In a time of unprecedented cuts to K-12 education, Durango School District 9-R announced that it would be adding money to its coffers for a change with a $200,000 donation from the Marc and Jane Katz Family Fund. The district will receive $175,000, and the Durango Foundation for Educational Excellence will receive $25,000.

The money will allow the district to expand or speed up several projects, including concurrent enrollment and a school-based health center at Florida Mesa Elementary School, said district Superintendent Keith Owen.

“It’s really helping us to accomplish some key initiatives we would have struggled to do otherwise,” Owen said.

The district has been working for several years to establish a school-based health center at Florida Mesa Elementary, Owen said. With the money, the district will be able to open the center next fall, he said.

The money also will allow the district to cover tuition and transportation costs for more students to take classes at Southwest Colorado Community College or Fort Lewis College, Owen said.

At Durango High School, the money will be used to support teacher training as the school moves to change and reorganize its small learning communities. The new small learning communities will be implemented in the fall of 2012.

Band and music programs throughout the district will benefit from the money as well.

The $25,000 donated to the Durango Foundation for Educational Excellence will be funneled directly to schools for programs aimed at enhancing reading and writing instruction and intervention, said Bitten Skartvedt, the foundation’s director. The foundation’s goal was to give more than $50,000 in grants to support such programs in district schools next year, Skartvedt said.

Marc Katz, co-founder of Mercury Payment Systems, said the goal of the donation to the district and the foundation is to help support interesting and experimental programs that are at risk of being cut during tight financial times.

“I’m trying to buffer some of the effects of cuts in budgets at the school,” Katz said.

Last year, the Marc and Jane Katz Family Fund gave about $100,000 to the district to support the mill-levy override campaign and concurrent enrollment, Owen said.

“The Katz foundation has given tremendous support to the district in two of the most difficult years the district has faced,” he said.

ecowan@durangoherald.com