The Orchard Foundation

“The rapides foundation, the orchard foundation's supported organization, is the sole member of the orchard foundation.”

“As sole member of the orchard foundation, the rapides foundation appoints the board members of the orchard foundation through action of the foundation's trustee board. Each orchard foundation trustee is elected for a three-year term.”

“The only powers reserved to the member (the rapides foundation) are the appointment of board members and the final approval of any amendment to or repeal of the orchard foundation's articles of incorporation or bylaws.”

“A final copy of the orchard foundation form 990 is furnished to the audit committee of the rapides foundation board (trf), the orchard foundation's supported organization, for review and approval, and a meeting is held to discuss the form 990 in detail. The meeting is attended by staff that assisted in compiling the form, as well as, representatives of the external accounting firm who compiled the form. All trf and the orchard foundation board members receive the final form 990 copy when it is sent to the audit committee, and all board members are invited to attend the audit committee meeting to review and approve the form.”

“The rapides foundation, the orchard foundation's supported organization, has both a "staff code of ethics and conduct and a "trustee code of ethics and conduct," both of which define and describe actions to be taken in the event of conflicts of interest. The orchard foundation operates under the rapides foundation policies and procedures. The "staff code of ethics and conduct" is monitored and enforced through organizational procedures, controls and daily supervision of employees by the next level of management. The "trustee code of ethics and conduct" is monitored at each board meeting, because the first agenda item is one in which board members are asked to disclose any potential conflicts with listed agenda items. A member that has a potential conflict of interest with a matter that comes before the board or committee is required to leave the room before the matter is discussed, and a majority vote of the remaining disinterested board members determine whether a conflict actually exists. If a conflict is determined to exist, then the conflicted member is not allowed to be present during board discussion and vote on the issue creating the conflict. Each year, board members and key employees are required to complete a conflict of interest questionnaire to disclose business and personal relationships that could be potential conflicts of interests.”

“The rapides foundation is a supported organization of the orchard foundation. The rapides foundation provides employees to the orchard foundation through a lease agreement. It also employs the orchard foundation's executive director. The rapides foundation board compensation committee, which is composed of the independent members of its executive committee, periodically engages a third-party compensation consultant to provide market information concerning pay and benefits and make compensation structure recommendations for all rapides foundation positions as well as positions for its supporting organizations. The consultant is provided with job descriptions for all job positions. The consultant then compares those jobs with similar positions at similar types and sizes of organizations. The consultant meets with the compensation committee and provides the comparison data, along with their recommendations for pay ranges for each position (minimum, midpoint, maximum). Recommendations are based upon market averages of similar types and sizes of organizations. In interim years, increases in pay ranges are recommended to the board by management, based on survey information of similar organizations. The ceo recommends the pay for the employees reporting directly to him and a salary budget for the remaining employees of the rapides foundation and its supporting organizations to the compensation committee for approval. The compensation committee independently discusses its recommendations for ceo pay. The rapides foundation ceo then proposes the salary for the orchard foundation executive director to the orchard foundation board of directors for approval. Minutes of all meetings are recorded and maintained.”

“The rapides foundation, orchard's supported organization, makes its staff code of ethics and conduct, trustee code of ethics and conduct, and annual report (including financial statements) available on the organization's website at www.theorchardfoundation.org.”

“The orchard foundation was awarded a five-year grant of $4,482,635 by the u.s. Department of education to recruit, train, support and retain effective math and science teachers in central louisiana middle schools. The orchard foundation and project partners committed in-kind matched funding of non-federal funds in the amount of $8,801,519 to implement the central louisiana instructional partnership or clip. This is the orchard foundation's first grant under the usdoe's teacher quality partnership grant program. The goal of the central louisiana instructional partnership project is to improve student achievement in nine rural, high-need school districts in up to 70 schools in central louisiana by preparing highly qualified educators to teach in critical shortage areas middle school math and science. Clip addresses the high teacher turnover and shortages facing rural schools by developing and implementing a model of middle school math and science teacher preparation. The model is an innovative teacher residency program with integrated professional development and induction support. In turn, clip is expected to produce measurable positive impacts on the academic achievement of low-performing rural central louisiana students in grades 6-8. The orchard foundation serves as the lead organization for the central louisiana instructional partnership. Clip project partners include: the nine central louisiana school districts of allen, avoyelles, catahoula, grant, lasalle, natchitoches, rapides, vernon and winn; northwestern state university's gallaspy college of education & human development and college of business & technology-computer information systems; urban learning & leadership center; evalworks; and the rapides foundation, which will provide grant administrative support. Applicants selected for the clip program will complete a 15-month accelerated graduate program of study culminating in a master of arts in teaching degree from northwestern state university and a professional teaching license. They will receive a stipend during their training. While completing their graduate coursework, clip residents will be immersed in an academic year school-based residency in a high-needs school identified by the nine partner public school districts. They will experience a variety of learning opportunities alongside a trained and experienced mentor teacher. Nsu's college of education will lead the mentoring program as an extension of their supervision of the clinical residency component of the program. Clip residents will receive content expertise in stem teaching techniques by nsu's computer information systems department ensuring they will possess the content knowledge to implement stem lessons using the latest technology in their classrooms. Upon completion of the program, graduates will be placed in clip-participating schools and will receive two years of induction support with sustained coaching and professional development delivered by clip partner urban learning and leadership center. Clip will identify, select, train and support highly effective school-based coaches that will carry out the rigorous induction process. Clip graduates are expected to be retained in central louisiana high-needs schools for at least three years as part of the clip agreement. Evalworks, another clip partner, will provide an independent evaluation of the program to ensure project goals and objectives are being met.”

“The process has not changed from the prior year.”