April 2, 2014

Dear Island Park Families,

I wanted to thank our learning community for its incredible support of the Island Park Hand-in-Hand program, both at our recent auction and throughout the school year.  We are now arriving at that time of the year when we turn our attention to the district-level Bridge the Gap campaign.

Over the weeks to come you will be getting multiple emails and messages about Bridge the Gap. I am asking that you consider learning about AND supporting this mission-critical fundraising drive, run by the Mercer Island Schools Foundation. Bridge the Gap is designed to preserve academic excellence by maintaining our class sizes at the elementary level and our course options at the middle and high schools.

Washington state made significant cuts to our school budgets, not funding class size reduction since the 2008-09 budget crisis. As a result we depend annually on Bridge the Gap to fund 4 teachers at each school. It is hard to understate the impact losing four teachers would have at our school. Even the loss of one teacher would make a significant impact, causing selected classes to grow in size and our program design to be compromised.

This year, Bridge the Gap will...

• Maintain excellence in education
• Keep class sizes at the current levels in elementary schools.
• Keep 20 class periods at MIHS
• Keep 20 class periods at IMS
• Keep flexibility in advanced math, science and English classes at MIHS
• Keep four teachers per school

Mercer Island cannot afford to wait for our state government to provide a great education for our children. In order to fulfill our promised quality of teaching and learning, we depend on Mercer Island Schools Foundation's Bridge the Gap Campaign. Please read carefully future emails you will be receiving. Thank you in advance for the careful consideration of your personal participation in these efforts.

Your principal,

David Hoffman