This page is meant to answer the perennial questions of who raises money, what is it used for, and why do I have to give?
Last things first. Public schools are well funded, but never funded well enough. We have to make up the difference. Not enough money for a new playground? The parents step in. Money for the arts? If you want more arts in the curriculum, the parents have to step in. Field trips? Clubs? Special teacher requests? The list goes on.
The PTA raises money. The school has fundraisers as well.
The PTA has three main ways to raise money. Through membership in the PTA. We usually get about 500 people who sign up every year and pay $10. That raises about $5000. We hold two annual “big events,” one of two fall fundraisers, Evening With The Arts (held on odd years), and The Affordable Auction (held on even years). In the spring the PTA hosts May Mart. Between these two events we are able to raise forty thousand dollars on average. The last way the PTA raises money is through capital campaigns. These are multi-year fundraising campaigns that focus on a specific goal. For example, the beautiful playgrounds in the school were financed entirely through the “Minds in Motion” capital campaign.
The PTA also has small fundraisers throughout the year, such as bake sales during election day or after school, t-shirt sales, pizza sales, Christmas wreath sales and a few others.
The school has its own fundraisers. The primary school fundraiser is the candy sales. The school raises about thirty thousand dollars through this fundraiser and uses the money at its own discretion to supplement its annual budget for things such as textbooks and teacher stipends.
Different clubs and the school bands will also have fundraisers for their specific events, such as last year when the Spanish class took 10 children to Costa Rica.
We are always looking for new and innovative ways to raise money. Please step up and help us out in any way you can.
