USD 333

Concordia Education Fund

Be a part of the pride!

The USD 333 Concordia Education Fund (CEF) provides an opportunity to directly support Concordia Public Schools through your contributions which will impact our district families through educational opportunities from birth through senior year.

Our goals can only be accomplished with the support of alumni, district staff, business owners, and community members. We hope you will consider a tax deductible contribution which can make a difference in the education of our students and support for our hard-working staff.

All donations to CEF are tax deductible. The fund is held at the Community Foundation for Cloud County, an affiliate of the Greater Salina Community Foundation, which is a qualified section 501(c)(3) organization.

Make an impact and contribute to the USD 333 Concordia Education Fund:

Click Here

Concordia Panther Pride!

What do we do?

Accept tax-deductible gifts and contributions to provide educational opportunities for our students. Donations received since Oct 2022:
1. 1. - $271,594

Submit proposals for grant funding to be used for classrooms, facility improvements, and community partnerships. Unfortunately, not all proposals are accepted, but the process gives us an opportunity to plan and process ideas for the future.
Total grant funds received since October 2022:
- - - $1,120,445
Grants received in 2025-26
- - $8,200 Cloud County Wind Farm grant for 2nd grade books (Panther Paw-some Readers)
  - $156,240 federal ESEA School Improvement for CMS Instructional Coaching, professional development, and tutoring
  - $7,200 Community Foundation for Cloud County for Vision Screener
  - $1,000 Community Foundation for Cloud County for Ameritowne Financial Literacy
  - $6,210 matching funds from Community Foundation for Cloud County Match Month
Grants received in 2024-2025:
- - $12,500 from Dane G Hansen Foundation for CJSHS band instruments.
  - Up to $12,000 from Kansas Bureau of Transportation for Driver's Education summer courses.
  - $5,000 from Cloud County Wind Farm funds for 1st grade books. (Panther Paw-Some Readers)
  - $3,400 from Community Foundation of Cloud for Summer Concordia Afterschool Program (CAP) to provide enrichment activities and field trips.
  - $136,616 from School Improvement 1003(a) for CMS Student Support Services and Professional Development.
  - $4,600 from Community Foundation of Cloud for kindergarten books. (Panther Paw-Some Readers)
  - $2,000 from Blue Cross/Blue Shield for Healthy Habits grant.
  - $200 from DonorsChoose for CMS art classroom.
  - $505 from DonorsChoose for preschool technology.
  - $444 from DonorsChoose for kindergarten classroom.
Grants received in 2023-2024:
- - $2,700 Community Foundation of Cloud for Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge
  - $5,000 Community Foundation of Cloud for CMS outdoor multipurpose field
  - $5,000 Community Foundation of Cloud for Preschool resources
  - $2,000 Child Care Aware for Early Child Care Coalition Building
  - $71,960 Child Care Aware for Early Child Care Capacity
  - $132,825 Patterson Family Foundation for Rural Educator Development
  - $93,880 Patterson Family Foundation for Career & Technical Education
  - $27,445 Patterson Family Foundation for Rural District Child Care
  - $263,490 KSDE Stronger Connections Bipartisan Safer Communities Act for Student Mental Health and School Within a School
  - $2,816 from Kansas Gas Service for a large format printer
  - $1,400 from Community Foundation of Cloud for the "CMS Panther Den"
  - $113,966 KSDE ESEA School Improvement Section 1003(a) for an Instructional Coach, Paraprofessional, and training to provide evidence-based instructional lessons for educators and students.
  - $5,000 from Cloud County Wind Farm funds for CMS outdoor multipurpose field
Grants received in 2022:
- - - $2,115 Hansen Foundation Grant for Group Daycare Home

Sponsor fundraising events to raise money for classroom resources.

USD 333 Mission

To create and maintain an environment that ensures:

Engaged Learning, Effective Teaching, and Trusting Relationships

so that all members of the school community reach their highest level of academic achievement.

We Believe:

All students must have access to resources that maximize their potential for post-secondary success.
Education is not an outcome, but a process. Students, parents, community, and the district have a shared responsibility in the educational process.
The district must provide a safe, nurturing learning environment to educate the student not only academically, but also physically, socially, and emotionally.
We must continue to develop and retain and recruit committed and effective staff for our educational system.
Effective partnerships with Cloud County Community College is crucial in our effectiveness as an educational pipeline in this community.

