Great Opportunity & Great Responsibility

As a public charter school, Mountain Song Community School is afforded a great opportunity that some of our sister public schools in District 11 are not. School-centered governance, autonomy and a clear design for how and what students will learn are the essential characteristics of a public charter school.  Most importantly, this opportunity allows Mountain Song Community School to fully embrace Waldorf Methods of teaching and development.

With this great opportunity for independence, also comes a certain level of independent financial responsibility. Unlike our sister public schools, Mountain Song Community School does not have access to bonds and mill levy overrides (taxes additional to the mill levy). In other district schools, bonds help pay for capital improvements and mill levy overrides can be utilized to increase teacher salaries, purchase textbooks and upgrade equipment.  In addition, our facility at 2904 West Kiowa Street is not owned by the district and although partial rent is covered through some district capital construction monies, the school is still responsible to cover approximately 25% of the rent – or the equivalent of approximately $115,000 a year.

Most importantly, the Mountain Song Community School fully embraces special hands-on educational experiences like agricultural arts, music arts and cooking arts.  These special programs, although proven to both deeply enhance an educational experience and increase measured outcomes, are often seen as more costly and are routinely being cut by public schools. They are mission-critical and at the heart of a solid Waldorf education.

Because of our unique needs, Mountain Song Community School is also afforded another special opportunity.  We are given the opportunity to partner with members of our community and accept private donations. Private donations can be used specifically to provide support for special programs, hands-on educational experiences and even to support teacher salaries and the acquisition and retention of specialized teacher’s aides.  Most importantly, the opportunity to accept tax-deductible donations allows our community to play a significant role in embracing our community’s school in a unique way that promotes a culture by which our children can learn first-hand the power of philanthropy.  We are asking members of our Mountain Song Community to partner with us in this special way by signing up to contribute a small gift on a monthly recurring basis.  When partnered with others, just a small monthly gift – the equivalent of family fast-food outing a month – can make a significant difference in our school and in the lives of our students.

We realize that we are put in a unique situation to ask for your financial support, but we strongly believe that the opportunities we are given are more than worth the responsibility of asking.