Many times the father works a second job and the mother works. When someone is deployed overseas, their allowances are cut, so it's even harder on the family. I'm proud of how our school-site parent council and our PTA function to support everyone here. Then they have a little scholarship fund for those folks that can't make it. At our school, our PTA does fund-raisers to pay half of all the cost of everyone's outdoor education.
Schools have to be able to make decisions that respond directly to the communities they serve.
They did want the student to have a strong academic foundation and be able to critically and creatively solve problems. But we also had an agreement toward other outcomes. For instance, Los Naranjos students will become contributing members of the local and global society. Our students will have the knowledge of their community and world in order to understand and respect self and others. They will be inquisitive, self-reliant and motivated, and know how to set goals.