Administrative Coordinator, Vashon Schools Foundation  

Updated: January 2023

ABOUT VASHON SCHOOLS FOUNDATION

Vashon Schools Foundation (VSF) raises critical funds to invest in our thriving public schools that educate and empower our island’s students. Established in 2010, VSF has raised more than $3 million to provide for the students and educators of our school district. From place based science opportunities to cutting-edge curriculum and addressing students socio-emotional well being to funding enhanced education opportunities that are uniquely Vashon, VSF has made valuable investments and a lasting impact on our island schools and the futures of our kids.

About the Role

A crucial role for VSF, the Administrative Coordinator provides support to ensure the organization meets its fundraising goals for the Vashon Island School District and runs the day to day operations of the organization. This position supports the foundation’s annual cycle of  fundraising, coordinates board meetings and materials needed for meetings, helps to ensure the organization meets required state and federal nonprofit compliance, maintains donor records and ensures timely gift acknowledgment. The Administrative Coordinator must be able to integrate with the foundation board, assess needs, and interact with a wide variety of internal and external constituencies at varying leadership levels. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is committed to public education, is highly organized, a creative problem solver, collaborative, loves learning new skills and is self-directed.

Job Classification: part-time, non-exempt, hourly

Reports to: VSF president 

Pay: $25 – $35/hour (DOE)

Benefits: 

• Flexible schedule 
• Work from home (local to Vashon preferable)
• We are unable to provide medical benefits at this time

NOTE: Anticipate an average 10-15 hours/week with need for flexibility during our busiest campaigns (typically in April, May and October – December) for a max of 30 hours/week.

What You’ll Do 

VSF BOARD 

• Attend monthly VSF board meetings 
• Prepare agenda as directed by board president 
• Prepare fundraising update –pledges and donations 
• Prepare meeting packet and distribute at meetings 
• Schedule meeting space and/or Zoom 
• Send meeting recap with action items as needed 
• Board recruitment – maintain list and status of potential board members 
• Maintain and distribute board roster 
• Participate in committee meetings as needed and coordinate activities as directed
• Prepare annual funding request survey 

Development/Donor Stewardship 

• Participate in campaign activities as needed 
• Assist with the planning and coordination of donor events 
• Update board steward donor lists and provide donor/donation information. 
• GiveBiG – update VSF profile, respond to need information for organization participation by required deadlines. 
• Placement of posters, sandwich boards during campaigns as needed. Secure community bulletin boards (e.g.  Vashon Park District) 
• Respond to donor inquiries or distribute to appropriate board member for response
• Maintain donor database – enter donations, update records and run reports as requested. • Recognize donations and pledges – create thank yous (emails and letters), year-end tax receipts. • Prepared required information for employer matching gifts and maintain online portals. 

Communications 

• Maintain and update website content 
• Website postings 
• Assist with developing campaign talking points, scripts for presentations and outreach 
• Assist with content development for email, posters, community wide mailers, annual year-end holiday card
• Project manage fundraising campaigns including collecting copy, assets and coordinating with outside vendors to meet deadlines (e.g. designer and mail house)
• Prepare and send email content via Constant Contact. 

FACE (Family and Community Engagement)

• Place orders for events, activities as requested 
• Maintain Square reader account for point of purchase sales 
• Prepare expense reports for reimbursement 
• Maintain Signup Genius account

Administrative 

• Maintain VSF Google Calendar 
• Maintain and organize VSF files on Google Drive and Dropbox 
• Monitor and respond to email from board member and donors (as needed) 
• Provide month end back up for financials: PayPal, Chase, EFT deposits, expenses. (Dropbox) 
• Post office, mail pick up 
• Bank deposits – copy checks, maintain deposit log 
• Expenses – prepare expense reports and collect receipt backup for accountant 
• Manage PayPal account, transfer funds to VSF bank account and download reports as needed 
• Prepare annual state fillings: WA SOS annual report, annual registration. 
• Maintain VSF Directors and Officer’s insurance 
• Provide needed information as directed by accountant for 990 annual return and annual audit 
• Order office supplies
• Other duties as assigned
  

