GRANITE FALLS — Students need only look inside their math books to see who cares about their education.
A combination of grants and donations from community organizations and individuals funded new math books for middle and elementary school students in the Granite Falls School District. The
last book order was made in December, and kindergartners were the final group of students to receive the new math books earlier this month, according to Kathy Grant, a district spokeswoman.
“It was an amazing response from everyone,” Grant said. “It’s a huge win for our kids.”
The district last March announced it needed help buying 1,450 math books for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. After the announcement went out, donations started arriving at the district administration office. As money for the books was received, orders were made, Grant said. In all, the district paid almost $70,000 to purchase the math books and collected nearly $55,000 in donations.
“A lot of that (funding) was book by book,” she said.
Each book cost about $77. Books were stamped inside the front cover to honor the contributor or someone chosen by the person who made the donation.
Parents, grandparents, past and present school district employees, and Granite Falls school alumni all donated money to the program, according to Grant. Groups and organizations including students from Crossroads Alternative High School, Boeing, the Friends of the Granite Falls Library, Granville Grange, Pharm-A-Save, Alfy’s Pizza, the Granite Falls Fire Department, the Granite Falls Senior Center, the Lynnwood Emblem Club and the Tulalip Tribes were among those who made donations to the program.
The school district bought new high school math books two years ago and decided to work toward a kindergarten-through-12th-grade math curriculum that was aligned with state standards, according to Karen Koschak, superintendent of the Granite Falls School District. The district didn’t have enough money to buy all the books needed to teach the more traditional math curriculum, so Koschak suggested the adopt-a-math-book program.
“We know that every year our students don’t have the materials that they need is another year that they’re going to fall behind, so we started getting creative and thinking how might we be able to get these books,” Koschak said.
The idea worked well because it feels good to donate a book, she added. Having a name included inside the front cover, she felt, was an extra incentive. When donations started drying up, Koschak made a $10,000 donation to finish the order.
“You can tell how important I believed this was,” she said. “I know that the kids in Granite Falls have to compete with the kids throughout the state, throughout the nation, and the level of education has to be the same so they’re on a level playing field.”
The publishing company, Macmillan MacGraw-Hill, was understanding about the district’s piecemeal approach, Grant said.
“They were just really helpful,” she said. “The orders were coming in every couple months because we had to wait for the money to come in to order books.”
She added that the district just started building a new science curriculum and could implement a similar adoption program to help fund new teaching materials.
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
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