FARMINGTON, N.M. – After 35 years in the Farmington Municipal School District, the Foundation for Educational Excellence is closing its doors. 

“The whole purpose of the foundation is to really pour into the students as well as teachers,” said Dave Dailey, president of the Foundation for Educational Excellence. 

For decades, the foundation helped schools with things like bilingual books for kindergartners and microscopes and lab equipment for high schoolers, and that’s not all. 

“We also offered a scholarship incentive program to teachers. And then we did all sorts of different scholarships to students,” said Dailey. 

He said it was giving out around $20,000 a year throughout the school district. However, just like a lot of other businesses in 2019, the foundation started to struggle. 

“We had a lot of support, especially in the beginning, but like everything else, we were pivoting before COVID, we really saw a decline. So we had to do something, and we’ve been really trying to keep it going and felt that it was just time,” said Dailey. 

He said, now that the foundation is gone, the community is going to feel it. 

“By us being on it, it will impact and that’s unfortunate,” said Dailey. 

He hopes one day the foundation will be back and serving the community. 

“I hope that people will see that there was such a great need, and I’m, of course, willing to help out with that when that happens,” said Dailey.