Neighborhood Storage, which opened in 1979, heard of the plight. The company not only paid $500 to its partner, South Ocala Elementary School, but also gave an additional $3,500 to be split among seven schools that did not have a business partner.
The money helped pay for breakfast, lunch and/or other activities that the school had planned for its teachers.
Those schools were: North Marion High, Horizon Academy and five elementary schools: Emerald Shores, Greenway Elementary, Harbour View, Legacy Elementary and Ocala Springs. The money is paid through the Public Education Foundation of Marion County. Business Partnerships play a vital role in supporting schools, said Meghan Magamoll, the foundation s executive director, in a text interview. During this past Teacher Appreciation Week, Neighborhood Storage stepped up to the plate and provided funding to all seven of the schools without their own partners.
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Judi Zanetti – a teacher turned school board member turned education champion –officially retired on Friday after serving the past eight years as executive director of the Public Education Foundation of Marion County.
Zanetti, 53, retired to spend time with her husband, Gene, a retired optometrist. Zanetti hands over the reins to 16-year veteran foundation employee Meghan Magamoll.
The foundation raises money to support supplemental education programs that benefit school district students and teachers.
Zanetti, the foundation’s executive officer since 2012, was a school board member from 2004-12. Between 1990 and 2004, Zanetti spent seven years as a kindergarten teacher in the district.
As a board member, Zanetti teamed up with then-Osceola Middle School teacher David Steffey, who is now a dean of discipline at Oakcrest Elementary, in 2009 to create the Tools 4 Teaching school supply store with unused 2008 campaign funds.