The Columbia Falls School District is creating an academic and alumni endowment fund. The school district created an athletic endowment fund in the mid-1990s, and it now has a balance of $330,000. Only the interest is used to purchase athletic equipment, gear and other cost items, like meals for traveling athletes.

The academic endowment fund would run similarly, Columbia Falls High School principal Alan Robbins said, although the money would go toward everything from paying for tests to purchasing computer tablets.

Some students, for example, don't have enough money to take college entrance exams, like the SATs or ACTs, Robbins noted. The school would also like to purchase computer tablets like the Kindle. Unlike a regular textbook, a book on a Kindle can be marked, noted and highlighted. Those notes can then be erased for use by another student, Robbins said.

The academic endowment will also support fine arts and eventually, student scholarships.

"We want to go above and beyond what we're able to do with our regular budget," Robbins said.

The endowment fund took its first baby steps earlier this year when the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce donated $100 to the fund in the name of alumni and restaurant owner Tien Windauer. Windauer in turn donated $100 to the fund.

A larger fundraising effort will come later this spring. Plans are underway to turn the community prom into a more formal affair, with a dinner and dancing to country music, to raise money for the new endowment.

Robbins said the school will form a board to oversee the endowment in the coming weeks.