Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

The Bartlesville Public Schools Foundation celebrated its 35th anniversary in September, and leaders from the past are proud of the direction the Foundation has taken since its inception.

Nancy Grigsby, the founding President of the BPS Foundation, said the organization continues to fulfill its mission to advance quality education in Bartlesville Public Schools. Grigsby said the Foundation has a phenomenal director in Blair Ellis and a solid group of people around her to keep the group alive. She said the BPS Foundation is a treasure for the Bartlesville community as it would be for any community in the state and the nation.

Today, Grigsby lives close to her family in Austin, Texas. Grigsby said she is proud of the State of Oklahoma for its desire to improve education. She said she believes the state has created somewhere up to 200 Public Schools Foundations, which is wonderful music to her ears.

Growing up, Grigsby and her husband went to school in Tulsa. Grigsby said public education was terrific then as they had access to the very best material. She said she would eventually get married and move to Bryan, Texas with her husband and children.

From there, Grigsby and her family moved back to Oklahoma and lived in Bartlesville. Grigsby said this is when she got very involved in the movement for Public School Foundations. She said she worked for a time with the State Department of Education where her full-time job was to travel around through the state and help communities get their Foundation started and become 501(c)(3) organizations. 

Grigsby found that they didn't have to sell education to the communities they visited. Grigsby said everyone they came across was for doing something very great. She said they were above the nickel and diming they had been involved in for many years.

Seven of Grigsby's children went through the public schools system. Grigsby said it was easy for her to stay active and involved in many school activities and organizations because her children were in school. She said she found out through the years that there was such a difficulty to try to get enough money to really help teachers through their plight.

The BPS Foundation effort was startlingly new and desirable at the time it was created in Bartlesville in 1985. Grigsby said it was a treasure to her meaning it was the most outstanding thing that they could do at the time in getting some significant funding. She said she felt very strongly about continuing to lay a foundation for the particular groups to go ahead and flourish during the following years.

The key to the whole BPS Foundation movement from Grisby's perspective was the endowment concept. Grigsby said they could easily raise more monies with people knowing their donations would be in perpetuity and that it would benefit Bartlesville Public Schools long after they were gone. She said she cannot recall ever feeling anything but success with the movement.

The Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence just celebrated its 35th Anniversary as well, and Grigsby celebrate the occasion via Zoom. Grigsby said Oklahoma still has a thriving interest in keeping the whole scenario with education in play. She said if we are going to see education thrive, we all are going to have to dedicate time, effort and interest into it.

In her opinion, Grigsby said the community can be the best it can be when we first look at the community's education system. Grigsby said her hope is that everyone will continue to see the value of education and see how everything comes together beautifully when communities work together on behalf of public education.

Grigsby said it was an honor and a privilege to be a part of the Public School Foundation movement. Grigsby said she was in the right place at the right time. She thanked with her whole heart everyone that has been involved in the effort.

It's never just one person that makes something possible. Grigsby said it takes a village to make something like the BPS Foundation work. She said Bartlesville is indeed one of those villages that helped the movement come to pass.

Grisby spent three year on the BPS Foundation before moving to Coralville, Iowa to retire.

Founding BPS Foundation Member Sigrid Williams said the organization has stayed true to the mission they set out to fulfill 35 years ago. Williams said they wanted to enrich the lives of teachers and students.Williams said it took commitment and time to get the Foundation up and running. She said they couldn't have done it without the leadership of Grigsby.

Williams said she would encourage teachers to continue to help students find their passion. She said teachers should visit with the BPS Foundation if a need or an idea arises that would encourage advanced learning and a quality education.

More on the 35 Anniversary of the BPS Foundation can be found here.