2025 Grants Provide Healthy Snacks and Student Resources

A Blue Cross/Blue Shield Healthy Habits grant provides snacks for CES, CMS, and CJSHS when students visit the nurse or counseling office.

A grant from the Community Foundation for Cloud County supplies sets of books for students to practice reading at home with their families specific to their reading skills.

A grant from the Cloud County Wind Farm fund allows students to read books specific to their skill level at school and at home with family members.

Educators Continue Higher Learning with a Patterson Foundation Educator Grant

Haley Budke earned her Business Education certification and we are happy to have her return to Concordia to teach!

Chrissy Henderson, formerly our JAG Instructor, is earning her education credentials and teaches English and Yearbook. She is an asset to our schools!

Joy Traughber brings an excitement of reading to our elementary students using classroom and small group instruction with our Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

USD 333 received more contributions than all other organizations during Match Month with a new program “Recruit. Retain. Rise," an initiative to empower future teachers to complete their college degree, and elevate education for our students.

With the “Recruit. Retain. Rise” initiative, future teachers will have an opportunity to apply for a loan forgiveness program from the USD 333 Endowed Fund.

Thank you donors for growing our USD 333 Endowed Account with $11,240 in contributions and $6,210 of matching funds for a total of $17,450.

New Chess Team Clocks

Students at CJSHS obtain critical thinking skills while honing their chess gaming skills. New timing clocks were purchased with donor contributions to the USD 333 Education Fund. The Chess Club is sponsored by teachers Zac Morris and Melissae Stiles.

Concordia Junior High students are excited

to receive their new chess timing clocks

Preschool Children Learn with Little Hands and New Technology

Pure joy! These are the words I would use to describe the students' feelings when using new iPads contributed with USD 333 Education Fund donations and DonorsChoose. A specific student's face brightened when she listened to a book read to her in Spanish. Another student with fine motor delays practiced the correct way to form the letters in his name by using his finger as a "pen." He needed additional exercises to form his letters, and now this student can correctly write the first letter of his name.

With meeting our technology standards for preschool, we use the tecnology to "adapt, create and personalize learning experiences that foster independent learning and accommodate learning differences and needs" per the Kansas standards. The iPads support and help us to reach this standard, as well as others.

Thank you for the generous donations!

Charity Brown, USD 333 Preschool Teacher

USD 333 Classrooms Receive Gifts from Education Fund Donor Contributions

CES receives literacy materials for the Title and MTSS classroom

Activities and Athletics tablecloths with the Panther logo promote our schools and student signing events.

CES First graders are excited to have new STEM activities and games for their classrooms.

CMS teachers have a new standing desk for each classroom and compound microscopes for Science lessons.

CMS completes new outdoor

recreation field for students

The USD 333 Concordia Education Fund helped to give our kids the gift of health and happiness! Contributions from Dan and Shelly Farha, the Class of 1969 alumni, and the Concordia Lutheran Church Foundation helped to complete the CMS outdoor multi-use recreational field which will benefit our community all year long. The physical activity area is available on a daily basis to about 200 middle school students, and an additional 90-100 students attending the Concordia Afterschool Program (CAP).

USD 333 and the Concordia Education Fund already received $63,000 in federal funds, a $5,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Cloud County, and a $5,000 grant from the Cloud County Wind Farms for this project. USD 333 board of education members voted to pay the remaining funds at the August 2024 board meeting for the outdoor recreation field which had a total cost of $168,420.

Superintendent Quentin Breese and CMS Principal Curtis Noon are ready to meet with contractors after completion of the recreation field.

CMS students are enjoying use of the field for many activities.

Amy Dannenberg's kindergarten class receives new reading circle rug from DonorsChoose

Kansas Gas Service Contributes Printer through DonorsChoose Grant

With a grant from Kansas Gas Service, students are able to create and print large format flyers and other media.

The grant-funded large format printer will enable USD 333 to print many of our own promotional flyers in-house for upcoming activities and events. This also provides an opportunity for students to learn on equipment standard with the industry.

