Dear Northshore School District Community:

As you have probably heard by now, the Northshore School District is projecting a significant budget deficit over the next three years. In order to operate in a fiscally responsible manner, the Northshore School Board is considering ways to reduce its expenditures. The board has recommended that Woodin Elementary be closed in Fall 2008. (Please visit http://www.nsd.org for more information about the projected deficit, the school closure analysis, and other budget recommendations).

Based on a number of questions raised at its February 13th meeting, the Woodin Elementary PTA officers do not feel they can support the plan to close Woodin at this time. Instead, we will write a letter to the school board posing each of our questions and will begin taking immediate action in our NSD community to prevent the closing of our school. We encourage each of you to review the School Closure Analysis for yourselves.

For the next 90 days, the Northshore School Board will be accepting community input (Note: Input given within the first two weeks will have the greatest impact--the sooner the better to be heard in time). There are several ways that you can give input, including the following:

• Write a letter to the school board. Send your letter to: Northshore School District, Attn: Budget Committee, 3330 Monte Villa Parkway, Bothell, WA, 98021.
• Send a letter via email to: budget@nsd.org (Note: All letters will be copied and given to every board member. The larger the number of letters, the greater the impact!).
• Attend one of three public meetings. The meetings will be held on February 28th (at Canyon Park Junior High cafeteria), March 5th (at Leota Junior High cafeteria) and March 11th (at Kenmore Junior High cafeteria). All three of these meetings will be from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
• If you live in Legislative District 45, attend the town hall meeting hosted by State Senator Eric Oemig and State Representatives Larry Springer and Roger Goodman. The meeting is on Saturday, February 23rd from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon at Woodinville City Hall in the Council Chambers Room.
• If you are against the plan, hold your own neighborhood meeting to organize support against the closure of Woodin Elementary.
• Call or write you local legislators to inform them that the lack of sufficient funding for education is leading to negative consequences for your school district.

Any questions or comments to the Woodin PTA officers can be directed to savewoodin@live.com.