Ready to Teach, Ready to Learn:
2020-21 Final Report of the CCS Reopening Fund
Thank you to everyone who donated!
Your commitment to the success of our community's students is inspiring.
Click the button below to read the final report and see how your generosity made a difference for Charlottesville's students, families, and teachers in this highly unusual and challenging school year.
The Fund remains open to donations as the Joint PTO committee looks to evolve and continue this united fundraising effort. Donate by clicking the red Donate Now button above on the right of this page.
News
June 8, 2021
Ready to Teach, Ready to Learn: Final Report of the CCS Reopening Fund
Thank you to everyone who donated! Your commitment to the success of our community's students is inspiring.
March 4, 2021
Report to School Board
Dear School Board Members,
On behalf of the Charlottesville City Schools Joint PTO Reopening Fund, I would like to provide you and the community with a short update on its progress to date.
A reminder that the Joint PTO Reopening Fund was created to support effective teaching in a virtual environment and allows equal opportunity for each student and teacher to productively utilize the district’s mandatory nine-week virtual-learning plan.
The Reopening Fund has received a total of $163,839 from 189 donors - a slight increase since our last report. $159,000 from the Fund was distributed to the CCS schools, which have created dedicated committees to select expenditures. Over the last month, the committees have been spending down their remaining balances to support the Return to Learn transition. Some examples of how the funding has been spent recently include:
The Fund just sent $3378 to the central office's Pupil Transportation program to help fund the cost of a qualified contract driving service that will be used to address special transportation needs. These are car transports that cannot be served by our current bus routes nor our available drivers. This was a departure from allocating funds to each school, but was deemed necessary after school PTOs reported back on district wide transportation challenges.
Similarly and as part of the division wide transportation challenge, Johnson Elementary is directing $2,000 of their Joint PTO reopening funds to Abundant Life to hire a driver to use their small bus to transport students to/from Johnson.
Some schools’ committees already exhausted their allocations and the rest are near the end. All committees were instructed to spend the resources before the end of the school year.
From the beginning, this committee has been committed to the transparency of this effort. We encourage everyone to visit ccsptofund.org to find how funds are being spent and distributed.
We wish you a constructive meeting.
February 4, 2021
Report to School Board
Dear School Board Members,
On behalf of the Charlottesville City Schools Joint PTO Reopening Fund, I would like to provide you and the community with a short update on its progress to date.
A reminder that the Joint PTO Reopening Fund was created to support effective teaching in a virtual environment and allows equal opportunity for each student and teacher to productively utilize the district’s mandatory nine-week virtual-learning plan.
The Reopening Fund has received a total of $163,718.41 from 187 donors - an increase of nearly $2620 since our last report. $159,000 from the Fund was distributed to the CCS schools, which have created dedicated committees to select expenditures. These committees have been spending the resources to support students’ virtual learning needs and in some cases, meeting family’s essential needs. Some examples of how the funding has been spent recently include:
1. On December 17th and 18th, 2020 Charlottesville High School held a CHS Cares Holiday Drive-Through event. Through generous support from the Joint PTO Reopening Fund, 200 CHS families in need were invited to drop by school to pick up a bag stocked with nutritious, shelf-stable grocery items for the winter break. Each bag included a Kroger or Food Lion grocery card to enable families to purchase fresh items like milk, eggs, and fruits and vegetables. Sixteen volunteers from the CHS PTO spent nearly a full day working with CHS teachers and staff to pack up these grocery bags for distribution.
2. The Joint PTO Reopening Fund was used by Greenbrier Elementary School to help cover the remaining transportation costs for children attending International Neighbors’ learning centers, which are 2-3 miles from their homes. International Neighbors serves 30 newly arrived school-age children who lack the skills and tools necessary for online learning without significant support.
Many school committees shifted planning and purchases recently to support an in-person return. Those purchases are “no regrets” in that the materials or services can still be utilized in a post-COVID school year if not utilized this school year.
From the beginning, this committee has been committed to the transparency of this effort. We encourage everyone to visit ccsptofund.org to find how funds are being spent and distributed.
