PSS - Capital Campaign

Campaign Update - Sept., '05

Valley Foundation Award - Sept., '04

Building Plans

Heads Column - Feb. 11, '04

Heads Column - Jan. 8, '04

News from the Board - March 13, '03

Poem: Taking Flight: Building for the Future

" We have so many dreams for new and better ways to teach our students — things we cannot do now because of our space constraints. We cannot create really large pieces or use certain media; we don’t have the space to display student work respectfully or store it safely. The new art classroom will take our teaching and learning to an entirely new level. "

— Julie Ouellette
middle school
art teacher

“ I wondered why we needed new buildings originally. Now, seeing how excited our kids and teachers are with the new libraries and other spaces, I think: we have to finish this job. Anything less and we can’t really claim the kind of quality we are so proud of. ”

— Parent

March 13, 2003

I am excited to report that the Board of Trustees voted at its last meeting to initiate a capital campaign to raise the funds to complete the major priorities of our facilities master plan. The goal of the campaign is to finance the construction of a Foreign Language and Performing Arts building on our Avis Campus. This is the same campaign to which we have been referring in our Finance Information sheets of the last few years (August mailing), during our Finance Information night last fall, and in numerous other conversations and meetings. The “worst kept secret” of the school is finally official!!

As a brief reminder, the Facilities Master Planning Committee met for several years to create a prioritized list of facilities needed to fulfill program needs at Prospect Sierra School . This was a very thoughtful, thorough process which involved faculty, staff, parents and administrators. The Tapscott art, science and music rooms and the Avis library, foreign language and performing arts spaces were all the clearly identified top priorities. The current construction has been funded with bonds which will slowly be re-paid with tuition dollars over the next thirty years.

Our attention now turns to the one top priority, which was not able to be financed with bonds — those programs which currently have no designated space at the middle school campus. The foreign language teachers are nomadic, moving to various classrooms with rolling carts of basic materials. While they create remarkable results, their program deserves cultural environments, technical support and spaces dedicated to foreign language. Currently, drama, music, dance and movement must all operate around our popular athletic program, physical education curriculum, assemblies, meetings, etc. which place regular conflicting demands on our multipurpose facility at Avis. These key programmatic pieces are the final elements of our school’s mission to find “room” on our Avis Campus and must be financed by, and are entirely dependent upon our success with, the school’s first capital campaign.

The Board is very excited about the ultimate fulfillment of our K - 8 programmatic needs at Prospect Sierra. We trust every member of our school community will thoughtfully consider this opportunity to invest in our school for our children. Details will follow!!

— Vickie Gilliland
Board Chair