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Resolution for PSF logo contest facilitators

WHEREAS the Permanent School Fund’s origins and story is one interwoven into the rich Texas history, replete with Texans who fiercely believed in the vital importance of public education, beginning with those who declared their devotion in the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence and in 1845 further demonstrated this commitment in 1845, establishing in the state’s first constitution, a perpetual fund for the support of free public schools; and
 
WHEREAS Texans further proved their allegiance to public free schools through support of the fund, by committing $2 million in U.S. bonds from the Compromise of 1850 in 1854, half of the state’s 88-million-acre public domain in 1873 and the mineral estate of Texas’ submerged lands in 1939; and
 
WHEREAS Texans successfully staved off attempts to seize and divert the Fund’s legacy to future generations in political battles and litigation at the highest levels of the United States government; and
 
WHEREAS the Permanent School Fund has, since 1855, made distributions to Texas schools and has for generations provided for free textbooks and now support for school district technology; and
 
WHEREAS since 1983, the Permanent School Fund has made possible for local schools, capital facility additions and improvements by the guaranteeing of local bonds; and
 
WHEREAS through prudent stewardship, the Permanent School Fund has prospered and become the nation’s largest educational endowment; and
 
WHEREAS given the fund’s unique history and vital importance in the state’s school finance system, the State Board of Education deemed it most appropriate for the Permanent School Fund to have its own distinct brand identity; and
 
WHEREAS the State Board of Education looked to the state’s students to create suitable artwork to represent the Fund and initiated the “Brand the Fund” student art competition; and
 
WHEREAS the State Board of Education also sought the services of a facilitating graphic artist to coordinate the selection process, offer professional input and render the final design; and
 
WHEREAS Laurie Wieghat of College Station-based Wieghat Graphics graciously offered her services as a volunteer, providing technical assistance in drafting rules and selection criteria, identifying and engaging industry professionals to serve on the judging panel, coordinating selection committee conference calls and making final edits to the winning designs; and
 
WHEREAS Tyler Wieghat of the same firm graciously lent to the process his programming skills in the development of an online platform through which judging panelists could quickly and easily review 521 entries submitted from across the state and to make and submit their selections to be considered by the full panel; and
 
WHEREAS this first-ever student competition launched and executed by the State Board of Education could not have been operated as seamlessly and effectively without the selfless service of these two Texans; now be it hereby
 
RESOLVED
, that the State Board of Education offers to Laurie and Tyler Wieghat its deepest appreciation for their selfless volunteer service to the students, teachers and leaders of the public free schools of the State of Texas in helping to engage Texas students and teachers in this branding project, facilitating a successful selection process and producing a design product commensurate in excellence with the stature of America’s greatest educational endowment; and be it further
 
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be provided to Laurie and Tyler Wieghat of Wieghat Graphics of College Station and be forever recorded in the permanent records of the State Board of Education.
WITNESS our signatures this first day of February, two thousand and nineteen, in Austin, Texas.

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Donna Bahorich, Chair

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Georgina C. Pérez, Secretary