Even in these challenging economic conditions, our community opened their wallets and hearts for Schools Scholarships this month:

YELM
The Yelm Dollars for Scholars annual auction raised more than $140,000 for scholarships a few weeks ago. That compares to $175,000 last year or a 20% drop in donations.

RAINIER
“The Rainier Education Foundation Auction Saturday [March 21] raised nearly $43,000 for scholarships and teacher grants, just shy of last years total.

Last years auction raised about $46,000.

The money raised provides scholarships to seniors and former graduates, as well as providing grants to the Rainier School District staff,” quoting the local newspaper.
[Ed. Note: That is only down 6% compared with last year and is quite remarkable in these economic times!]

UPDATE:
Paula Meyer, Secretary for the Rainier Education Foundation tells the Yelm Community Blog, “The Rainier Education Foundation is extremely grateful for the generous outpouring of support by our community, in order to benefit our students and staff. We feel truly blessed. THANK YOU!”
CONGRATULATIONS to Rainier!

On another note, the local newspaper reports Yelm Schools Admin Cutting Back.

Yelm Community School’s Superintendent Andy Wolf reports in his March, 2009 column, “How the increased state deficit will impact Yelm Community Schools specifically is still an unknown. Until state lawmakers are able to develop their own budget we will not have a clear picture of just how deep program reductions will need to be made locally in order to preserve the financial and academic integrity of the district.”