God, how depressing...an e-mail I received this week

Mass e-mail from a Vashon School Board member:

The Budget Crisis: What’s At Stake for Our Vashon Schools?

Do we give up the educational program we have now; a program that balances academics, arts, and athletics and that gets students who want to go to college into fine schools? Are we willing to settle for a bare-bones program, that isn't sufficient preparation for most colleges? Can we give up classes in physics, chemistry, foreign language, math, creative writing, and much, much more?

If we let the quality of our schools go downhill, the entire island community will suffer. Who will buy homes here and who will patronize our island businesses if families cannot get a good education for their children here? Will we lose the vitality that comes from our present mix of talented people when families move away?

The state of Washington has broken its promise to provide a free, adequate public education. Our state ranks 45th in the nation, behind Mississippi, in state funding per pupil for K-12 schools. But islanders are good at taking charge of things we care about. If we care about maintaining the quality of our schools, then we have to raise the funds ourselves.

Other island communities such as San Juan and Bainbridge have formed schools foundations to sustain excellence in education in their communities. The future of our schools is at stake and we must do the same.

Our immediate fundraising goal is $500,000 – that’s what is necessary to sustain current programs and avoid devastating cuts. It’s the beginning of a commitment to develop an independent schools foundation to ensure adequate funding for our future.

Please donate what you can to help us reach our $500,000 goal.

We are looking for at least 10 families to donate $10,000 or more each.

We are looking for at least 100 families to donate $1,000 or more each.

If you cannot donate that much, please consider a donation of $500 or whatever you can.

You can donate at our website, http://www.vashonsd.org, using PayPal in monthly installments
or a single lump sum. PayPal charges us 3%, so if you want all of your donation to
benefit the schools, please drop off a check at the District Office, located on the lower floor
of Chautauqua, or mail it to: P.O. Box 547, Vashon, WA 98070.

Wow, that is so depressing. We are still trying to figure out how much to cough up this time.

Middle aged dads pose nude for calendar to raise money for local schools

I love this! Remember when I was trying to recently rattle this community about creative school district fund raising ideas?

I think this counts as one!

$20 a pop? I am down for one. Anyone else? Place your orders!

From the Vashon Beachcomber:

When Islander Scott Benner had his portrait taken last month, he didn’t spend much time deciding what to wear. After all, his outfit consisted of a red bow tie, a tweed hat and nothing more.

He’s one of 12 Island dads and professionals who shed their suits and posed nude for an Island cause this summer.

Dubbed “the DreamBoats,” the men are featured in the pages of a 2010 calendar that will be sold at $20 a pop to benefit the Vashon Island School District. (A launch party is planned for Sept. 3.)

Each photo shows a different Island man in the buff, with an accessory or two representing his interests and conveniently covering his personal areas. The photos were taken outdoors by Island photographer Rebecca Douglas and show off not only the beauty of the male models, but of Vashon Island.

The men, and a trio of women who are “producing” the calendar, are hoping to raise $10,000 for a school system that has struggled mightily to forego layoffs this year and even put out a plea to parents to help keep a few teachers on staff.

“It’s nice to have this as a fun way to support the schools in an otherwise dreary financial environment for the district,” said Benner, 43, a financial planner and lawyer. “It was a lot of fun, actually. ... I haven’t done something like that before, and probably won’t again.”

Organizers point out, however, that the school district had nothing to do with the idea and doesn’t endorse the project in any way.

The calendar “was a really organic idea that came out of an unusual, creative bunch of morning banter on the way to work one day,” said Scott Harris, 38, one of the men who will grace the pages of the calendar.

He and others who ride the Vashon-Seattle passenger-only ferry came up with the idea of a “Real Men of Vashon” calendar at first as a joke, and then the idea gathered momentum when the commuters and friends realized they had a marketable idea."

Other brilliant crisis school fund raising ideas....

...other than just calling people and hassling them for a check!

Hat tip to gal pal, Deirdre.

- One day a week Granny's dedicates 50% of proceeds to the Teacher Fund. I recall about a year ago Granny's had a Too Much Money problem. Not sure if that is still the case, but certainly much of their clothing is donated by the Lost and Found at schools and the families that attend schools. Could they spare 1/6th of their proceeds for the next 3 months? A definite sunset date would ensure that this not become an ongoing embedded program that burdens that organization.

- A partnership with Thriftway like their breast cancer fundraiser. Cards and promotion at the checkout - Save Our Teachers! Again, who are TW's best customers? Do they want to lose families and teachers to the mainland? Maybe they will see such a drive in their own best interest...?

- Could Parks and the YMCA add a voluntary surcharge to their summer programs - ask parents signing kids up for summer classes and camps to check a $10 for Teachers box on all their forms? Or, would these agencies be willing to convert 1-5% of their program revenues to a teacher fund?

- We talked, briefly, about the state now allowing Districts to move to a 4-day week to save teacher positions - is that politically explosive? Why not give the teachers a chance to save their colleagues? I don't know the details of their contract, but am wondering if anyone's tapped into the teachers themselves for suggestions.

- I know librarians are also affected - maybe the Friends of the Library would be willing to donate their book sales revenues for the summer and spearhead a Save the Librarians drive?

