This is a press release courtesy of Nike, Inc.

Nike Vice President and General Manager for the USA, Craig Cheek, has announced a $400,000 Innovation Grant to Beaverton School District from the newly-created Nike School Innovation Fund (NSIF).

NSIF is a five-year, $9 million commitment to supporting innovation in public schools that is focused on Portland, Hillsboro, and Beaverton school districts. The Fund was announced in January of this year by Nike CEO, Mark Parker.

Cheek was joined at the announcement by Beaverton Superintendent of Schools, Jerome Colonna, whose district will receive a $400,000 innovation grant to help pay for development of leadership skills among principals, administrators and teacher leaders, and a Kindergarten Summer School. The Beaverton Education Foundation (BEF) will be a partner in the NSIF grants, and leaders of BEF were at the announcement.  

As a large employer in the Beaverton School District, Nike and its employees have many formal and informal relationships with Beaverton schools.  Each year Nike pays approximately $2 million in property taxes to the Beaverton School District to support local schools. Nike also has about 1,800 employees living in the school district -- many of whom volunteer in Beaverton schools.  

“Nike is committed to keeping our community a great place to live and work,” said Cheek. “Our schools are the cornerstone of a strong community, and this grant will help Beaverton Schools develop leaders and provide their youngest, most at-risk students with additional summer support so they are ready to succeed in kindergarten,” said Cheek. In addition to the funding, Nike leaders will lend their time and expertise to assist school and district leaders with leadership, coaching and training as requested by school leaders.

“Helping an increasingly diverse student body succeed and reach their potential is a tremendous and inspiring challenge,” said Colonna. “To meet that challenge, we need leadership and innovation in our schools and the commitment of the whole community. That’s what Nike’s grant will help deliver.”

Specifically, the Innovation Grants will fund:

Leadership Academy: $350,000

•    This initiative will create three programs to provide leadership development of master teachers, aspiring principals/administrators and support for new principals.


Teacher Leader Program

•    Selected teachers will participate in a year-long course of professional development to create a network of expert peer mentors and coaches who will help maximize teacher effectiveness and impact achievement for all students.

Aspiring Principals/Administrator Program

•    With a focus on increasing diversity among district principals/administrators, selected teachers will participate in a two-year program of in-depth mentoring and interactive training to prepare them for transformational leadership in Beaverton schools.

First Years Support Program

•    New principals/administrators will receive one-on-one coaching, monthly leadership development workshops and technical assistance to build school cultures of high learning engagement and student achievement.

Kindergarten Summer School: $50,000

•    This initiative will create a Kindergarten Summer School that will prepare hundreds of incoming, at-risk kindergarten students for academic success in their first year of school by providing them with intensive intervention in the critical reading, writing and math skills. This program was inspired by a Beaverton Education Foundation award that enabled the 2006 piloting of a summer school for at-risk incoming kindergartners.  With the Nike grant, five more Kindergarten Summer School sites will be opened and hundreds of children will have the opportunity to enter Kindergarten with a higher readiness to succeed in school. 

The Nike School Innovation Fund is affiliated with the Portland Business Alliance Charitable Institute.