De Soto Board of Education member Tarrole Milfeld admits her husband, Felix, pulled one over on her at the Aug. 21 school board meeting.
Felix surprised Tarrole – and most of the school board members – with a $100,000 donation to the De Soto School District’s math program.
The donation was made on behalf of the Milfeld Foundation, which was started in 1993 by Felix’s late relatives, Dana and Doyne Milfeld, and continued by their son, Dennis Milfeld, who died in April. Felix is now a board member.
Tarrole, who taught at Vineland Elementary for 30 years and has served on the school board for 11 years, volunteers as a fourth-grade math teacher. She said she hadn’t thought too much about the “donation presentation” listed under new business at the end of the meeting agenda, but thought it was odd that her husband, children, grandchildren and even four former colleagues were at the school board meeting.
“In my mind, I’m thinking they’re coming because fourth grade at Vineland is being recognized for the gains in the MAP scores and I help,” she said. “I volunteer every day in fourth grade for math and they included me on the recognition. So, I thought (Felix) was there for that, and in my mind, I’m like what are you doing here? This is just a three-minute recognition and you’ve called all these people and told them I’m (being) recognized and I’m a little embarrassed that I dragged them away from the things they probably needed to be doing.”
Tarrole didn’t think anything more of it until her husband headed up to the podium 30 minutes into the meeting.
“I’m like ‘Oh, my God,’” she said.
Only a few people, including Board of Education president Beverly Wilson and Superintendent Ron Farrow, knew why Felix was really there.
Felix immediately pointed out that his wife of 44 years is normally the one planning surprises.
After bragging about his wife and rubbing it in that he had fooled her, he announced the Milfeld Foundation was donating $100,000 to the fourth grade math program. He had his son, Kyle, and three of their grandchildren present a big cardboard check to Tarrole while Felix quietly handed the real check to Superintendent Ron Farrow.
“(Felix) sees me all the time working on math projects to take up to the school, and I’m always saying people who make these books (math textbooks) are not teachers,” Tarrole said the day after the school board meeting. “(The people who make the math books) don’t get it. They have no idea. It’s not geared toward our standards, and it’s not geared toward kids. It starts real simple, and then it jumps immediately to something advanced.
“And so I’m always talking about, ‘I wish I could get everybody together,’ but I hate to ask anybody to do anything because people are busy. And I said if I ever had any money, that’s what I want to do. I want to pay teachers to work, to form a skeleton of the curriculum for math.
So, I think that’s where he got (the idea for the donation) from because I work on math almost every day.”
Tarrole said she retired from teaching in 2012 but started volunteer-teaching after the COVID-19 pandemic because students had been falling behind.
She said she will speak to the district’s administrators about what they want to do with the donation, adding that she’s not sure whether all the money should be used for the fourth-grade math program.
“I said that’s an awful lot of money to go just for fourth grade curriculum,” Tarrole said. “(Felix) said it’s what you think is best for the math curriculum in De Soto.”
The De Soto School District administration said in a written statement that it’s grateful for the “incredibly generous” donation from the Milfeld Foundation “in support of building the fourth grade math curriculum. This remarkable gift will make a lasting difference in the lives of our students by strengthening instructional resources and providing enhanced learning opportunities.”
“We are truly excited to see the positive impact this support will have on each and every child in our district,” Farrow said. “The Milfeld Foundation’s investment in our students’ education ensures that we can continue to equip them with the skills they need for future success.”
Tarrole was happy her family, through the Milfeld Foundation, could help the school district.
“Felix and I, we love our community, we love our school and we’re just dedicated to assist them in any way that we can to help out our students and the people of De Soto and do anything we can,” Tarrole said.
Felix started the city’s youth soccer program in 1994. He is retired after running the Fo-Jo Studio and Felix Milfeld Photography and currently works as a part-time groundskeeper for the school district.