Roberta Looser
Dorothy Looser-Flake
As school districts across the region consider how education will be delivered this fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mercer County & Sherrard School Districts will continue their pursuit to ensure every single student has access to technology.
The Looser-Flake Foundation, a private foundation administered through the Quad Cities Community Foundation, is awarding $212,000 in grants to promote equity in access to learning through technology. This is not the first time that the Looser-Flake Foundation has provided technology support to both Mercer County School District and Sherrard School District. Still, it is the first time the foundation has accelerated the granting process due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After meeting with school officials remotely to hear firsthand the districts’ needs, foundation board members granted more than $90,000 in additional dollars than the original $120,000 budgeted. Mercer County also received $12,000 to reimburse teachers for costs incurred through remote learning over the past few months. The funding helps both districts prepare for the uncertainty of the upcoming school year and the possibility of remote learning.
The funding will provide two significant improvements, including technology equipment for nearly every classroom to allow teachers to do more livestream teaching.
The second is providing wireless access points within the community, and on school buses, to reach students who do not have internet access at home. The grant will also allow Sherrard School District to reimburse families for Internet provider costs.
The foundation was started through a generous $6 million gift from Dorothy Looser-Flake and Roberta Looser to support Mercer County upon their passing. The two sisters were born and raised on a family farm near New Boston Township, Illinois. Dorothy was a fifth-grade teacher in the Rock Island-Milan School District, and Roberta taught in both Mercer County and the Rock Island–Milan School District.