Paving the Way for the Future - Odyssey Charter School 2019
Dear Families and Friends of Odyssey Charter School,
This past year has been very exciting for Odyssey as the school continues to grow into its Barley Mill Campus. In the past year Odyssey added 11th grade. With the addition of 12th grade in September our high school will be complete. Next year we will also have our first graduating class! Teachers, staff and students continue to thrive and receive awards, scholarship and recognition. We are particularly proud that OCS was voted the #1 Charter School in Delaware. Our students’ test scores spoke and continue to speak volumes about the level of commitment that our teachers bring with them every day. We are very fortunate that our children receive the same quality of education as a private school without the cost of the tuition. The average cost of a private school education in New Castle County is around $10,000. Since we are fortunate enough to not have the high cost of tuition we are asking for families to please help out by donating to our paving the way campaign
The OCS PTO’s Paving the Way to Our Future campaign is our largest annual fundraising event and runs through May 31st this year. By making a contribution to the school through this campaign we make a visible show of support for our amazing school and staff. Our contributions go directly to our students and the school. In the past years, funds raised during the Paving the Way campaign have been used to fund the construction of both playgrounds, SMART boards & ELMO projectors for several grades, sports equipment, library books, Accelerated Reader program and prizes, other miscellaneous playground equipment (basketball nets and assorted sports balls), Discovery Education software, campus signs/flags, teacher supplies, campus beautification and folding chairs for assemblies and meetings. As Odyssey continues to grow quickly, it is in need of a variety of resources.
This year the PTO would like to focus on technology improvements in our lower and intermediate schools. The High school is now 1 to 1 with Chrome books and we would like all grades to have more access to technology at school. Our goal for the intermediate and lower schools is to raise enough funds for each class to have at least 5 Chromebooks per class in grades K-8. This will give the students more access to AR quizzes, help with math practice, research, better keyboarding skills and more efficient writing. This will also give the students access to Googledocs which will give students access to send their assignments directly to their teachers and receive feedback directly from their teachers. For each class to have 5 Chromebooks we would need to purchase 350 Chromebooks.
Since the high school is already on a 1 to 1 basis with Chromebooks we are going to focus on improving the new high school lobby. Grades 9-12 are requesting furniture to outfit the new high school lobby for comfortable work/collaboration areas for their students.
In prior years, the support from the families and friends of OCS was overwhelmingly positive in support of our initiative to raise funds for our classrooms. If families could contribute $50 per student we would be able to raise sufficient funds to be able to complete all of these goals. Our goal is to raise approximately $85,000. With a school of 1,800 students if families can contribute $50 per student we will exceed this goal and be able to help out the school tremendously.
Please take a moment to complete the attached contribution form and send it back to school with your tax-deductible contribution by May 31st. We all make a difference and every donation counts! Please keep in mind that many employers have programs available to match your charitable donation. Thank you for your contribution!
Sincerely,
Kim Federico
President, Odyssey Charter School PTO