PTO Raises $18,000 for District 66

The School Board had a welcome visitor at its September meeting. Michelle Brown, the PTO President at , presented the board with a giant check for $17,500.

Brown said the majority of the money was raised districtwide with the PTOs at , and all contributing.

She said the large donation came from a variety of student and family fundraisers throughout the 2010-11 school year:  The Magazine Drive, Market Day sales, purchases through the "Eats Out" campaign, the Spring Social at Cabana Charlie's, 5 for $25 raffle tickets and the Online Auction which had items from district and community members.

"It was simply amazing to see how generous our community is in regards to our children and their scholastic needs," said Brown.

Their generosity means new technology for the schools.

 According to Superintendent Dr. Jay Tiede, $10,000 of the donation was spent on district technology infrastructure.

"Those funds were applied to a new server farm that was installed this past summer to support enhanced capabilities with our network," said Tiede. 

The remaining money is then divided equally between the buildings and used for technology and software for student use and to enhance instruction.

"The money is always important," said Tiede. He guessed that the PTO has donated more than $250,000 to the district over the last 20 years.