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The 2012 Session of Governor’s School is Guaranteed
Today,
February 9, 2012, the Governor’s School Foundation made their final report
to the Department of Public Instruction. Since we learned that the budget
for Governor’s School had been cut completely in June, the Foundation has
raised over $700,000 to keep the program alive for 2012.
Over
$400,000 of that total was in the form of small donations from over 1400
alumni and parents.
In
addition to the money to support the program, the Foundation has also
raised nearly $40,000 as a scholarship fund to help students with tuition
this summer.
The
State Board of Education has given the Department of Public Instruction
freedom to determine how best to structure this summer’s program to take
advantage of their limited resources. (For comparison, GS received $850,000
in funding from the state for the 2011 session.) Their primary goal will be
to keep both campuses open, though they may decide to shorten the program
to five weeks in order to bring in more students.
This is
a victory. But we will not see it as a complete success until GS is open
with 800 students for a full six week session, as it existed from 1978 to
2009. The exceptional children of North Carolina deserve nothing less.
See the press release from the GS Foundation
for more details.
Fight for Funding Fuels Search for Alumni
As much
as we did not want GS to lose funding, the level of engagement by the
alumni in keeping the program alive has brought a much-needed benefit for
the Alumni Association. Since June of 2011…
·
The Alumni Database has been updated with new information
for over 1800 members.
·
Our Facebook group has grown to 3650 members – the largest
single point of contact in GSAA history.
·
We have e-mail addresses for over 6000 members.
These
numbers bode well for our future, as we work to encourage the return of
state funding for GS, to continue to grow the program, to fund scholarships
for deserving students (or eliminate the tuition requirement entirely) and
to provide for an enriched experience.
I would
like to thank those of you who worked hard on our Fifty in Fifty or Each
One Reach One program, and those who simply took it upon themselves to
spread the word and contact their friends. Your efforts helped to save the
program today, and they will continue to pay dividends long into the
future.
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