Guest Opinion: Education Initiative Achieving Great Outcomes

By Hilary Canty, Executive Director of the  Orcas Island Community Foundation and Janet Brownell, President of the Orcas Island Education Foundation

In 2008, the Orcas Island Community Foundation and the Education Foundation made an audacious proposal:  they asked the community to pledge support for four years toward a partnership to support public education on Orcas Island.  This campaign was named the Education Initiative.  Three years ago, the school district was in dire financial condition. There was a real threat of losing many teachers, as well as the dynamic programming which so enriches our school district.  The hope of the Education Initiative (EI) was to provide financial support while the school administration and school board came up with longer term solutions.  The success of this campaign has been tremendous and the community contributions have been remarkable.  New pledges and contributions are welcome at any time.

The Education Initiative is still critical to maintain the fundamental educational programming that has made our school top-rated in the state. OICF and OIEF are committed to continuing this initiative for two more years. Community members are welcome to join by making a pledge or contribution.

Over the past two years, amidst incredibly challenging economic times, the Education Initiative has sustained our schools by underwriting staffing, allowing many valuable programs to continue including  High School Spanish, Literature, Woodshop, and Marine Science for both Middle and High Schools and an additional teacher in the elementary school.  In addition, donors to The Orcas Island Education Foundation underwrote funding for High School British Literature, Writing, Film as Literature, Literature 2, AP Calculus, and added $10,000 to the District Reserve Fund. Funding the Middle and High School this way helped to minimize program cuts in the Elementary School and allowed a part of elementary school music to continue. The District was able to offer an all day Kindergarten program thanks to the generous gift of another donor.

This is a campaign that has worked.  Generous support has maintained programming at our schools, while administrators and the school board have worked to find long-term funding solutions.    There has been marked improvement in Fiscal management.  When the Education Initiative first started, the reserve fund for the school district was almost zero.  Today, through stringent management, and donor support, it is higher than it has been in almost a decade.  In addition, the school board has been more active with state legislators.  They meet with them annually, and this brought about a legislative change affecting only two school districts in the state last year:  Orcas and Lopez Island.  With the support of Sen. Kevin Ranker, Orcas was able to move funds normally locked into a vehicle fund for new buses over to the general fund. There have also been great strides to increase long term enrollment.  The administration has aggressively sought students for the district kindergarten-8^th grade Alternative Learning Experience (ALE) program.   This has helped to dramatically increase district enrollment.  Increased enrollment directly translates to increased funding by Washington state.

Without question, the school district is in a better place than it was two years ago.  But the needs for the Education Initiative funds continue this year.  State funding for education has again been drastically cut, and the impact of Federal stimulus money runs out next year. OICF and OIEF are committed to continuing this initiative for two more years.  Community members are welcome to join by making a pledge or contribution.  Contact Hilary Canty, Director of OICF, 376-6423, or Janet Brownell, President of OIEF, 376-4376, for more information.  An investment in education is a vote for that brighter future.