Mangiante steps down as PEP director after 15 years
Over the past 15 years, Public Education Partners has facilitated or provided the Aiken County School District with a long list of grants and related services totalling about $4 million.
The one constant during that period has been the education foundation's executive director, Diane Mangiante, who announced late last week that she will step down July 31.
"I've been thinking about this for the last couple of years," Mangiante said in an interview. "It's just time to try something new, whatever that is. It's really the perfect time. We've got a dynamite board, and PEP is well-known and esteemed in the community."
Over the years, PEP has spearheaded the introduction of career-oriented synergistic computer labs for middle schools, "Great Ideas" grants for teachers, a strings orchestra program that has spread to several schools, a supplemental literacy program and a major laptop purchase for Midland Valley High School.
The organization sponsors the school district's annual teacher of the year banquet and, in recent years, took over coordination of the Summer Institute, a program that has provided social service resource information to 500 teachers over the past decade.
Throughout her tenure, Mangiante has often deflected her own role with PEP, pointing to the efforts of business people, professionals, educators and others who have served on the board. Past PEP president Chris Verenes said those people may have helped, but Mangiante provided the essential leadership and the work behind the scenes that got things done.
"Diane has elevated the cause of public education with class and dignity," Verenes said. "She is unselfish in ways people will never know about in her service to PEP. She left it all on the field. Diane is a special person, and the community is better off through her efforts."
PEP was originally known as the Greater Aiken Local Education Foundation (GALEF), an organization that came out of the Aiken 20-20 strategic planning efforts of the mid-1990s. At that time, GALEF served only the Area 1 schools in Aiken and neighboring subdivisions. In 2000 the board agreed to begin serving the entire county and school district and changed the foundation's name.
When Mangiante reviewed the minutes of the early meetings in 1995, she was surprised by how closely the founders' original mission has been preserved.
"They saw it as building collaborations, leveraging local dollars of foundations and other sources and being a catalyst for innovation," Mangiante said. "They were visionary, and the board has been amazingly steady as to where they saw the organization going."
Corporate donors have been the glue that has held PEP together, she said, as they and business people who started and have continued with the organization see it as an important economic development tool. A total of 500 donors over the years have contributed to PEP's projects - also including civic groups, foundations, small businesses and individuals.
A local education foundation like PEP, however, will not have an impact unless it shares a good relationship with the school district, Mangiante said.
"Everybody with the district has been a great partner to work with," she said. "(Superintendent) Beth Everitt came here with experiences with an LEF (local education foundation) and knew what it could do."
Mangiante's leadership, said Everitt in a telephone interview, has helped PEP become the kind of organization that any school district would be pleased to have. The synergistic labs and the Great Ideas grants, the superintendent said, are just two of the valued, long-term efforts of PEP.
"Diane has supported public education with so much forward thinking, working with businesses and connecting them to other businesses," said Everitt. "She is such an asset and a wonderful friend, and I hope she stays involved with the schools."
Last March, the Aiken Board of Education members - citing dire facility needs in the district - agreed to call for a $236 million bond referendum. If successful, the bond issue would result in the construction of several new and renovated schools.
By state law, the board members could not actively campaign in direct support of the referendum. A grassroots organization needed to be formed, and PEP took a leadership role in establishing a steering committee to guide the campaign. In May, the referendum was soundly defeated but not before some opponents criticized PEP for taking what they termed a political stance on the referendum.
Mangiante has not apologized that she and board members readily agreed to get involved.
"We were active in a positive way," she said. "It would have been inappropriate not to do it. People don't know that advocacy is a key part of what LEFs do. Our board members are solid, conservative citizens who are parents and grandparents. They felt strongly about this. It was the right thing to do."
Advocacy has been a part of PEP since the early days of GALEF. At that time, the board and Mangiante were asked to pursue five strategic efforts - technology improvements, increasing reading success, programs for at-risk students, improving science and math achievement and introducing programs for special needs students.
"This was an opportunity to get involved on the ground floor with a new endeavor," Mangiante said. "I thought I could really have a positive impact on the community. Education is near and dear to me, the key to every single success in life."
About 10 years ago, the PEP board instituted the teacher grants - giving teacher recipients the opportunity to provide equipment or materials to promote math, science and critical thinking skills. Today a grant application is chosen and advertised, and donors are invited to contribute to the project.
The Great Leaps program started about two years later. Mangiante worked with reading specialist Ann Whitten - now in private practice - to train educators, staffers and parents to work with struggling readers for 10 minutes a day.
When the original sponsor of the Summer Institute program could not continue, PEP stepped in. Assistant Director Natalie Fox has coordinated the program for several years.
Each year 50 educators hear presentations from social service agency representatives - learning how to identify problems their students may be facing and the resources that could help them and their families. Invariably, many teachers often describe Summer Institute as the best professional development they have ever experienced.
Fifteen years ago, Mangiante was told the school district needed orchestra opportunities in schools along with band. She knew it would be a challenge and about eight years went by before an opportunity emerged.
In 2003 Mangiante had written a grant for a new Aiken Regional Chamber Orchestra. That provided the catalyst a few years later.
Schofield Middle School teacher David Culp had begun teaching an after-school strings program. He wanted to make the program an actual class during the school day and approached PEP about it. The organization helped the school make that happen.
Today with the help of grants, strings programs are located at Aiken High and five middle schools. The students participated in an All-County Orchestra program last spring, coordinated by PEP.
The education foundation also led the effort to bring in synergistic computer labs, the first one at LBC Middle School. Each lab utilizes career exploration-oriented software modules, providing interactive projects and experiments related to the school district's career clusters.
Mangiante obtained grants and donations and, with the financial and technical support of the school district, brought the number of middle schools served to four. The district then used federal stimulus funds last year to provide the labs at two more schools.
Perhaps the most startling accomplishment was a laptop project at Midland Valley in 2008-09. The school had been targeted for its high dropout rate at the time and was starting a freshman academy in January 2008.
Mangiante coordinated a grant application that resulted in the school providing loaned laptops to freshmen over two years. The teachers of those students also got them as a way to promote interactive learning, research and academic communication away from school. The grant total approached $2 million.
As she prepares to leave, Mangiante said the PEP board started thinking about a transition plan several years ago. Fox was brought in as a program manager and is now a strong assistant director, said Mangiante. With Fox's knowledge, a strong board and other resources, "It's time to pass the torch," Mangiante said.
PEP will formally celebrate its 15th anniversary with a program in the Alley in downtown Aiken on Aug. 9 at 11:30 a.m.
The foundation will host the Teacher of the Year banquet in September and, in October, will host a forum for School Board candidates running for five district seats.
In recent years, Mangiante and Fox have begun setting up targeted endowments.
"We want to keep building these long-term endowments to improve and support education," said Mangiante.
Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.