Leighton Endowment to Ledgemont Might Be Fruitless
It might be a tiny school district tucked away in rural Thompson Township, but Ledgemont Schools was special enough to catch the eye…
It might be a tiny school district tucked away in rural Thompson Township, but Ledgemont Schools was special enough to catch the eye and money of a New York Times best-selling author.
Frances Spatz Leighton, who passed away in April 2007 in Arlington, Va., honored her Thompson roots and love for reading and literature by bequeathing part of her estate to her alma mater for a very specific purpose, said Ledgemont Schools Superintendent Julie Ramos.
It is ironic Ledgemont is in a state of fiscal emergency, she said in a prior statement.
The district recently lost, yet again, at the ballot on a levy that has likely sealed the fate of its existence.
“Community members have encouraged Ledgemont to use the endowment funds to help reduce Ledgemont’s debt to the State of Ohio,” Ramos wrote.?”However, Ms. Leighton established a trust, with specific limitations on how the money may be used.As outlined in the trust, Ledgemont will be able todedicate a library and reading room in her name; furnish each with new furniture; improve technology; and establish afund to provide staff and maintenance for the facilities.”
Leighton left more than $700,000 to the township and school district, which trustee Bill Hofstetter will split between the two entities.
The township will get roughly $385,000, said Chardon attorney Fred Green, who was the first recipient of the Francis Spatz Leighton Poetry Award in 1965 at Ledgemont High School.
That money has been earmarked for the Thompson Park Board.
Ramos said the school district’s portion absolutely cannot be used to pay down the school district’s debt or for operating expenses.
“We feel quite honored to have been selected by Ms. Leighton to receive these gifts and we hope the community will see the value in Ledgemont that Ms. Leighton saw,” Ramos said.
Leighton was born Frances Ornstein on a dairy farm in Thompson 1920. The family homestead is on Phillips Road and is still a working dairy farm to this day, Ramos said.
Leighton attended Thompson High School (now Ledgemont) and graduated in 1937 when she went on to college at The Ohio State University and wrote poetry, had a show on the campus radio station and was a member of the Verse Writers’ Guild of Ohio, according to her history.
Leighton later moved to Washington, D.C., where she was a freelance journalist and contributed to a number of magazines before starting her book-writing career.
Frances was a prolific writer whose works focused on “all things White House and Washington.” She wrote “My Thirty Years Backstairs at the White House in 1961 with Lillian Rogers Parks, a seamstress and maid who worked in the White House from the beginning of the Hoover Administration in 1929 to the end of the Eisenhower years in 1961.
The book was on the New York Times bestseller list for 26 weeks and became the basis of a nine-part NBC miniseries in 1979.
In more recent years, she wrote “How to Write and Sell Your First Novel” and “How to Write and Sell Your First Nonfiction Book.”
“Sometimes it takes someone very far away who has achieved so much to open our eyes to the value of what we have in our own back yard,” Ramos said. “We look forward to the opportunity to judiciously use this generous gift to enhance our instruction and experience for Ledgemont students for many years to come.”
Leighton is also providing money to the University of Texas, El Paso to maintain her manuscripts and provide for a library and staff there as well.
The Frances Spatz Leighton Memorial Library will be housed at the elementary school, while the Frances Spatz Leighton Reading Room will be located at the high school, Ramos said.
Both libraries will include Leighton’s aforementioned books and, in addition, a scholarship fund will be established for Ledgemont students in the area of poetry and literature.
The irony is further exacerbated by the uncertainty of Ledgemont’s future, Ramos said.
If Ledgemont is forced to merge with another district, there would be no “Ledgemont,” she said, adding no Ledgemont would mean no elementary school or high school to house the new library and reading room, leaving the future of this wonderful donation unclear for the residents and children of Thompson and Montville townships.
