Vote Children First – Vote Yes on 3A!Community Foundation endorses BVSD Mill Levy Override
Foundation applauds District’s $5 million earmark for Early Childhood Initiative
Boulder (September 3, 2010) –The Trustees of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County have offered their full support for the campaign to Vote Children First – Yes on 3A – Restore Classroom Cuts. The Foundation urges Boulder Valley voters to join them in supporting the measure in the Nov. 2 election. Mail-in voting begins Oct. 12.
If approved, Issue 3A would restore classroom cuts and support smaller classes, quality teachers and academic excellence in the Boulder Valley School District. It would generate approximately $22.5 million per year.
The Community Foundation applauded the school district for including in the package a commitment to spend at least $5 million on preschool and full-day Kindergarten for low-income students. The funding would allow the district to nearly double its full-day Kindergarten offerings, and increase preschool slots by more than 60 percent.
The Foundation’s research indicates that this is one of the smartest and most leveraged investments our community could make, to begin to close the gap in academic achievement between low-income students and their peers. Currently, BVSD has the widest achievement gap in the Denver metro area. We believe that this investment could begin to close this troubling gap.
“This was an important step in the journey of our Foundation,” President Josie Heath said. “We have done a lot of homework to make this happen.”
The Community Foundation has 10 years of research showing the achievement gap is a major issue facing our community. Closing this gap became a focal point after the Foundation launched its Community Trust Initiative two years ago. Trustees met with local and regional thought leaders and studied trends across the country before determining that the most lasting solution would need to involve a sustainable source of public funding for early childhood education.