- Also, no one cares more about the teachers than their students. Has anyone tapped the students for ideas? Car washes, bake sales, dances, festival - what could be more powerful for a teen than knowing they helped save their favorite teacher from a layoff? The Horticulture program is already doing this with their plant start sales - these monies go directly to fund a summer mentor for students in that program.

Bake sale anyone?

Our little school district has a budget shortfall of almost a million dollars for next year. Therefore 9 teachers have gotten the ax. These are sad, tough times for public education.

Our school board has approved a fund raising effort to try to help. They are asking each parent to chip in $150 per kid they have in school. And, they are passing the hat in the community. They are seeking volunteers to call 25 people to hassle them about the money. Or perhaps more diplomatically phrased; remind them of the dire straights our school district is in.

Frankly, I am not sure how successful this is going to be. It's not like we are unique. School districts around the state and country are hurting and purging teachers.

Our community has about 5,000 households. That would take every single household donating $200. I suppose it is worth a shot.

But, I sure would like to see some of that boundless creativity put to work to raise some money. Can we please be a little more creative than just asking for a check?

Will I send a check? Yes. But, I am not going to call and hassle anyone about it. People are hurting out there and I am not going to put the screws on someone who maybe just got laid off, is in foreclosure or just experiencing tough economic times. People know if they can give or not and I don't need to be the one to pressure them.

This is one of my pet peeves. Can we please come up with ANOTHER fund raising idea other than an auction or a phone-a-thon?

These are unprecedented times, calling for unprecedented fund raising measures.

So, when I say bake sale, I am serious. Or a talent show or an art sale or an fun run or whatever. Or all of the above, repeatedly. The point being someone may be able to donate a plate of brownies but not a $150 check. Someone may be able to donate time to coordinate an event but not a check. Someone might be able to come up with a really good idea for a fund raiser if the barn doors where blown off and everyone was thinking outside the normal box!

Or may be we should institute a state income tax so that we can fund public education properly!

But, since that isn't happening. Those of us who can, will whip out our checkbooks, write the check and send it in. There. Our responsibility is done.

Or is it?

Here's an idea! Let's arrest the teachers!

This is getting bad!

Question:

Would you be willing to protest your local public school teacher lay offs? How about get arrested?

From the LA Times:

Hundreds of teachers call in sick and hundreds of high school students walk out of classrooms. The teachers union president is among 39 arrested at a sit-in outside L.A. Unified headquarters.

The head of the Los Angeles teachers union was among 39 people arrested Friday during a sit-in outside the school district headquarters, one among dozens of peaceful protests around the city by teachers and students outraged by plans for deep cuts in education spending.

"Don't raise class size!" the protesters chanted before Los Angeles Police Department officers moved in to break up the demonstration.

United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy was among those who had raised his fist in response to police requests to disperse, and who was bound with plastic handcuffs and taken away in an LAPD bus for booking on a charge of blocking a public street.

Here comes the Guv...and her education budget cuts

Christine Gregoire rolled out her new budget yesterday with $3.5 billion in cuts and no new taxes. I guess, she must have really been serious during the election when she said, "No tax increases" because she trimmed extensively instead of tapping the tax payers for more.

K-12 appears to have not been hit as hard as expected. From the Seattle Times:

"Overall, I think K-12 education did as well as we could possibly hope for," said Paul Rosier, executive director of the Washington Association of School Administrators.

The biggest proposed cuts were:

• Suspending the cost-of-living raises that teachers receive under Initiative 732 ($349 million in savings).

• Cutting roughly one-quarter of Initiative 728, designed to lower class sizes ($178 million in savings).

• And slashing one-third of "levy equalization," which helps "property-poor" districts ($125 million in savings).

****************************************

Now, of course, this is just little old me talking but how do you cut from an already underfunded program? Answer: very painfully. And, yet again, the teachers take the brunt as if they already weren't under paid and under supported.

Let's hope some real fiscal help and leadership on public education comes from the other Washington soon.

Budget short fall: education taking a whack

Here in Washington state we are staring a big budget shortfall in the face and it ain't pretty.

It looks like our Democratic, public education supporting Governor is going to have to cut public education by a cool Billion. Yah, that is Billion with a B. From where I sit they should be increasing the public education budget by a billion not cutting it. But what do I know? I am just a parent who is up close and personal with public education everyday.

I don't blame the Gov. States have a legal obligation to balance their budgets every single year unlike the Fed's who just borrow more money from friendly and not so friendly governments abroad.

But, when we really talk about investing in America what does that mean? Does it mean new infrastructure and roads? Or does it mean raising future citizens that will be tax paying, productive participants in the society?

Heavy sigh and roll my eyes. So, here we go again. I sure hope we can figure out a way to avoid this cut. Like maybe take a good hard look at all those corporate tax exemptions and other goodies that Boeing and Microsoft get! Or, drum roll please, how about state income tax!

I can hear the collective gasp. But, I would like to know who pays for a civilized society? Wrong, not someone else. You, me and everybody! We pay for a civilized society and dab-blame it, a strong, healthy, supported public school system is part of that!

Ok, I guess I have made myself clear. Rant off.