Coralwood School and Diagnostic Center
Parent Council

Foundation..

Introduction | Mission | Non-Profit Status | Endowment Fund | Board of Directors | Current Committees & Projects | Higher Opportunities for Teachers | Public Relations and Fundraising | Additional Projects | How You Can Help

Board Directors..

The Coralwood Foundation board’s job is to promote and implement its mission, and provide oversight of everything it undertakes to ensure it corresponds with the organization’s goals. Coralwood Foundation’s board also has fiduciary responsibility over the organization’s endowment, ensuring it is invested following its own guidelines. Coralwood Foundation has a conflict of interst policy included in its founding charter that board members need to comply with.

Our founding documents specify in general terms what to look for in selecting board members, and some basic rules regulating the composition of the board. The intention is to promote excellence and diversity of views and talents within the Board:

“Members of the Board of Directors shall be at least eighteen (18) years old and may reside within or without the State of Georgia at the time of their election. Each member of the Board of Directors should provide the Corporation clear direction, access to resources and credibility in the community and therefore must possess a wide range of insights, expertise and experiences. These include, without limitation, legal and accounting skills, media relation skills, specialized knowledge of the field of education and the special needs community, as well as knowledge of local and national donor institutions that support these areas of education. The Board members should also ensure representation of the communities that the Corporation serves through Coralwood School, mainly Coralwood teachers and school leadership, parents and their children, the community of DeKalb County from which Coralwood School draws its attendance, and the wider education community that Coralwood School intends to contribute to with its models of best practice. Additionally, one seat on the Board of Directors shall always be filled by the Principal of Coralwood School (or his or her designee), and one seat shall always be filled by the President of the Coralwood Parents Council (or his or her designee).”

Board membership is not for life. Coralwood Foundation seek to balance continuity with a fresh flow of ideas. To achieve this, the founding documents specify that board appointments are offered for two years, with the possibility of renewal for those who want to serve longer. This ensures continuity. At the same time, every year half of the board positions are open for renewal, thus ensuring a good flow of new ideas and energy.

Over the summer 2007 the Coralwood School community solicited nominations to Board positions. We were able to assemble a very talented first Board of Directors:

  1. Brenda Alexander, Advocate for children with autism
  2. Rebecca Blanton, Principal, Coralwood School
  3. Holly Adams
  4. Nancy Gore
  5. Janet Haury, Co-President, Coralwood Parent Council
  6. Richard Haury, URS Corp. Senior Consultant
  7. Phyllis Isenberg, Retired – Special Education in DeKalb County Lead Teacher for Special Education
  8. Mary Kay Moore, Coralwood School and Diagnostic Center Teacher, Kindergarten
  9. Elizabeth Rokholm, Director BellSouth
  10. Alexa Ross, Alexa R. Ross & Associates LLC Partner -- Of Counsel to Fain, Major & Brennan, P.C.
  11. Paula Swartzberg, Grants Coordinator, DeKalb County School System Department of Research and Evaluation
  12. Alejandro Walters, President, Austral Wine Merchants
  13. Catherine Buckley
  14. Douglas Connell, Program Manager/Americas Region UPS Supply Chain Solutions
  15. Bill Garrett, Saint Joseph’s Health System President/Saint Joseph’s Mercy Foundation
  16. Joanie Gross, Co-President – Coralwood Parent Council
  17. Wendy Hensel, Georgia State University College of Law Associate Professor of Law
  18. Valerie Harrison
  19. Gretchen Pawloski, GTP Enterprise
  20. Laura Spier