The Island Foundation, a 501(c)3, was founded in 1994 by a group of island parents who wanted to start a public school here on the island and support education and community interests. These parents formed a nonprofit and all-volunteer Board of Directors, and wrote a charter for Seashore Learning Center, our elementary school. Seashore held its first day of class in 1995 with 15 students in a renovated 7-11 building. Today, The Island Foundation has 3 campuses and serves over 500 students from North Padre Island, Mustang Island, Flour Bluff, and NAS Corpus Christi. We have a private preschool and two public, open-enrollment charter schools-a middle school and elementary school. As public charter schools, we receive 20% less state and federal funding than regular ISDs, and zero funding from local property taxes. This comes out to about $1,800.00 less per student per year. It is up to the Island Foundation, which owns and operates all three of our schools, to make up that deficit through grants, community partnerships, and fundraising. Our schools were built by the community, for the community. Many of our staff have children here, many of our parents are employees and volunteers. Many of our local business owners are parents and donors. Over the years, our schools have grown and become one of the top districts in Corpus Christi, and Seashore needs to ensure that its nonprofit umbrella grows accordingly to best support its operations and the students of this community.