In 2023, Indian River County Commission Approved an Additional $425,000 to a Non-Profit Showing Income of $19.849 Million.

The Learning Alliance reported total revenues of $23.716 Million in Feb. 2023 and once funded puppet travel to California with IRC tax dollars.

Through a public records request, The Sunshine Journal has learned that the County Board of Commissioners approved in June an additional $425,000 of grant money to a non-profit that had income after expenses of $19,849,519.16 for the fiscal reporting year of March 2022 to February 2023. 

The non-governmental organization (NGO) that received grant approval, even in the light of their reported largesse, is The Learning Alliance, an education non-profit focused on literacy for pre-K to third grade. Their primary work is done at the School District of Indian River County (SDIRC). In May, IRC County Commissioners delayed the vote doubling the funding of CSAC in 2023 to tighten the review of non-profit applications seeking tax payer dollars. 

As a requirement to receive taxpayer funds, The Learning Alliance submits  an annual application for grants to the Children Services Advisory Committee (CSAC). According to public records, The Learning Alliance requested $630,000 for the 2023-2024 year. Included in their application is a list of what programs for each grant and the amounts requested, a profit and loss statement, or “financials” for the previous year, including a complete IRS 990 filed return, as well as other supporting documentation.

For example, The Learning Alliance 2023-2024 application includes a $35,000 request to fund “The Moonshot Reading Rocket” which, according to the program description, “is a mobile literacy vehicle creating customized enriched experiences for children and families in Indian River County.” The previous year, the Moonshot Reading Rocket mobile literacy vehicle was approved for that same amount with prior years beginning in 2019-2020 at $40,000 annually. 

Indian River County residents may, or may not, recognize the big blue bus with a yellow rocket on its roof. In the last two reported years it averaged about 30 events annually. Prior to 2019, the vehicle and its programs were privately funded through the charity.

In 2021-2022 the “Moonshot Reading Rocket” request for tax payer dollars also funded two trips to promote puppets, Moonshot and Gloria, at educational conferences in Orlando and San Diego, CA. According to the “Moonshot Reading Rocket CSAC 2nd Quarter” report, two Learning Alliance staff, “Bridget [Lyons] and Debbi Arseneaux presented at the 2022 Deeper Learning conference in San Diego, sharing the power of puppetry in education and social-emotional learning…” This exactly described presentation was done at the Beyond School Hours conference in Orlando that same quarter. 

The Moonshot Reading Rocket 2nd Quarter report which covered from 12/30/21 to 03/30/22 also mentioned the NGO’s collaboration “with IRC Healthy Start and LaDonna Corbin to produce Moonshot & Friends Storytime videos.” A former candidate for the SDIRC board for district #2, Corbin launched her campaign during that quarter on January 25, 2022 according to the Supervisor of Elections.  School Board member, Brian Barefoot actively campaigned for Corbin and against her opponents, most notably, Jacqueline Rosario. Of all the CSAC affiliated non-profits, only The Learning Alliance was permitted to put their marketing materials on government buildings during an election year.

On November 13 at the SDIRC Superintendent Workshop, Dr. Moore commented during the discussion regarding the new SDIRC charitable foundation that was being put forth by his executive team. During the discussion, he mentioned about cutting the “double dipping” where NGO’s that work with the school system, get funds from CSAC as SDIRC invoices them. The Learning Alliance uses tax payer dollars to partially fund an employee hired by SDIRC known as the Intervention Prevention Specialist. According to the SDIRC’s own financial report, it already oversees $386,000,000.00 budget which is used to instruct its 17,197 students in reading, writing and arithmetic. 

For islanders who have returned this season, The Learning Alliance held a party for prospective and regular donors at the John’s Island Club where Chairman of the Board, Ray Oglethorpe, addressed those in attendance. He said, “We have gone all the way from 31st in 2019 to seventh in the State of Florida. Twenty-four positions in four years. If that doesn’t get your heart going that your generosity is making a big difference, nothing else will.” 

Oglethorpe was referring to the coveted ‘reading at grade level or better,’ for English Language Arts (ELA) assessment for 3rd grade students. The Learning Alliance's website landing page has a  predominantly placed billboard promoting this gain in state rankings. According to the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE), ELA assessments show that ranking actually means 60% of third graders are reading at grade level or better, where as, the state average is 50%.

Since 2018-19, third grade students have reached ELA assessments of exactly 60% three times with a slight dip in 2021-22 to 58%. The COVID year, 2019-20, was not measured. Regarding ELA assessment scores, academically, SDIRC third graders have not advanced in the last four years

Furthermore, by middle school all of those gains are erased. The FLDOE reports from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022 show ELA  at 52% in sixth grade. However, in 2022-2023, SDIRC ELA assessment measured 45% in sixth grade, a drop of 7 points.  The sixth grade state average for this year is 47%. 

At the high school level, SDIRC is 50%, and the average for the state ELA is 49% at grade level for 2022-2023. Last year, it was reversed between state (50%) and county (49%). Over two years SDIRC is exactly average at 49.5% reading at grade level or better, but has a 96% graduation rate.

What does this mean? Perhaps SDIRC has grown in state rankings because, overall, the state has declined. Meanwhile, the taxpayer is paying into a charity that has no problem raising more than enough dollars from the private sector to maintain results of 60% . 

On their website is the The Learning Alliance’s current annual report. Listed is the “Moonshot Milestone Society” which contains 8 couples who have given more than $1 million or more of cumulative giving. There are 32 “Founder” donors that have given $150,000 in three years. There are the Visionaries at $250,000. Then there are the Leaders who have given between $100,000 to $249,000 followed by 3 pages of lesser donor levels.

Under the subheading, “Organization,” the taxpayer known as the IRC Children Services Advisory Council is listed as a Milestone Society member, a Founder and a Leader. According to CSAC records, the taxpayers have donated $2,039,596.00 since 2013-2014.