Bellevue Schools Foundation steps up effort to support schools

Urging supporters to get out their credit cards and open their wallets, the Bellevue Schools Foundation became the latest foundation to try to ease a tight budget with an extra shot of private contributions.

Foundation trustee Bill Pollard asked the 1,200 attendees lunching Thursday at the city's Meydenbauer Center to double their giving, which was half a million dollars last year. Realistically however, the foundation had hoped to raise half a million and it exceeded that, raising $564,150.

"These kids didn't cause this economic problem," said Pollard, of Pacific Real Estate Partners in Bellevue. "The day it starts to come back to roost in their lives, it's wrong."

Nonprofit-school foundations have long existed as a way to raise private funds to fill holes in school budgets, but this year, because the state Legislature sharply cut public-school funding due to the faltering economy, school-related fundraising events have taken on an air of added urgency.

Mercer Island, for example, raised more than $400,000 at a fundraising breakfast in April, double the amount it raised a year ago.

The lunch was also the first major public debut for the district's incoming superintendent, Amalia Cudeiro, an educational consultant who takes over from interim superintendent Karen Clark July 1.

Cudeiro talked about her desire to raise standards and also eliminate the achievement gap. She said that although the district is regarded as one of the best in the state, 30 percent of Bellevue students still do not meet high academic standards.

Eliminating the gap has long been a kind of Holy Grail for educators, but Cudeiro said she thought that Bellevue might be able to succeed. "I think that here in Bellevue, we are far ahead of the pack because so much is already in place," she said. Bellevue could become "a model for the state, and possibly for the nation."

Cudeiro acknowledged the difficulty of taking Bellevue schools to the next level when money is tight. "This is a tall order when we are facing tough economic times," she said.

The district has lost $5 million in education funding from the state, or about 3.4 percent of its operating budget. A recent decision by school principals to keep class size down by sending middle- and high-school librarians to teach in the classroom has been controversial.

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com