feinstein

WESTERLY — Cranton philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein wants to give the school district $1 million.

But is the donation contingent on naming a school after him? No one seems to know for sure.

The School Committee last night changed the rule against naming school facilities after people so it could negotiate with philanthropist Feinstein.

Schools Supt. Thomas DiPaola, who has been in almost daily contact with Feinstein, told the committee that the money would be to “further commit our middle school to community service.”

“Cut to the chase,” committee member James E. Murano said. “Is it an all-or-nothing sort of agreement?”

DiPaola said that the school’s name is “really not so much a recognition.” Feinstein “really sees it as a partnership. He sees this as a way to ensure that the commitment is there.”

The plan would be “for our students to participate, not only in local effort,” such as what the students already do to help local programs, “but also in the national campaign against hunger.”

Board member David Patten suggested adding a Feinstein Center for Hunger Relief to the culinary arts program and asked if Feinstein would consider other forms of partnership.

“Yes,” DiPaola said. “But the financial support would be substantially less than what’s on the table.”

Feinstein, asked yesterday why he made putting his name on buildings a condition for donating money, replied:

“It’s not.”

Although there are two Alan Shawn Feinstein elementary schools in Rhode Island and an Alan Shawn Feinstein High School in Providence, other Feinstein schools are named after his mother or father, he said yesterday afternoon from his Feinstein Foundation office next to his home.

He said discussions about changing the Westerly Middle School’s name arose when he was talking with Schools Supt. Thomas DiPaola about Westerly becoming a national leader in fighting hunger and making community service an integral part of education.

“We’ve given Westerly schools money in the past for community service,” he said. Most of Westerly’s elementary schools are in his leadership program, which encourages students to become junior scholars by pledging to do good deeds and fight hunger, making them eligible for $5,000 scholarships to most local colleges and universities.

“There are 107 schools in Rhode Island that are Feinstein leadership schools,” he said, to the tune of $2 million a year total, “that do not bear the name.”

Having made a lot of money in business, he said, “I chose to spend it encouraging children in schools to better their community and fight hunger.”

If the middle school is a Feinstein school, community service would be part of its curriculum, and the school would work to “hopefully set an example that would reach across the country.”

The foundation asks schools to become models for other schools. Each is asked to contact another school outside the area and challenge people to collect canned goods in the spring food drive.

He gives away $1 million each year for that drive.

The money isn’t exactly matching funds; it’s an incentive. “It’s a great spur to fundraising.”

Each can of food is valued at $1. After cash and canned goods are collected and the totals tallied, his foundation divides the $1 million proportionately among the nonprofits that participated.

In the 11 years the program has operated, he said, the foundation has put up $11 million and raised more than $800 million in contributions to help the hungry.

He calls it the most successful hunger-fighting organization in the world.

He says he enjoys visiting schools and speaking at assemblies, which he does every year to every participating school in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. “I like the fact that we’re able to feed a lot of hungry people.”

He also takes satisfaction in knowing that approximately 100,000 students have become Feinstein scholars in the program’s 15 or 16 years, and some of them are adults in their communities now.

It’s satisfying to see children respond to his message that they can make a difference. “Every time they do something good for someone else, they are making the world a better place,” he said he often tells them.

As to whether his $1 million contribution to Westerly schools would be earmarked for community service programs or could be applied to fixing buildings or adding science classrooms, he said it could be a combination of both. “We haven’t discussed that.”

dnaylor@projo.com