School parent organizations are seeking your support.
White Salmon schools utilize various programs to raise money that are simple to join and do not cost any money. When you shop at Thriftway, Safeway, Amazon.com, Target or others, these companies will donate a portion of the sale back to the schools FREE!
Many of these programs allow you to support more than one organization by checking the appropriate boxes during sign-up. Substantial donations will come from these companies with increased food and gift shopping for the upcoming holidays. All you need to do is sign up.
When you shop with local retailers you are also doing the same thing. They support our schools year round.
Thriftway Bucks. A percentage of your purchase goes to Project Graduation. They are also available for sale every day at Collage of the Gorge.
www.escrip.com (Columbia, Whitson). Register your SAFEWAY card number (Call 877-SAFEWAY if you’ve misplaced your card). You can also shop through the online mall.
www.schoolpop.com (Henkle) links you to 100’s of your favorite online stores. Just sign up online, choose the school(s) you want to sponsor, and then when you want to shop online just go to http://www.schoolpop.com/ first and link to your store.
www.boxtops4education.com (Project Open Door, Whitson) Cut out and bring in to your school(s) box tops/labels from grocery item packaging or shop online at the website.
Target (Columbia) Sign up and a percentage of sales goes to the school.
www.amazon.com (Whitson) To insure Whitson receives a portion of your Amazon purchases, go to Amazon by clicking on this link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/whitselemepar-20
After the page opens, bookmark the site as your amazon site for easy access. You can also place the link with the amazon logo on your desktop (Win - right-click > Create shortcut). There will be no changes to how your view or use Amazon.
Campbell’s Labels (Whitson). Cut out labels from food packaging and drop off at the school.
Remember, the businesses don’t give money out unless you sign up. There is no cost or junk mail associated with this process. If you sign yourself up online, remember to click the box to “opt out of e-notices”.
Contacts:
Whitson Elementary School WhitsonPTO@gorge.net or 509-493-2086
Henkle Middle School HenklePTO@yahoo.com or 509-493-4013
Columbia High School Ronda.Hardisty@esd.112.wednet.edu
Project Graduation crewroberts@embarqmail.com or 509-493-3381
Courtesy of The Enterprise (published Nov. 15, 2007)
Friday, December 28, 2007
Money to Schools, Easy as 1, 2, 3!
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7 comments:
This great info....I for one will make sure that I take the extra steps to see the schools get some extra help. Isn't this a sad commentary on how we fund our education system...... when we have to be this creative to support our schools?
Beatledawg
For Whitson's Amazon.com fundraising link, enter through http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/whitselemepar-20
About 6% of your purchase price will be deposited directly to the PTO's account. Your Amazon homepage will look exactly like it always does. I suggest you replace your existing Amazon.com Favorites address with the new one.
Thank you.
Beatledawg said, "Isn't this a sad commentary on how we fund our education system...... when we have to be this creative to support our schools?"
Beatledawg, at what level of per-pupil funding do you think the schools will have enough money, and will as a result start turning down voluntary contributions from supporters?
Or, to look at it another way, at what level of per-pupil funding do you think folks will turn away from further supporting the public schools through their voluntary donations?
(As a point of reference, according to the district website, the district has an annual budget of $9.9 million for the schooling of 1,200 students. That averages out to $8,250 per year per pupil.)
$8,250 per year per pupil is not enough and I hope we never have folks stop their voluntary donations when you consider the programs that have been eliminated or cut back over the last 20 years in our school system.
Furthermore I think the cost of higher education has gotten out of control. Maybe you think it's a good thing that over the past decade, debt levels for graduating seniors with student loans more
than doubled from $9,250 to $19,200.
Education should be the cheapest opportunity out there, and it's the best investment a country can make in it's future.
Maybe you think it's good business to sign contracts with soft drink manufacturers to help enrich the annual budget.....but I don't.
Beatledawg
"Maybe you think it's a good thing that over the past decade, debt levels for graduating seniors with student loans more
than doubled from $9,250 to $19,200."
Huh? Why would I think that? And what has that to do with White Salmon schools, anyway?
"Maybe you think it's good business to sign contracts with soft drink manufacturers to help enrich the annual budget....."
Again, WHY would ANYTHING I asked suggest to you that I would possibly think such a thing?
As a matter of fact, I consider it an appalling lack of ethics for a school district to sell playground ad space to Pepsi.
Again, I ask you: If $8,250 is not enough, how much WOULD be enough?
I am not disputing whether $8,250 is or isn't enough; what I would like to know is, what does "enough" look like?
Anybody?
UPDATE: The school district has updated it's website. The district's current enrollment and budget are 1,100 students and a budget of $11.423 million, which works out to $10,385 per student per year.
That might look like an increase in dollars per student, but the reality is that with the increase in fuel prices, those increases you mention are mostly absorbed by increased transportation and NERC costs .......so the net impact per student is more than likely ZERO.
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