Julia's essay

We had some exciting news this week. Julia entered an essay contest and won in her category and finished in 8th place overall.

The essay was sponsored by Save our Schools Castro Valley and was open to all students in the district, 4-12 grade. The topic was Why School Matters and there were 10 categories that the kids could write about all pertaining to how to help the schools. Julia wrote about how local businesses can help. The district is looking at cutting $5 million from its budget so the SOS is group that helps to raise funds to off set some of the cuts. There were over 400 essays submitted. Julia won a $20 gift certificate to Baskin Robbins, two rounds of miniature golf, discounts at Domino's and a Certificate. Her principal came and got her out of class and gave her all the loot today. She was the only one at her school that won, most of the kids that finished in the top 10 were juniors and seniors in HS.

Here is the write up from the Castro Valley Forum

Here is the essay as the President of SOS printed to hand out to all the local businesses at the Chamber of Commerce meeting on Thursday.

School Matters!
A weekly column focused on the impact of school district budget cuts on the students
Sponsored by Save Our Schools Castro Valley! (www.soscv.org)

Topic #9 – Why is it important for local businesses to support our district’s schools?

By Julia Perry, 5th Grade, Independent Elementary School

Our schools are in trouble. The state government thinks it can take a huge amount of money from our district. That is unfair to students at our schools and our teachers. So that means next year we will have less learning supplies like textbooks and workbooks. Also, next year some of the staff and teachers at these schools will lose their jobs because the schools won’t have enough money to pay them. This will make a huge difference in our learning next year.
I believe that everyone should get a good education because it is important and needed to succeed. Getting into a good college and getting a good job requires a good education. If local businesses support our schools, then we will get a good education in elementary school and have a successful future. The local businesses in Castro Valley should act as a community because everyone has something to give. If local businesses support our schools, we could get more out of our learning experience.
You may think,”What’s in it for me?” And I’ll tell you. If local businesses support local schools, then families will support local businesses that have made contributions to our schools. If children in school today get a good education, then someday they might work for the local businesses that supported our schools during this budget cut because educated students make better employees.
If the schools go down, people will move out of the community to get better schools for their children. Then, businesses will have less customers because there will be not as much people in the community. Families with children will consider the local schools and if there are no good schools, then people won’t want to stay here.

So, will you choose to support our schools?

~~~~~~~

Save Our School Castro Valley! is committed to preserving and building upon the excellence that we have in our fine school district. Take action now! It will take community donations for Castro Valley to save what we have and continue to move forwards and not backwards. Go to www.SOSCV.org/donate.html to donate and make an impact on your community!