Covington 2009/10: Thank you and have a wonderful summer! / 2010-2011 plans

June 10, 2010

Thank you and have a wonderful summer! / 2010-2011 plans

Dear Covington Families,

Thanks for a great year at Covington! Can you believe our community's commitment to education? Wow. You gave

* 24,500 volunteer hours
* Generous financial support to Covington's PTA
* More generous financial support to the Los Altos Education Foundation (LAEF)

Next Year: We'll Need You Again - Even More

The continuing state budget crisis has reduced or placed at risk over 10% of the Los Altos School District (LASD) budget. This decrease, coupled with flat to declining revenues for District, means funding sources have failed to keep pace with rising operating costs. To bring our kids the quality education the community expects, we have to join together and do it ourselves.

LASD PTA's, employees and LAEF are working to bridge the district's funding gap for next year and beyond in the following ways:

* Los Altos PTAs are committed to underwriting LASD workbooks, supplies and printing costs in the coming year. These costs, allocated to each school, will absorb $435K in overhead costs, freeing up budget to maintain other programs cross the district. At Covington, this means budgeting $130 per student.

* LASD Employees: All district employees have agreed to take three unpaid furlough days- roughly equivalent to a 2% pay cut for the calendar year.

* Los Altos Educational Foundation Grant: LAEF has increased its grant to the district next year to an unprecedented amount of $2.35 million in order to ensure that class sizes do not rise above 24 students in grades K-3 and above 30 students in grades 4-6 (the level this year). The LAEF grant will also ensure that our libraries remain open at current levels, and that our children continue to enjoy physical education, fine arts and music.

How You Can Help: Volunteer and Donate (it's tax-deductible!)

Volunteer: It takes 60 volunteer hours per student per year to keep Covington on a path toward success. On Tuesday, August 31, at Back to School Night, we will be looking for your commitments for the 2010/11 school year. Please come excited to get involved.

Donate: It takes financial support from both Covington PTA and LAEF to keep our school great. Next year, Covington PTA will raise over $300K to augment district funding, supply in-class technology, and support school activities and programs. This equates to almost $850 per student. We will do this through three major fund raisers staged throughout the year - Walkathon, Hot Lunch, and Auction.

Remember, your PTA donations are separate from LAEF since they pay for different things.

LAEF funds teachers, so no staff layoffs! PTA pays for the things that make these teachers effective.

LAEF is increasing the requested per-child donation next year to $1000, or $100 per month. We think you'll agree that small class sizes are worth it. LAEF's goal is PARTICIPATION. So please give the amount that fits your budget.

Contributions to either PTA or LAEF are tax-deductible.

Thank you for your commitment to Covington and the Los Altos School District. We appreciate all you do for our school and could not do it without you!

We wish you a wonderful summer and look forward to seeing you in August

Sincerely and Many Thanks,

Erin S. Green, Principal
Matt Abrahms, LAEF Representative
Rick Altinger, LAEF Representative
Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney, LAEF Representative
Darcy Ratner, PTA Co-President
Katie Roper, LAEF Representative
Steve Taglio, PTA Co-President