As chairman of the board of the Maclellan Foundation, I’m writing to offer additional clarity on this statement printed Tuesday in Meghan Mangrum’s article: “UnifiEd, which launched in 2014 with backing from the Benwood, Footprint, and Maclellan foundations, … .”
While we did give a one-time grant to launch a project titled “City-wide Report Card on Literacy,” it was not a grant to launch UnifiEd as an organization. At that time, we, and the other foundations in town, were spending more than a million dollars to promote a third-grade literacy initiative within HCDE. The grant was given to establish and manage an instrument to track our progress as a community.
Since that initial project grant, the Maclellan Foundation has not funded UnifiEd, which has become increasingly political, and its ideas about what is best for Hamilton County Schools are at odds with our foundation’s understanding of the best course forward.
We support our community’s schools, teachers, and students, and will continue to invest in solutions that prepare Chattanooga’s children for future success. We do not believe UnifiEd’s APEX plan to be a part of that future.
Robert H. “Scott” Maclellan, chairman