| Major Giving Campaign
Creating Futures: Parkmont's Campaign for Today and Tomorrow
Parkmont provides a much needed alternative education for students in the Washington DC area who require a small school environment to thrive. The Board of Trustees of the School is committed to assuring that a vibrant and vigorous Parkmont will continue to be available for decades to come. Therefore, the Board has launched Creating Futures: Parkmont's Campaign for Today and Tomorrow a major giving campaign that will create a strong and enduring fiscal base for the school, as well as strengthen the current financial aid and faculty development programs.
Current Needs For Parkmont
Parkmont has outgrown its days of financial crises, is accredited, and is well respected within the community. Even still, its financial reserves are minimal; planning for the school must occur on a year-to-year basis instead of the more sound and strategic multi-year approach. Students can only be guaranteed financial aid for one year at a time, the level of faculty compensation can only be assured for 12-month periods, and the longevity of great school programs is never assured.
Currently there are four areas from which Parkmont acquires the monies to fund the annual budget: tuition, Annual Giving, special events and foundations/other agencies. Tuition levels at Parkmont School are comparable to other small schools in the area but make up only 85% of the total operating budget. The parent body is supportive of the school, which is reflected in the level of funds raised through the Annual Giving campaign and special events, but even with these revenues the budget does not balance. Thus, each year the school looks to foundations and "special angels" for the additional support.
Angels by their nature do not come along every day and foundation support is unpredictable. Thus, for Parkmont, now over 30 years old, to be in the position to move to its next level of maturation - effective multi-year planning and budgeting - a stronger fiscal foundation must be established through the creation of a reliable and ready reservoir of financial resources on which the school may rely during naturally occurring fluctuations in enrollment levels.
A Campaign To Meet That Need
To build these essential reserves and fiscal foundation, Parkmont's Board of Trustees launched Creating Futures: Parkmont's Campaign for Today and Tomorrow in 2005. This campaign, already having reached successful heights, has been essential for the School to continue our mission. More D.C. kids will surmount their hurdles and finish school if Parkmont is available to them. And we want to be more than just available. We want to continue providing them with aggressive financial aid, outstanding teachers to guide them through their schooling, and the additional resources necessary to educate and guide individual students with different learning needs.
Creating Futures: Parkmont's Campaign for Today and Tomorrow
Focuses on strengthening three critical elements of the school infrastructure - building blocks that make the work we do with kids possible. Funds raised for the three areas through the Creating Futures campaign would allow Parkmont to meet the needs of today, while also preparing for the challenges of the future:
• Financial Aid
Goal: $500,000 permanent endowment
$50,000 annually for at least 10-12 years
True to the mission and philosophy of the school, at the forefront of the Creating Futures campaign is the establishment of a financial aid (FA) fund to stabilize the FA program.
Parkmont is by definition a diverse institution. We believe that diversity -- academic, emotional, ethnic, and economic diversity -- provides an enhanced educational environment in which students learn about, and relate with others from differing cultures, races and economic backgrounds. We need help with economic diversity because it is so expensive, which is why the Financial Aid component of this campaign is critical. The School has always tried to assure that financial aid is available to all who need it. While economics have prevented the school from reaching this goal completely, admittance to the school as much as possible is needs blind.
The steady flow of scholarship income the campaign will provide will complement the aggressive financial aid program that Parkmont has successfully operated for more than fifteen years. It will enable the school to guarantee financial aid to students throughout their course of study and mean that funds will be available to students entering mid-term when financial aid funds at all schools are the most scarce.
• Signature Programs Support: Expanded and Improved Learning Spaces, State-of-the Art Technology and Readily Available forms of Transport
Goal: $70,000 annually for 10+ years
Much of the learning at Parkmont takes place far beyond textbooks and traditional classrooms. The Signature Programs at Parkmont include extensive use of experiential learning, study tours, field trips, and internships coupled with a homelike school house which is made infinite in size through the extensive use of educational technology. These are vital components of the Parkmont educational experience. The goal of the Signature Programs component of this campaign is to guarantee that the school house oasis is maintained and improved and that resources remain readily available which ensure the continued use of the outside world as our classroom.
As part of the success of the campaign to-date, the school seized the opportunity to acquire the adjacent property. In keeping with the school's philosophic underpinnings our current building is as welcoming, comfortable and safe as a family home. This building however, has been "stretched" to create sufficient space for a full range of class offerings from art to zoology. The new facility, once renovated, will become the home base of the Middle School program and our fine arts activities. Acquiring the property also provides us the opportunity to develop a campus plan that will include on-site outdoor activities. Further funds for the Signature Programs through the campaign have already allowed us to begin renovations of the current school-house. We expect to put $250,000-$300,000 in improvements and renovations into the current school home, and $200,000-$250,000 into renovating the new building.
The Creating Futures campaign will strengthen other elements of our Signature Programs as well. Technology has been fully integrated into the way classes are taught and students research and do their work. It affords students access to the whole world from their small home-like classroom. Further technology offers unprecedented avenues of exploration and study to young people with many, diverse learning needs. The campaign to-date already has helped provide a new laptop cart that computerizes two more classrooms, and online science materials that have expanded the hands-on experience of science in the upper school Design and publication software, online library memberships, and access to online video libraries will also be added and enhanced. A new wireless network will be added that students can interact with anywhere on campus or from offsite, the goal being to provide students with daily use of the tools that will be critical to their success in college and work.
The school's travel opportunities give students a unique hands-on-learning perspective, and as noted are integral to the Parkmont experience and the way in which our students learn. Kids may visit a mosque in northwest DC, a Mayan temple in Uxmal, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission water cleaning site or the natural water filtration system called the Everglades. For the last 27 years, Parkmont has made sure that our travel adventures have been available to all our students, and thus has underwritten student travel costs at the same percentage as their financial aid. Through underwriting the high level financial support needed and providing the vehicles for these adventures, the campaign will assure that these trips will remain accessible to each and every student for at least the next ten years.
• Faculty Development
Goal: $20,000 a year for 10+ years
Parkmont School is proud of our dynamic, well-educated, and creative faculty who, in working individually with each student, are the core of our students' experience. The school has built a team of seasoned core faculty, which it combines with more recent graduates who bring energy and new ideas as well as provide role models with whom students can readily identify. Serving kids with special needs and those for whom learning does not come easily, requires unique skills. Specialty training for new teachers and ongoing curricular development for all faculty is essential to keep the skills and talents of our teaching staff at their peak. By the same token, a stabilized and enhanced faculty educational program will furnish one more benefit that will help attract and retain quality faculty.
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