Greetings, Governor’s School Alumni,
By now you are probably all aware that the budget passed by the NC Legislature in June cuts all funding for Governor’s School. The Governor’s School Alumni Association and our non-profit sister organization, the Governor’s School Foundation, are teaming up to keep Governor’s School alive.
For there to be Governor’s School in 2012, the Exceptional Children’s Program of the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) needs to prepare and send out nomination packets sometime in September of 2011. Before that can happen, DPI must send a recommendation to the State Board of Education that they be allowed to continue GS with donor support and tuition, and the Board needs to agree. DPI has expressed that they would be hesitant to have a Governor’s School program that is totally tuition-supported, but they would be supportive of the program if a major portion of its cost could be funded by private donations.
Therefore, our first hurdle is to convince the DPI that there is sufficient support for Governor’s School to warrant continuing the program. And we need to convince them of this before the end of August.
Today, Governor’s School costs about $2000 per student. Most of us, all of us who attended before 2010, received that as a gift. All of us received the majority of that as a gift.
In a true ‘pay-it-forward’ fashion, the GSAA is challenging all alumni to commit to providing the full cost of the program to future generations of students by repaying, over the next one to ten years, the $2000 you received as a gift. If you can repay the entire $2000 today, that would certainly help us to convince DPI and the State Board of Education that we are serious about funding GS. But if you cannot pay it all at once, can you commit to $1000 per year for the next two years? Or $500 for the next four? Or $200 for the next ten?
Many of you here on Facebook are probably younger alumni, just starting college. If so, can your parents take up this challenge on your behalf until you are ready to take it upon yourself?
I am not being dramatic when I say that unless we are able to generate significant donations within the next six weeks, the students at Meredith and Salem right now will be the last Governor’s School class North Carolina will ever see. Imagine the halls at Salem and Meredith next summer, empty. Imagine no Ultimate Frisbee games on the quad, no sing-alongs around the fountain, no brilliant and inquisitive minds pondering the latest in science, sociology, music, dance, art, drama, math, English, foreign language, philosophy, and psychology. Imagine if it all just… ended.
Then, imagine if it didn’t.
The difference is you.
To help us continue to provide the Governor’s School experience to tomorrow’s gifted and talented students, go to
www.ncgsfoundation.org/how-to-help/ and make a donation. When you do, come back to this event and select that you are attending, to let us all know that you have committed to paying it forward, to giving the gift of Governor’s School to future generations. (If you have already donated, select Attending to let us know.)
Thank you. I know that you will not let Governor’s School down.
Jim Hart, President, GS Alumni Association
Roice Fulton, Campaign 2011 Chair, GS Foundation
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