Vashon Schools Foundation needs community donations
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Our kids need you. Vashon Schools Foundation (VSF) is committed to filling the gap in public school funding; helping to ensure quality education for all kids. We are not the School Board-who sets policy or the Superintendent who implements policy. We are an organization that identifies funding priorities that our important to our community and in alignment with the District’s goals.
VSF formed in response to the state funding crisis. Our community stepped up to the challenge. We greatly appreciate the school families, businesses, and island families and individuals who have supported our kids through VSF the last 5 years but Washington still does not fully fund public education. VSF’s focus remains on ensuring our schools are high quality, current, and provides opportunities for all kids to thrive.
We are working this year to fund a full range of identified needs – including bilingual preschool and new math curriculum. In addition, we prioritized two three year initiatives.
The first is a commitment to kids’ emotional health. If a child is not emotionally healthy, s/he will not be able to thrive in an educational environment no matter how good. To this end, our goal is to provide additional counseling, curriculum, and peer support training at all three schools- programs that increase self-esteem, identify challenges early and provide appropriate intervention. These initiatives help our students build empathy, resiliency and reduces the likelihood of bullying and substance abuse.
The second initiative focuses on science: a dedicated elementary science specialist, citizen science programs with the Vashon Nature Center and curriculum for outdoor classrooms: creating curiosity and enthusiasm for the natural world.
Our goal is to raise $175/student. We are an island of 10,000 and a vibrant community needs thriving schools. To meet our goals we need more of our island community to participate and we ask you to join us today. All gifts received will help ensure our kids are well served by our island.
