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Canton woman on school fundraising: ‘Just Need To Do It’

Posted 9/9/14

To the Editor: It is time that school boards get off their collective duffs and, instead of waiting for the federal and state government and the local taxpayers to cough up enough $’s to fund the …

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Canton woman on school fundraising: ‘Just Need To Do It’

Posted

To the Editor:

It is time that school boards get off their collective duffs and, instead of waiting for the federal and state government and the local taxpayers to cough up enough $’s to fund the school’s needs and wishes, to become proactive as well as creative in their financing.

Some suggestions for financing schools follow:

Take a look at Newcomb Central School which actively seeks students from other countries. These “foreigners” pay tuition, add to the local economy and bring some diversity to the school and the community. A win/win financing as well as educational benefit. There are many reasons this would be feasible in St. Lawrence County, not the least of which is the closeness of two colleges and two universities. A rather large draw for students from other countries.

I have been told by a school administrator that there are grants that could be written to assist in school financing but that none of the employees have time to write said grants. Have schools considered asking for grant-writing volunteers? We have a rather large supply of retired and/or not presently employed people who have grant-writing skills and would gladly give of their time to assist local schools, if asked.

And, speaking of volunteers, we could have community members with particular skills, come into our schools and teach lessons/skills in their area of expertise. I know, this goes against the teacher’s union rules…but rules can be changed…and need to be…especially in times of financial ‘crisis.’

Students fundraise for trips to Europe, for their music programs, etc. They could do the same for sports and other extra-curricular activities. Just think of the skills they would learn/develop from such efforts!

I know the school boards just shake their heads at such ideas…partly because we’ve never done this before (we have, it was just too long ago for them to know about and/or remember), partly because they haven’t thought ‘out of the box’, because they haven’t trusted the community to take on this responsibility and perhaps because they don’t really understand how to delegate or form proactive committees.

I am continually amazed by the amount of community participation and money raised in the North Country for a variety of needs. North Country folks are incredibly generous and tend to look out for their own.

Farmers with muck on her or his boots; loggers or construction workers with missing teeth; homemakers with children at home and other childcare givers; homeschoolers, both adults and children; the local trash collectors; the home/health care workers; the disabled adults; the EMTs and fire wo/men; the shopkeepers; the bartenders; the clerks and the cleaners; the co’s and other law enforcement folks; the doctors and lawyers and educators…these folks are at the heart of our community. These people care about our children’s education…these are just a few people to consider when forming committees.

Let’s make the Nike logo our logo: “Just need to do it!”

Claudia MacDonald

Canton