The popular outdoor lab program at Jeffco Public Schools, since 1961 considered almost a rite of passage for sixth-graders, has dodged the budget ax for at least the next 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 Mt. 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 criticial to find folks who will partner with us and do long-term thinking.”
District budget cuts suspended the program several weeks ago. But advocates for the program rallied and began a fund-raising effort that ran the gamut from bake sales to car washes to a variety of contributions from the business community.
The effort also benefitted from district matching funds from a 2010-11 surplus and a $99,500 gift from an anonymous donor. The campaign beat the June 15 deadline to raise $600,000 with time to spare.
“There wasn’t a wringing of hands,” said Weiss, “but a rolling up of sleeves and saying, ‘What can we do to keep these open?'”
