so David Hensley presented the idea to the school board at their August board retreat, and then, um, between then and now, they've kinda workshopped it in their committee meetings and brought it this past, or this week to the main board with a recommendation to create two foundations.

Uh, one of them would be what they called a standard foundation, like quote unquote standard, being what people are more familiar with that a foundation does, which is kind of through some sort of grant mechanism, supports different types of activities.

Uh, s- and in the case of this particular foundation, it would revolve around, or the proposal is that it would revolve around a revenue-generating real estate portfolio.

So it would acquire some sort of property, condos, houses, or something within the county to then rent to school employees, staff, teacher, teachers mainly probably, but staff and teachers, uh, at below market rates.

So that, that w- they, that's what is proposed, and then those, the revenues from those rents would go back into the foundation and help continue to generate interest and all the things that, that a normal foundation relies on to create grants that could support other things, you know, other programming, other opportunities that the school district could, um, t- could leverage the funds for.

The second grant is a little bit more abnormal because it is based on a brand, n-not brand new, but a new law and a federal tax credit that comes out of what's commonly known as the Big Beautiful Bill that was passed last year, uh, in 2025.

Uh, and the provision is that a scholarship-granting organization could be formed, which again has to be a nonprofit, and it would be eligi- it would be able to give scholarships, that's what a scholarship-granting organization.

But in this sense, that term scholarship might not be what people would think about because typically I would think about a scholarship being s- uh, a student's, like their tuition is being supplemented to go to like a college, for instance.

Mm-hmm.

In this case, it could be any quote unquote eligible expenditure.

The, the federal law kind of outlines that that can be for tutoring, for internet, for technology like computers, transportation even for a, a student to get to and from school.

But there are l- there are quite, there are a few different things that it can be, um, eligible, the expenditures are eligible for.

But, um, 90% of whatever revenue that scholarship-granting organization, uh, receives needs to be spent on those scholarships for it to be able to take advantage of the, a tax credit that was also included in the bill.

So these, it's like these two provisions are linked.

So on the local level, the general assembly in June opted to participate in the, uh, the program, and what, the, the reason why I say it that way is because the Internal Revenue Service has not developed laws around how those scholarship-granting organizations will be able to, um, or like the people who donate to those organizations will be able to claim the tax credit, which is up to $1,700 per individual or $3,400 for a household.

But the, the s- the mechanisms or the laws around it have not been established.

So it's still a little bit up in the air.

But the, the tax credit becomes eligible for donations made starting January 1st of 2027, so that's partially why they brought it to the meeting this w- this week and why if, if you listen in on the meeting, there was a bit of urgency behind the presentation because they wanna get the foundations established, particularly this scholarship-granting organization piece, uh, so that they can start to kinda get everything in place and then therefore receive donations starting January 1st.

The kind of next steps for the foundation committee are to establish the nonprofits, and then, uh, they're gonna utilize a, an attorney out of an, uh, law firm called Shell Bray.

I think his name is Ed Chaney, if I remember correctly.

And they're gonna lean on him to kinda help establish the foundation, the legal documents for those foundations, apply for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the IRS, and then appoint initial board members.

Uh, earlier this week, I attended the Board of Education meetings for this month, uh, and they discussed the formation of two foundations to support the schools.

Um, foundations, of course, they would be nonprofits, and they would be governed by a separate board of directors that would be appointed by the school board or, um, over time, appointed by the school board.

This came about, uh, originally through a presentation that school board f- uh, foundation committee chair, David Hensley.

So he's not the chair of the school board, but he's the chair of the foundation committee.

Uh, so David Hensley presented the idea to the school board at their August board retreat, and then, um, between then and now, they've kinda workshopped it in their committee meetings and brought it this past, or this week to the main board with a recommendation to create two foundations.

Uh, one of them would be what they called a standard foundation, like quote unquote standard, being what people are more familiar with that a foundation does, which is kind of through some sort of grant mechanism, supports different types of activities.

Uh, s- and in the case of this particular foundation, it would revolve around, or the proposal is that it would revolve around a revenue-generating real estate portfolio.

So it would acquire some sort of property, condos, houses, or something within the county to then rent to school employees, staff, teacher, teachers mainly probably, but staff and teachers, uh, at below market rates.

So that, that w- they, that's what is proposed, and then those, the revenues from those rents would go back into the foundation and help continue to generate interest and all the things that, that a normal foundation relies on to create grants that could support other things, you know, other programming, other opportunities that the school district could, um, t- could leverage the funds for.

The second grant is a little bit more abnormal because it is based on a brand, n-not brand new, but a new law and a federal tax credit that comes out of what's commonly known as the Big Beautiful Bill that was passed last year, uh, in 2025.

Uh, and the provision is that a scholarship-granting organization could be formed, which again has to be a nonprofit, and it would be eligi- it would be able to give scholarships, that's what a scholarship-granting organization.

But in this sense, that term scholarship might not be what people would think about because typically I would think about a scholarship being s- uh, a student's, like their tuition is being supplemented to go to like a college, for instance.

Mm-hmm.

In this case, it could be any quote unquote eligible expenditure.

The, the federal law kind of outlines that that can be for tutoring, for internet, for technology like computers, transportation even for a, a student to get to and from school.

But there are l- there are quite, there are a few different things that it can be, um, eligible, the expenditures are eligible for.

But, um, 90% of whatever revenue that scholarship-granting organization, uh, receives needs to be spent on those scholarships for it to be able to take advantage of the, a tax credit that was also included in the bill.

So these, it's like these two provisions are linked.

So on the local level, the general assembly in June opted to participate in the, uh, the program, and what, the, the reason why I say it that way is because the Internal Revenue Service has not developed laws around how those scholarship-granting organizations will be able to, um, or like the people who donate to those organizations will be able to claim the tax credit, which is up to $1,700 per individual or $3,400 for a household.

But the, the s- the mechanisms or the laws around it have not been established.

So it's still a little bit up in the air.

But the, the tax credit becomes eligible for donations made starting January 1st of 2027, so that's partially why they brought it to the meeting this w- this week and why if, if you listen in on the meeting, there was a bit of urgency behind the presentation because they wanna get the foundations established, particularly this scholarship-granting organization piece, uh, so that they can start to kinda get everything in place and then therefore receive donations starting January 1st.

The kind of next steps for the foundation committee are to establish the nonprofits, and then, uh, they're gonna utilize a, an attorney out of an, uh, law firm called Shell Bray.

I think his name is Ed Chaney, if I remember correctly.

And they're gonna lean on him to kinda help establish the foundation, the legal documents for those foundations, apply for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from the IRS, and then appoint initial board members.