Friends of Outdoor School provides over $100,000 to support PPS students participation this year
The Friends of Outdoor School provided $104,676 to support Portland Public Schools (PPS) students participation in Outdoor School this year.
 "FOODS has been raising funds to support students from each of the school districts participating in Outdoor School," said Mark Skolnick, Public Affairs Director, MESD. "Thanks to our donors, we were able to provide support for Portland Public Schools in a time of need."
The funds, raised over the past three years, are a combination of donations and membership fees. Unrestricted donations are transferred to a specific MESDF/Outdoor School account for each of the school districts in Multnomah County twice annually based upon their level of participation in Outdoor School. Donations restricted to a specific district are immediately placed in that district’s MESDF/Outdoor School account.
Each district can draw down from their accounts annually. Drawdowns occur in July of each year and can only be used to offset costs from that year’s Outdoor School participation. Account balances are carried over to each year. PPS is the first of the eight participating districts to drawdown funds.
 PPS lost three significant sources of revenue in June 2005: the expiration of the local option property tax, the expiration of the capital bond property tax levy, and the expiration of desegregation funding. A fourth source of revenue, the three-year temporary Multnomah County income tax will expire in June 2006. As a result, the district projected a $32.5 million shortfall in 2006 and a $57 million shortfall in 2007.
This deficit nearly resulted in PPS cutting the Outdoor School for their 6th grade students (Please click here for previous story). To continue participation, the PPS school board and staff instituted a $100 tuition fee per student in addition to drawing down their FOODS account.
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