The Foundation for Excellence in Public Education collection

This collection contains records, correspondence, speech drafts, photographs, clippings, and ephemera. This entire collection originally came in the form of five three-ring binders. The titles of the folders in the first-second series come directly from the titles on those original binders: Excellence in Teaching Awards and Service and Leadership Awards; Classroom Grants and Scholarships; Memorabilia 1983-1995; and Memorabilia 1996-2006. The first binder was left as is, constituting the third series of the final collection. Its organization mostly corresponds to the tab labels created by its original compiler, C. B. Lord. The documents at the beginning of the binder are exceptions: a history of the organization, an outline of a speech, and some meetings minutes that apparently were intended to be placed with similar documents later in the binder. This binder has been left "as is" not only because it represents a distinct collection of materials organized by Lord but also because the binder is of higher quality than the other binders and its cover sheet (glued to the binder) bears the same illustration as that used on the cover sheets of the other binders, thus giving researchers an impression of the appearance of all of the original binders.

The sleeves from the other four original binders, except for the last (the Memorabilia 1996-2006 collection), have been transferred to the archival boxes. Many of them contain multiple clippings in addition to photographs. Extensive processing would be required to remove the clippings from the binder sleeves while maintaining their original order and context. The photographs, however, have been separated and placed in archival sheets adjacent to the items with which they were originally placed. Each archival folder corresponds to the contents of what was a sheet in the original binders; this explains why some of the folders only have a small amount of material inside them.

Series IV presents earlier materials, because they were donated after the original collection was processed. These materials, which consist of meeting minutes, names and additional information about the trustees, and calendars of events, have been organized by year. Also included is a folder of by-laws, which documents the responsibilities of board members, and a folder titled ‘Additional Materials’, which holds newspaper clippings ranging from the years 1987-1989.