Support Our Students
a big ask from Bea and Belle
Remember those old bumper stickers, “It will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber”? Today it almost seems quaint, the idea that school funding would be anyone’s number one school-related concern (I’d put anti-LGBTQ/anti-CRT legislation, guns, and book bans higher on the list now). But school funding is still a very real issue, especially when you consider the disparities between the wealthiest schools and the poorest ones. I’ve worked in schools not much different from the one portrayed in Abbott Elementary, where we didn’t have basic supplies, much less a library or musical instruments.
Bea and Harriet go to public school in a rural part of Chatham County, and their school is tiny—only a little more than 200 kids for pre-K through 5th grade! This has been pretty sweet during the pandemic, as classes have been small and the hallways and common spaces are never crowded. But it gets trickier when it comes to fundraising, a necessary part of school operations. Fundraising is how schools get “extra” things, like books for the library, cultural arts performances, STEM labs, and computer equipment.
In the past, we’ve used an outside fundraiser called Boosterthon to help with fundraising. This worked well (the year before we lost more than half of our enrollment to the newly-built Briar Chapel school, we raised $40,000), but it also left some of us with a bad taste in our mouths. Boosterthon took 49% of the money we raised, and rewarded kids with plastic toys that we knew would wind up in landfills. Plus, some of our kids came home with an “always be closing” attitude that we didn’t really want to associate with charitable giving.
A few parents raised the issue with our principal during our Zoom PTA meetings, and she sent out a survey—what did other parents, students, and teachers think about fundraising options? Should we try to do it ourselves? Some people thought Boosterthon was fine—it came with a lot of bells and whistles, and it did raise a lot of money. But more of us saw the downsides: it required canceling specials for a week or two, and we didn’t think loading kids up with plastic toys and gadgets was the best way for a science-oriented school (we’re a STEM school) to operate.
So the PTA came together, under the leadership of Brittany Sandefur and her husband, Conner Sandefur, to create a from-scratch fundraiser that better reflected our school values. I am in awe of everything that Brittany and Conner have done: they built a website that can collect donations, came up with a new name, created a whole social media and print campaign, and reached out to small businesses in our community to collect donations.
The campaign starts tomorrow, and if you’d like to give a donation you can do that here. Fundraisers for kids depend on excitement (and frankly, a little pressure) from the kids, so here are some of the things we’re hoping kids and parents get excited about:
Experiences over stuff: Most of our biggest prizes are not stuff at all, but a chance to have cool experiences, a whole day as P.E. assistant or principal, or for whole classes to get extra recess and a pizza party. (Bea really wants to be a P.E. assistant for a day).
A focus on the community: We’ve also been lucky to get donations of gift certificates and prizes from local shops we love, including McIntyre’s Bookstore, Pittsboro Toys, and Ali Cat Toys. Our closing celebration includes performers and artisans from the community too. We hope a side benefit of our fundraiser will be that it encourages our community to shop local.
Kid-made and homemade promotions: We’re lucky to have an absolutely awesome art teacher, Abbey Drechsler, who reminds me a little of Miss Frizzle with her colorful themed outfits (the other day when I complimented her adorable skirt, she told me it was “National dot day”). She actually divides her time between two schools—ours and one about thirty minutes away—but you’d never know it from our hallways and our students’ love of art. Abbey and the students are making posters to promote our fundraiser and are making spooky, fall-themed T-shirts that will be designed and silkscreened by the students (more on this in a future post).
Getting kids to think about the why: one of the things Brittany brought up at our first meeting about switching away from Boosterthon is that she wants her daughter to learn about being generous (so, not an exchange of “raise-this-money-get-this-toy”). All of our materials share that we’re raising money for real school needs, and anything you can give helps and is appreciated.
A big party at the end! Led by the talented Julie Ricker, who volunteers so much time for our school and community, a group of parents and teachers have planned a fall festival to celebrate whatever we manage to raise. The festival has a lot of great community sponsors and will include a homemade cake walk, a bouncy slide, a photo booth, music, animals, face painting, crafts, food, and more.
I’m really grateful to all of these volunteers, especially teachers like Ms. Drechsler and Ms. Bowling, who volunteer time on top of their demanding jobs, and Mrs. Doty, who is taking a big chance on parent ideas. Everyone’s so busy, but they’ve come together to try something new, homemade, and with a low environmental cost.
Unlike a lot of Substacks, the FTT doesn’t have paid subscriptions and we don’t intend to. Nothing wrong with subscription models! It’s just not our thing. I started this newsletter as a way to write about things I care about, which is also what I wanted to teach Bea to do. Bea often says, “we should put that in the FTT!” (see her jokes below). We also love reading comments and getting new subscribers, and I’m grateful to have a record of what we’ve been doing and learning and reading.
But it also occurs to me that the Frog Troublers might like to put some of the money you’re saving on subscriptions toward a great little school effort to build community and Support Our Students? So far, we’ve raised 8% of our $10,000 goal—it would be so cool if we could get that number higher (maybe to 15%?) by the time we have the kickoff pep rally tomorrow. Click here to give—anything you can is so very appreciated (and if you want Bea’s class to get “credit,” mark Ms. Tuite’s third grade—pre-K benefits from the fundraiser but parents/kids aren’t asked to participate). You can even do this in Beatrice’s honor—maybe she’ll get to be a P.E. assistant (the dream!).
Thanks for reading, Frog Troublers! We love our little school and feel really lucky to have all of these people as part of our community.
For your trouble, Bea has two brand-new jokes for you:
What did Dela wear?
A New Jersey!
and
Why did Cinderella get kicked off the soccer team?
Because she kept running away from the ball!
