Lake Oswego Review's Publisher Sees Education As the City's Most
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THE DONOR ISSUE WINTER 2012 22 998866 001111 11 25 YEARS OF INVESTING IN TEACHERS Lake Oswego Review’s Publisher Sees Education as the City’s Most Valuable Asset rian Monihan has published the Lake “It’s important to the community, so it’s Oswego Review every week for more important to us. I want to get as many kids’ Bthan 10 years. Controversies have come names, faces, and achievements into the paper and gone, but there has been one constant: as possible. Their activities, band, orchestra, the community’s ongoing commitment to its sports, drama—all that is so important to our education system and the high value it places community,” he says. on the students of Lake Oswego. Also popular in the Review are summaries “There’s no doubt that strong schools are of weekend sports events, especially youth inextricably tied to a strong community,” football, where if you don’t see your own Monihan says. child’s incredible touchdown catch, you’re sure Monihan grew up in Beaverton and to see your neighbors’. The paper also lists graduated from Jesuit. He went on to Oregon a boy and girl athlete of the week from both State, where he majored in business and Lake Oswego and Lakeridge High Schools. journalism. He has worked for the Pamplin And in the past year, Monihan says, they have Media Group for 25 years, where he is now added something else. vice president. He was named publisher of the “Sports is obviously a huge draw around Lake Oswego Review in 2001 and also publishes here, but so are academics. So we started the West Linn Tidings, the Southwest (Portland) Brian Monihan, Publisher of the Lake Student All-Stars, to highlight the amazing Community Connection and The (Sellwood) Bee. Oswego Review kids who are leaders in their schools and in Prior to coming to the Review, Monihan this community,” he adds. published the Forest Grove News-Times for several years. Upon his arrival in Lake Oswego, Monihan was immediately struck Community Values by the caliber of the students. It’s clear to Monihan that the community truly values its students and is proud of the District’s status of continued excellent ratings Youth Involvement for all its schools. “All the kids here are so motivated. They get involved and really He points to the response by the Lake Oswego community put themselves out there,” he says. “It’s a community with a lot to the school funding crisis last year as an example of the of type-A personalities, from the kids to the parents. Everyone commitment to excellence. When it became clear that state really values education highly.” funding cuts to school districts across the state might very well Monihan was also not at a loss for using this newfound lead to teacher layoffs, staff reductions, and program cuts in Lake motivated talent. The Review added student columnists Oswego, the community acted at all levels. from both high schools as a way to give perspective on their “You had business leaders—the Bank of Oswego for community and also established a youth board as another way to example—city leaders, parents, everyone. The community rallied bring younger voices into the newspaper. Even though the youth around the Foundation. It was a tremendous year of giving.” board is temporarily suspended for this year, Monihan hopes to Monihan says he’s seen many polarizing issues over the years bring the program back next year. in Lake Oswego, but the Foundation’s efforts were not among With education so cherished in the community, Monihan them. asks the news team to include students in as much of the paper “You could say that the Foundation has really united the as they can. continued on page 3 A Message from Kevin Robertson, Lake Oswego School LOSD Foundation President 2011-12 District Foundation Lake Oswego is truly a community like no other, and our strong schools are at its heart. Families and Our Mission—To sustain the tradition of outstanding schools in Lake Oswego. businesses continue to move here because of our schools and then fall in love with this special place. Our Goal—To reduce the student- teacher ratio by hiring additional Last year, the Lake Oswego School District Foundation teachers. celebrated 25 years of its singular mission of investing Since its inception in 1986, virtually in teachers to keep our community strong. With the all donations raised by the Foundation support of our donors, consisting of parents, alumni, have been dedicated to funding teaching positions and reducing class sizes. grandparents, businesses, homeowners, and other community members, we raised $2.2 million to help 2011–12 Board of Directors bridge what looked like an overwhelming gap in state funding that might have severely affected Kevin Robertson, President our schools for this year. The city, our