School Fundraising Drive Pushes Past the Halfway Mark

After receiving an extension at last week's School Committee meeting, the Bridge the Gap campaign for the Arlington schools was able to raise another $75,000 in the past week to put toward adding back some of the positions cut from the school budget because of the $4 million budget deficit.

The campaign started after the April 27 School Committee meeting. Volunteers have held yard sales, concerts, bake sales and more. Local businesses have contributed their time and efforts as well.

The Bridge the Gap campaign has been working to raise money to help reduce some of the cuts the schools face because of the $4 million budget shortfall. The money will go directly towards the running of the schools and will be used for teacher's and specialist's salaries that might otherwise be cut.

With the money already in by June 7 (the first deadline), the Committee voted to add the following positions back into the school budget:

•  One elementary classroom teacher, which would ensure that no class has more than 27 students in a class ($50,000).
•  A world language teacher into the sixth grade at the Ottoson School, it would allow the school to offer world languages as an exploratory course, otherwise students could have too many study periods throughout their schedule ($25,000).
•  Elementary art and music teachers, which would fully restore the elementary art and music program in the elementary schools ($150,000).
•  A physical education teaching assistant to help with the increasing size of the gym classes ($15,800).
•  A part-time art teacher in the high school ($15,800).
•  Partially restore the ACE and Drama program in the middle school ($23,000).
•  Restores a library-teaching assistant in each of the elementary schools ($130,000).
•  A reading support teacher at the middle school will be added back ($25,000).

The extra $75,000 raised in the past week will help fund an elementary school physical education position, a middle school guidance position, a middle school math support position and some funding for high school athletics that will avoid steep participation fees, said Amy Speare, the communications coordinator for the effort. The final decision on these items will be made during next Tuesday's School Committee meeting.

And although the major push - the phone calls, the solicitations, the large events - are over, the campaign is still counting checks and accepting donations.  There is one more fundraiser planned on June 24 at 7 p.m. at the Regent Theatre (a screening of "On Broadway").

In addition, Lyons Fuel has agreed to donate $50 in the name of anyone who opens a new account until July 15 to the Bridge the Gap Fund.

Some of the biggest donations in the past week came in from companies like Mirak, Armstrong Ambulance, Remax and Coldwell Banker.

Though Speare said it is unlikely that the additional plans will push the campaign past the $1 million goal, the members of the Arlington Education Foundation are very proud of what they achieved with the campaign.

"We set the bar high intentionally," Speare said. "We are very, very proud of what we achieved.  The town really embraced it. Everything about it was positive."