The Quilt Campaign--$34,000 committed so far!--

In 2009, rather than sacrifice critical programs, the teachers and staff at Southside Family Charter School responded to an impending budget crisis by voting to temporarily reduce their own pay and benefits. The school’s board of directors also instituted cuts in academic and enrichment programs to balance the budget.

Underpaying staff and eliminating tutoring, field trips and visiting authors and artists is not a long- term solution. Our social justice mission doesn’t include permanently underpaid workers. And our commitment to social justice cannot be fully realized without the enrichments that respect and nurture each child’s learning style and expose introduce them to a broader world and complex issues.

We need our community to invest in our model as well as the values, dedication and excellent work of our staff. We are launching a Quilt Campaign to stitch together a stronger base for the school.

We ask you to consider a gift to sponsor a piece of the quilt.

In reflecting on the meaning and importance of our curriculum we found the inspiration for this campaign: the women of Gee’s Bend.

During the 2005 Civil Rights Trip, our middle school students were honored to study the history and meet members of the Gee’s Bend Quilters’ Collective in Boykin, Alabama. They told us their history of intimidation and courage, violence and peaceful resistance, oppression and creativity. Through the art of quilting, through sharing strength, and through building community, these women sustained their people, lived their values and built their self-sufficiency.

We draw on the strength and determination of the Gee’s Bend Quilters as Southside Family Charter School launches The Quilt Campaign: Piecing Together A Brighter Future.

The campaign is the most ambitious in the school’s 37 year history and is critical to our success.

Government has not fulfilled the responsibility to provide adequate resources for education, especially with deceptive financial maneuvers such as unallotment, funding shifts and increasing the school funding holdback to 30%.

We must rally as a community to move the school forward responsibly, ensuring that our students, regardless of their means, have the opportunity to experience an innovative, rigorous education grounded in social justice.

We hope you will join us in stitching together support for this special campaign.

The funds generated thorough The Quilt Campaign will be used to:

• Restore teacher and staff salaries to 2008 levels, when teachers and staff voted to cut their own salaries and benefits by 10% of their already modest level. A starting teacher at SFCS now makes 20% less than a starting district teacher. We must do better.
• Alleviate funding cuts to: community learning experiences, musician and author residencies, travel study and classroom supplies.
• Maintain small class size
• Share our model so our successful strategies can be replicated in other schools.

The school’s 37 year history of success providing high-quality education to a diverse student population, keeping progressive values at our core and benefitting the wider community demands that we sustain the program and collectively help it thrive. Your contribution will allow the school to be financially responsible, without forcing us to incur debt to compensate for the state’s withholding. Please help us stitch together the support needed to make this happen.

The goal of The Quilt Campaign is to raise $200,000 in additional funds. We need your support to succeed. We hope you will sponsor a patch in the quilt and then ask your friends and family to do the same.