We wish you a constructive meeting.
December 17, 2020
Report to School Board
Dear School Board Members,
On behalf of the Charlottesville City Schools Joint PTO Reopening Fund, I would like to provide you and the community with a short update on its progress to date.
A reminder that the Joint PTO Reopening Fund was created to support effective teaching in a virtual environment and allows equal opportunity for each student and teacher to productively utilize the district’s mandatory nine-week virtual-learning plan.
The Reopening Fund has received a total of $161,098 from 185 donors. $159,000 from the Fund was distributed to the CCS schools, which have created dedicated committees to select expenditures. These committees have been spending the resources to support students’ virtual learning needs and in some cases, meeting family’s essential needs. Some examples of how the funding has been spent include:
Purchases of desks, styluses, chromebook chargers, and headphones in various combinations at most schools to assist children in virtual learning from home.
Purchases of notebooks, dry erase boards and markers, math manipulatives such as dice, art supplies, and other school supplies.
Payments to virtual learning locations.
Payments to meet the essential needs of families: rent, bills, and grocery cards.
The school committees are now shifting to planning for needs generated from the potential reopening, which we will learn more about later tonight.
From the beginning, this committee has been committed to the transparency of this effort. We encourage everyone to visit ccsptofund.org to find how funds are being spent and distributed.
We wish you a constructive meeting.
November 5, 2020
Report to School Board
The Reopening Fund has received a total of $160,587 from 184 donors. $80,000 from the Fund has already been distributed to each of the CCS schools according to the equity formula based on overall school population and the percentage receiving free and reduced school lunch. The remaining $80,000 balance is in process to be distributed soon.
Per the equity formula, the elementary school with the fewest students receiving free and reduced lunch will receive approximately $7,000, while the elementary school with the most students receiving free and reduced lunch will receive almost $20,000 from the Fund. The school level committees have used the funds for at home learning materials such as math and letter manipulatives for younger students, art supplies, books and more; for supplemental tech needs like headphones and additional Chromebook chargers and styluses; for support of community partners running virtual learning centers; and for direct family aid including food and basic needs.
We thank everyone – community members, parents, local businesses and foundations – who have donated to this initiative. Most of the donations were from individuals ranging from $10 all the way up to $25,000 with the majority in the $100 to $500 range. We received $5,000 from a local law firm, $1,000 from a local fuel company, $1,000 from the Public Education Foundation of Charlottesville/Albemarle, $12,000 from the Hut Foundation, $10,000 from the Grace Riggs Fund, and $25,000 from both Bama Works and the Smith Family Fund.
We are all in this together but the virtual environment has been more challenging for some students and families and we are grateful for this generous response as we strive to support every learner, every day, everyone. We as PTOs plan on reviewing this Fund after spending and reporting on funds raised in order to consider if this kind of joint fundraising can be used again in the future. More detail on how funds have been spent can be found on the Financials tab.
October 20, 2020
To date, the Fund has raised/committed funds of $160,000! Thank you to the individuals, families, businesses, and foundations that have made this possible!
Sep 29, 2020
We have met our match!!! Thanks to everyone who has supported our City families.
Sep 15, 2020
Today we are excited to announce that THANKS to the Bama Works Fund of Dave Matthews Band and The Smith Family “Always Am” Fund, we have a "Double Match" challenge opportunity. Both have committed to donating $25,000. If the community can raise an additional $25,000 that equals $75,000 for Charlottesville City School students!
Ready to Teach
Ready to Learn
Schools across the country are entering a school year like no other, and Charlottesville is no different. In the face of this unprecedented challenge to our children’s education, The Parent-Teacher Organizations (PTOs) of the Charlottesville City Schools have established and are seeking donations to the Ready to Teach, Ready to Learn Charlottesville City Schools Reopening Fund.
This fund will not replace each school’s PTO, but CCS PTOs are partnering to raise funds district-wide rather than focusing on their own schools because we are stronger together and together is the best way to build equity for all of our children. This rapid response fund is committed to equity by meeting
the individual needs of every learner, every day, everyone.