Progress

$31,304.65 is our total

as of April 5th.  Donations are tax deductible.

Corbett Schools need your financial help. Now.

Due to dramatic reductions in state funding for K-12 education, the Corbett School District, like every district in Oregon, is facing a significant budget shortfall next year. New estimates in early March 2011 indicated a shortfall of $755K, up from the earlier estimate of $575K. Unfortunately, because CSD has already absorbed significant cuts to its program offerings and personnel over the past decade in response to previous shortfalls in funding from the State of Oregon, the district can not rely solely only on cuts to manage the current shortfall without significantly compromising the quality of the academic programs in the district. In response to these new projections, the CSD has taken, or is planning on taking, the following action:

•In mid-march the district renegotiated it’s contract with the Corbett Charter School. The new contract allows up to 200 additional students in the Charter school, and will bring in an additional $300K of revenue (for the immediate future the Charter School will increase enrollment by only ~100 students).

•The district is considering cutting 3 teaching positions.

•The district plans to charge families for full-day kindergarten; the state of Oregon only pays for half-day kindergarten, but the CSD has provided full-day kindergarten at no charge to families.

•The district plans to eliminate all remaining paid coaching positions.

•The district plans to increase athletic fees to cover athletic expenses.

•The district plans to initiate a fee for service pre-school program (this will located in the current grade school teachers staff room).

Given the level of state funding anticipated for education in the foreseeable future, it is now clear that if we hope to maintain the high-quality of it’s schools, we will need to step-up and take a more active role in school funding. To help the Corbett community assume this new level of responsibility for their schools, the Corbett Education Foundation, a private non-profit community organization, is coordinating a fundraising effort with the goal of raising at least $300,000/year for the CSD.

All money raised by this effort will go towards preventing the loss of additional teachers and restoring programs and services that have already been cut.