The outdoor lab program at Jeffco Public Schools, considered almost a rite of passage for sixth-graders since 1961, has dodged the budget ax for at least the next school year.
An outpouring of grassroots support has raised enough money — more than $625,000 and counting — to keep the program running for the 2011-12 school year. The $199-per-student fee will jump to $300, but no student will be turned down as supporters seek to bolster scholarship funds that aid needy families with tuition.
The next step will be to figure out a sustainable way to finance the lab program, which allows kids to experience a week-long stay at Mount Evans and Windy Peak Outdoor Lab schools.
“At this point, we’ve got a lot of ideas, but we wanted to wait until we got through this crisis mode to put things in place,” said Kathy Weiss, president of the Outdoor Lab Foundation. “It can’t look like it has looked in the last few months. I think that it will be critical to find folks who will partner with us and do long-term thinking.”
