A foundation or endowment for the school district is a good idea. Funds raised through private means might reduce pressure of the public budget to accommodate desirable, but not core, spending needs. A foundation might be preferable, as it would be more independent of political, school board control.
There are always (manageable) risks that a foundation will not direct its beneficence appropriately. Consider, for example, school board member Caroline Wieman’s reported suggestion that foundation or endowment funds go to advocacy for public education.
That would be a poor use of foundation money. The only worse uses might be burning it, or giving it to Leslie Steinhaus. (Sensible readers know that there is no practical difference between those last two possibilities.) There’s already a teachers’ union, collecting dues from its members, for advocacy of teacher issues and public schools. We don’t need foundation funds to advocate for district administrators, either.
The community should not do the work of the WEA, NEA, AAA, CIA, or any such organization. (If anything, it’s the CIA that could use the money; isn’t Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez still walking around?)