Community Foundation for Cloud County Supports Academic, Social, and Emotional Growth

The Concordia Middle School (CMS) 5th and 6th grade “Panther Den” is a new space where students can refocus for more academic success. Our team of counselors, nurses, and social workers have always recognized the importance of emotional well-being in our students’ overall development. Now, research shows that having a specifically designed space will help our students to manage stress, anxiety, or anger.

The new Panther Den is beneficial for student emotional regulation, which in turn allows for the mind to focus and more learning to occur. The contribution from the Community Foundation for Cloud County helped us to complete our space and promote student success!

Students can use The CMS Panther Den to study in a quiet space.

Students gain focus so they can return to learning in the classroom.

Con Tech has been a long-time supporter of Concordia High School Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs even before the company existed. Alstom Power and Arvos provided welding booths to CHS in the past.

The recent addition of a CNC plasma cutter (funded by the Patterson Foundation) will better prepare students for work in regional industries such as Con Tech.

CHS manufacturing instructor, Dan Hyman, says USD 333 is fortunate to have the support of Con Tech, along with other local industries. Con Tech donated these welders, and often donates scrap metal to the CHS program, while providing many other levels of support for welding and other manufacturing courses.

Patterson Family Foundation CTE Grant Prepares Students for the Workforce

USD 333 students will be better prepared for the regional workforce because of the Patterson Family Foundation CTE grant awarded in August 2023. The grant provided for Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum, tools, and equipment to USD 333 classrooms.

USD 333 CTE programs must consistently update for modernization in the workforce. This grant has even extended partnerships with local business and industry, as it has raised the awareness of needs for updated resources and equipment, and generated new contributions to our district’s CTE programs.

The Patterson CTE grant provided $93,880 for these resources and equipment:

Agriculture

● zSpace Virtual Reality (Science, CanineTraining)

● Agriculture curriculum

Business Finance

● Accounting, Personal Finance, and Entrepreneurship curriculum

Construction & Design

● zSpace Virtual Reality (Construction)

● Construction and Heavy Construction curriculum

Digital Media

● Canon digital cameras and media cards

Health Sciences

● zSpace Virtual Reality (Health Science)

Manufacturing pathway

● Machitech 5 ft x 10 ft CNC Plasma Cutting System

● Automotive and Diesel curriculum

Restaurant and Event Management

● Culinary Arts - mis en place prep table

A digital media student uses a new Canon camera for print media.

Students in Culinary Arts utilize the new mise en place prep table.

The new CNC Plasma system meets the industry standard, which benefits students and our workforce region.

A student views bone, tissue, and organ systems with new zSpace virtual reality software.

Plasma Cutter Finished.mp4

CNC Plasma Cutter

Students learn skills in manufacturing that can help local business promotion and are common to our industries in North Central Kansas.

Community Foundation for Cloud County Provides Preschool Education Grant

Community Foundation for Cloud County Provides Early Childcare Education Grant.

Superintendent Quentin Breese delivers resources to area preschools on behalf of a Community Foundation for Cloud County grant.

Preschool educators with USD 333 selected resources to provide area preschools. The supplies are designed to develop childhood skills in a fun learning environment.

Preschool educators with Bright Beginning Preschool show off their new resources.

Cloud County Community College Early Childhood Center hosted the meeting and a tour of their facility.

Class of 1978 Contributes New Benches for Concordia Middle School Renovation

The USD 333 Class of 1978 contributed funds to purchase two new benches for the newly renovated Concordia Middle School

Students can join their friends on two new benches donated by alumni of The Class of 1978

Trost Family donates materials for CHS Classrooms

The family of Sherry Trost donated a Bernina sewing machine to the Concordia JR/SR High School Family & Consumer Science program.

Randy Trost with a student

Our students benefit from contributions from the community. Thank you Trost family!

Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge

Hosted by CloudCorp with grant funding provided by the Concordia Education Fund

2022 Donation by Foley Equipment for CTE Power, Structural and Tech Systems pathway

We are always happy to receive contributions from our partners in the community!

2022 Donation by Prairieland Electric for CTE Manufacturing pathway