When the WW-P school district cut down its 2010-’11 budget in April, all the focus was on the loss in teaching jobs and cuts to state aid.
But one of the lesser known casualties of last year’s budget cuts was the Outdoor Education program for students in the sixth grade at Community and Grover middle schools.
Since then, the WW-P Education Foundation has been trying to raise a total of $50,000 to bring the popular program back to WW-P.
“It’s a lot of money to raise, but we feel we can do it because it’s such an important program,” said Marcia Fleres, the executive director of the foundation. “We think that this program is so valued in our school district that people will come together to make sure that it continues.”
The Outdoor Education program focuses on developing a learning climate outdoors, in which students can apply what they learn in the school curriculum as they interact with the natural environment.
The three-day program allows the sixth graders to go to an outdoor camp, stay overnight, and participate in learning activities, including measuring the temperatures and depths of different areas of the lake on site.
Students participate in seven different courses offering problem-solving, orienteering (finding one’s way in the woods with a compass), trekking, surveying, and investigating experiences. Students also participate in evening activities to understand the new bonds of friendship, cooperation, and leadership. Teachers and administrators participate in all of the activities, along with camp staff and chaperones.
The outdoor setting provides a laboratory situation as well as a social development area where students can study natural science, social studies, mathematics, physical education, and language arts in real-life situations.
Fleres said the program promotes team-building and leadership. “Kids rise to be leaders,” she said. It also allows them to work with both their teachers and peers to solve problems.
Her own children went through the program. “It’s a program you don’t want to go away, especially now with the whole emphasis on the environment and environmental education,” she said. “This is key to that.”
The WW-P Education Foundation is raising money through corporate sponsorship. The foundation is asking parents, students, staff, or community members who might have any contacts with local, national, or international organizations or businesses to provide information.
The foundation is also fundraising. Throughout the school year, the WW-P Education Foundation will be creating opportunities to raise money for the program. Fleres said that the WW-P Education Foundation has discussed the fundraising with the parent-teacher organizations. One idea is to sell wristbands for the cause (similar to the wristbands worn for other causes). The PTAs have also placed an area on their membership forms for those who are interested to donate to the cause, Fleres said.
The foundation is also raising money through donations. In the past, parents and guardians have contributed a portion of the cost of the Outdoor Education Program — $175 per student. There was some discussion about raising the cost to families, but that would increase the cost to about $250 per student without any fundraising.
The program is so popular that during a meeting at the end of last school year, when the WW-P Education Foundation asked Superintendent Victoria Kniewel which one program she would have liked to save that was cut from the budget, she indicated the Outdoor Education program.
To donate, log on to www.wwpeducationfoundation.org. For more information, E-mail info@wwpeducationfoundation.org.
