The combined efforts of students, parents and others paid off, as the Tumwater School District recently accepted a check of more than $29,000 to save the overnight outdoor education program in Randle.
“I feel good that we’re going to get to do it,” Logan said. “I feel like I helped to get this.”
However, the School Board has asked parents to wait a few months until the district’s financial picture gets clearer before raising money for next year’s trip.
Parents in Olympia and Tumwater rallied to save both districts’ programs involving the Cispus Learning Center, saying that the trip provides a valuable opportunity for students to learn about science and the environment and also offers an opportunity for students to bond before heading to middle school. Both districts cut the trips during the 2009-10 budget process.
In five months, parents in the two districts together raised $85,000, saving the trips. Now, the parents in both districts are ready to look at what to do for next year.
Tumwater parents hope to get started by spring on the fundraising efforts for a 2011 Cispus trip, because of the difficulty in raising money in a short amount of time.
Tumwater board President Jay Wood and other board members congratulated and thanked the parents for their efforts but warned that shortfalls from state school funding and the outcome of a February maintenance and operations levy are not known. The district is girding for further cuts, they said.
“I would caution you not to earmark your money now. There might be other programs you want to fundraise” for, Wood told parents after they asked for the go-ahead to start raising money for the 2011 Cispus trip.
Parent Gigi Duff said that a large part of the success of this year’s fundraising came from business donations and people who took part in the trip to Cispus during their school years.
“All these parents had gone, and they wanted their children to go,” she said. “It’s a strong tradition in this community.”
“If it’s not Cispus, we need to figure out an alternative. It’s not fair to the kids to just say suddenly, ‘Sorry. Your class is not going.’ Which is kind of the position that this (sixth grade) class was put in,” she said.
In Olympia, Save Outdoor Schools – Olympia Kids has formed a committee to make a recommendation to the school district about a fifth-grade overnight camping trip experience that will be more affordable either for parents or for the school district to support, said organizer Ryan Hall. The group is looking at closer campsites as possible options for an overnight outdoor education program, she said.
“Basically, we’re trying to find a way to make it sustainable,” Hall said.
Venice Buhain: 360-754-5445
vbuhain@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/edblog
