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The Ray Board Every year during the month of December school officials meet with a group known as the Ray School Corporation. The nine members of this group, referred to as the Ray Board, are charged with managing a trust which was set up through the will of Frederick L. Ray, a wealthy and successful East Haddam businessman. Mr. Ray died in 1926 and left $536,000 to the town of East Haddam. Prior to his death he had told a local school teacher that he wanted to “do something really big educationally for East Haddam.” His wish was that the money be utilized to improve vocational education in the town of East Haddam. This continues to be the focus of Ray Board, 83 years after Mr. Ray’s death.
It is unusual for a public school to be funded by a private endowment. Normally, the Board of Education finances all educational activities in a town. We are lucky to have this funding because without it we would not have many of the vocational and technological resources that we have today. Through the years the fund has enabled funding for laptop computers, a mastercam CNC machine, the Voag bus, the music room lab, $14,000 in annual scholarships, salaries of vocational teachers and the workstudy program. This is a very short list of what Ray funds have provided for our school. It was the Ray Corporation that funded the equipment in the technology wing of the high school when it was built in 1994. That area of the high school is in fact referred to as the Ray Wing. Today the Ray Board Trustees are local citizens and employees of the Bank of America who are charged with managing the Ray trust fund. School officials meet with them two times a year to discuss the funds and their use. They are dedicated to honoring the wishes of Mr. Ray. This year the trust will provide Hale-Ray high school with over $300,000. These funds will be put to good use as we seek to strengthen our vocational and technology programs. We are grateful to the members of Ray Board for volunteering to help manage the gift that Frederick L. Ray gave to the town of East Haddam. We are proud to be a part of a school that bears Mr. Ray’s name and that we are able to continue “to do really big things educationally,” with his money, just as he had wished. Linda Dadona, Principal
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