Dear Murdock Families,
I hope each of you are enjoying your summer and your time with family and friends. As summer begins to draw to a close we start thinking about next school year and all that lies ahead. For those of you new to Murdock, we have two independent organizations that work together to provide wonderful programs and education enrichment for our children. One of those organizations is our PTA and the other is the Murdock Foundation (MESF). MESF is a 5013c non-profit foundation that provides enrichment curriculum, technology and capital needs to Murdock through family and community donations. MESF is run by an elected board of directors made up of Murdock parents, teachers and administration.
Your MESF board has been working on an exciting new program I would like to introduce to you! In the past we have held a curriculum drive to pay for MESF’s programs that employ teachers to run them. We have asked for a suggested amount, per child, to cover salaries and the necessary equipment/consumables needed for those programs. After those programs were funded, several additional fundraisers were necessary throughout the year to cover the remainder of the MESF budget. In response to your comments on the parent survey, we are rolling out a Patron Program similar to those used by other East Cobb schools‘ foundations. The Patron Program will replace the curriculum drive and, with enough support, will cut down on the number of additional fundraisers needed to cover our budget. The patron program will also allow you to donate a flat amount per family regardless of how many children you have attending Murdock. The first item paid from that fund will be our Science Teacher, Mrs. Kauffman’s, salary and consumables for the Science Lab. After the Science Lab is funded, we will address the other enrichment curriculum, technology and capital needs that MESF is able to provide thanks to your generous donations. Some of those include:
- One field trip, COMPLETELY funded, for EVERY Murdock student to ensure that, even with budget cuts , our children will get at least one of these valuable, experiential learning opportunities this year.
- MESF has a long-term goal to supply each classroom with five desk top computers and will purchase those as donations allow after purchasing maintenance items on existing technology
- Teacher grants for each grade level including specials and ALP
- IXL and First In Math software packages
- Additional Items that come to us from the Murdock community through needs assessment throughout the year.
We hope that each of you will consider becoming a “Friend of the Foundation” on some level this year! MESF can only continue to bring the Science Lab and other programs that it provides as long as we have the necessary financial support from our Murdock families and community partners. Any funds we raise over our budget will go toward our long term goal of purchasing 5 computers for each classroom and will allow us to consider funding items that come through needs assessment during the year. At the end of the day, your donations go straight back to your kids in the form of an eye-opening science experiment, a memory for life on a field trip they take, higher achievement in Math as a result of working with IXL or First in Math, or the opportunity to work with technology they will need to make them competitive now and in the future. And that is just the beginning....... MESF is YOUR foundation. MESF’s gifts to the children are YOUR gifts to the children. Thank you for considering becoming a “Friend of the Foundation” for the 2010-2011 school year and continuing the tradition of excellence that is Murdock Elementary.
Sincerely yours,
Cindy Barber
MESF President
Download Friends of the Foundation Form - Final