school district staff, and teachers also contributed to the Liz Hartman, Vice President effort for our schools making what was truly a communitywide statement about how committed John Wallin, Vice President we are to excellent schools. Steve Wells, Vice President The generous spirit did not stop there: our forward-thinking contributors also gave more than Meredith Callison, Secretary David Schaezler, Treasurer $1.2 million to our endowment. The growth of our endowment is the key to our success for the Mary Puskas, CFRE Director next 25 years, and we are starting to see its impact already. This year, the endowment will be one of the largest single contributors to the annual campaign. With your continued support and Melinda Andrew donations to the Endowment, that yearly contribution will only increase. Mary Jo Avery Jennifer Boothroyd We all know that challenges remain with the current state of the economy, and that difficult Rhonda Cohen decisions may still be needed. However it is important to keep in mind that despite these Ross Divers challenges and because of your support, our class sizes are among the lowest while the number Linda Ganzini of instructional days are among the highest in the region. Our students and our schools have Harmony George Jaursch never been more successful: every school has now received the highest possible rating for five years Kerry Griffin running. Katie Hamachek Julie Long Greenberg As we embark upon another leg of our journey, we must strive to maintain the same broad Justin Harnish participation to achieve our goals: $2.3 million for the annual campaign, and $1.6 million for Sarah Howell the endowment. Accomplishing these goals will allow our schools to remain strong, providing an Jeff Kantor unparalleled education experience to our students and standing as a symbol of our commitment to Thomas Krueger keep our schools as the heart of our community. Chris Miller Thank you for choosing to contribute to the Lake Oswego School District Foundation to support Al Nodarse our kids, their education, and this community. Thank you for sharing the vision for excellence in Jennifer Pahl Robert Poe Lake Oswego Schools now and forever. I am excited for our kids and our schools looking to the John Saefke future here in this incredible community of Lake Oswego. Denise Smith We can do this. It’s up to us to make the future brighter now and forever. John Stirek Kim Valley Stacy Yost Lake Oswego School District Foundation P.O. Box 70 Lake Oswego, OR 97034 Phone: 503-534-2106 Fax: 534-2108 SAVE THE DATES FOR THESE GREAT www.losdfoundation.org FOUNDATION EVENTS! Graphic design services donated by former board Campaign Kick-Off Luncheon—Wednesday, February 22, 2012 member Vicki Munroe of Smart Blonde Design. Annual Golf Tournament —Monday, June 2, 2012 2 Endowment Plans $1.6 Million Campaign As the 25th Anniversary of the Lake Looking forward, we’ve set our sights Oswego School District Foundation to raise an additional $1.6 million in comes to a close, we look back on commitments to the endowment in 2012. what we set out to do and we are We are encouraged by the feedback of proud and thankful for what the Lake spirited donors within the community Oswego community has enabled us to who value that their contribution is accomplish. safe and secure as managed by the For the annual campaign, we raised Oregon Community Foundation, which more than $2.2 million—the most ever. manages the nation’s sixth largest pool of Coupled with the addition of the City endowment assets. Endowment donors of Lake Oswego’s contribution of $2 also understand that their investment million, the District was able to survive earns a return of excellence in all of our the ongoing statewide budget crisis in schools from kindergarten through 12th 2011 and once again earned the highest grade, and that their giving is a means to rating of “Excellent” for each school pay back their fondness of living while within the district—for the fifth year in learning in Lake Oswego and leaves a a row! Excellence has a price and the legacy to the entire community. Lake Oswego community has once again While it is important for you to proven that it invests in our schools in understand what the Foundation does order to get it—thank you! (we invest in teachers!) and how we do For our endowment fund, the The Stafford Stones, a ring of basalt columns engraved it (through capital contributions to both Stafford Society, we established a goal with the poetry of William Stafford, can be found in the annual campaign and the endowment), of $1 million in contributions and Foothills Park. we believe it is most important for you to intensified our focus on this fund in understand why we are doing it: we are order to complement the annual campaign with a long-term building a brighter future for Lake Oswego today and tomorrow stable source of funding.