Why is it important to Issaquah?
Phone-a-thon
May 22nd & 23rd, 2007
Goal: 1,500 donors and $150,000
The Issaquah Schools Foundation is a non-profit organization run primarily by volunteers that raises money to give back to the Issaquah schools and school district. It is kind of like a big PTA, except that the money goes to bigger, larger programs that go to ALL schools and benefit all students across the district.
The foundation tries to implement student programs, curriculum and support materials across all schools that the school district and the local PTA’s cannot afford.
The state of Washington underfunds education. And Issaquah is one of the most underfunded districts in the state. Our state ranks 42nd in per pupil funding and within our state, our school district ranks 268th out of 296 school districts. Our state is at the bottom in school funding, and our district is at the bottom within the state.
Because of state laws, the Issaquah School District (ISD) is not allowed to raise additional taxes except to pay for new buildings. ISD can’t raise additional taxes for curriculum, student programs or teacher support. This is where the Issaquah Schools Foundation (ISF) comes in. It is the mission of ISF to provide financial support to the entire school district that enhances the educational experience of all of our students.
But, ISF just is not yet raising the amount of money needed to truly give financial support across the district. ISF runs two fundraisers a year, the luncheon and phone-a-thon. This past year ISF raised $311,000 at the luncheon and $58,000 at the phone-a-thon. ISF raised significantly more money this past year than ever before, and we are very thankful. But if our community wants to truly impact our students in a district-wide initiative, we need to raise more money.
If ISD had more money new, innovative programs could be implemented. We could help to implement a seven period day in secondary school—we currently have a six period day, but we compete for colleges with Bellevue students who have a 7 period day. We could implement a program to put all 8th graders through Algebra (Microsoft may be funding a program like this in Issaquah). We could put a Chinese or Spanish immersion program together. These are just a few of the programs we could fund. But ISF needs significantly more money to do this.
Issaquah provides an excellent education for our students. Our test scores are some of the best in the state. Our SAT scores are among the best in the country. But is this enough for our community? Should we be the very best? Do we want our children to have the opportunity to take more AP Classes? Study Chinese? Boost our math expectations? If you believe that the Issaquah School District can improve services, then you need to help fund these changes. And these changes are not cheap. To just train all of the teachers in the district one additional day costs roughly $100,000. To add an additional period to the secondary schools costs millions. To add one 3rd grade immersion Chinese class costs roughly $100,000.
The Issaquah Schools Foundation Phone-a-thon is coming in May. Last year we had 771 donors with 16,000 students in the district. Our goal this year is to increase these numbers to 1,500 donors and to raise $150,000. Issaquah can easily do this. If we can move our funding level to the million dollar level, we can truly start making a difference in our community. Do you want to help? There are a couple of ways.
1. Tell your friends what donating to ISF can mean to our community and encourage them to make donations when we start sending mailers out to raise funds for phone-a-thon
2. If you already donate to ISF, consider significantly increasing your donation
3. Donate to ISF; donations are accepted on our website, or by calling (425) 416-2045.
Visit this website for more information: www.issaquahschoolsfoundation.org or call (425) 416-2045.