A challenge from school staff members to administrators escalated this week, when staff wrapped up its fundraising drive to support renovation of The Little Train in Soden’s Grove.
Diana Hirt, first-grade teacher at Village School, had issued a challenge to administration employees to match the money staff at elementary schools collected for the project. The district employs about 1,200 people; 30 of them work in the administration building.
The building staffs collected $2,475, with $1,000 of that amount coming from a business owned by a teacher and her husband.
To help balance the staff-administration ratio, administrators negotiated a compromise. Hirt turned over a list of donors and the amounts each contributed. Administration building employees can choose to match any donation listed on the sheets, from the smallest to the largest amount — $5 to $1,000, according to Nancy Horst, community relations director for the district.
“What we worked out is we’re going to give (administration staff) the list of donations, and the challenge is they pick one and match it,” Horst said.
The $1,000 donation on the building staffs’ side came from teacher, Jill Riley, and her husband, Mike Riley, through their business, Get Back to Health Chiropractic.
The administration building drive will end on March 16, Horst said.
Children at several elementary schools in the district have conducted their own fundraising drive for The Little Train. Two of the drives officially ended last week and two will be completed at the end of the day on Friday.
At Timmerman Elementary, the drive brought in $1,207.74.
“Just in pennies, nickels, quarters, and dimes, we had over $700,” said Vickie Kennett, student support specialist who named the Timmerman students’ drive “Choo-choo-choose to save the train.”
Money still was coming in this week at Village School, where the drive was to have ended last Friday, according to Amy Chapman, student support specialist. That money will be taken to the bank to be counted at the end of the week.
Drives at Logan Avenue and Riverside schools also will end on Friday.