Would be great if you know about

• Vashon Public Schools 
• Vashon Community 
• WA Public School funding 
• Development 
• General knowledge of nonprofit management a plus 

Skills you’ll have 

• Strong Communication 
• Customer service lens
• Working knowledge of Microsoft office, Adobe, Word Press, Google, Canva and comfortable using databases
• General knowledge of bookkeeping or accounting a plus
  

You will work with 

• VSF board members 
• VISD staff 
• Community members 
• Partner organization leadership
• Community non-profit groups

Please send your cover letter and resume by February 10, 2023 for priority consideration to vashonpublicschoolsfoundation@gmail.com

CHAUTAUQUA SPIRIT WEAR SALES ON NOW THROUGH NOVEMBER 2.

• Complete your order form and deposit in box attached to FACE POD in CES lobby.
• Check and Cash also accepted at FACE POD deposit box
• Or pay online HERE

Dear Vashon Community,

We hope you and your family had a wonderful summer and are as excited as we are to kick-start another school year! Whether that means for you the daily packing of lunches, the quick good-byes out the door, cheering on the Pirates on a crisp fall night, or the return to afternoon traffic at the Cemetery 4-way stop, a new school year awakens our fall traditions.

One of the many traditions the Vashon Schools Foundation (VSF) is most proud of since our start in 2010 is being able to provide our kids with a unique, hands-on learning experience. Through the generosity of parents, teachers, staff, and our broader community, VSF continues to support vital hands-on programming that fosters the socio-emotional health of our kids, equity, the arts and sciences, and programs that connect learning with nature on our beautiful island.

We believe it’s our responsibility to develop, sustain and grow a love of learning and we can’t do that without the incredible support from YOU. A suggested monthly gift of $20 will help keep Vashon’s unique educational experience thriving. As a community organization, our primary goal is greater participation from our community and school families and any donation (monthly or one-time) has a meaningful impact on our kids’ education and well-being.

Donations can be made:

• By mailing a check to:

Vashon Schools Foundation, P.O. Box 481, Vashon, WA 98070

• Visiting our donation page

Your support of our kids is nothing short of amazing and we can’t thank you enough!

–The Vashon Schools Foundation

Information below provided by Vashon Island School District

For the past four years, following through on district priorities has been challenging and in direct conflict with how we are funded by the state. That funding system is the root cause of the financial difficulties we have faced each year since then and face again next year.

Sadly, as we finalize the 2022-23 budget, we again project a sizable deficit that has resulted in necessary reductions in force and programming. News like this has raised many questions. We have created this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document to help answer those questions.

____________________________________________________________________________

Frequently Asked Questions 2022-23 School Year Budget Deficit/Reduction in Force:

Why does the district need to make these reductions?

There are 8 major factors leading to current reductions.

• For the 2022-2023 school year, VISD and the King County region are projecting lower enrollment. VISD is expected to enroll 1,425 students for 2022-23 or 31 fewer students than are currently enrolled. VISD receives approximately $12,000 per student in state apportionment resulting in a projected $372,000 loss in revenues.
• The state prototypical funding model is broken. The state continues to severely under-fund adequate staffing levels across all staffing groups. The state’s basic education allocation pays for approximately 75% of all VISD staff. Therefore, additional teachers, paraeducators, custodians, and specialized services such as nursing, counseling, and special education are funded by our local levy.
• Related to the prototypical funding model, the 5.5% “pass through” that the state provided districts does not cover any compensation increases for the 25% of our staff not in the prototypical funding model.
• Ongoing COVID-19 pressures have exposed our need for enough reserves to both operate the district and pay staff in times where there are more questions than concrete answers. Due to expenditures related to COVID-19 that were not covered by ESSR, it was necessary to take approximately $400,000 from our reserves. The resulting fund balance is currently at the Board policy minimum of 5% and is not available to fund staffing shortfalls.
• Based on the factors above, our local educational programs and operations (EP&O) levy has had to ‘back-fill’ state and national responsibilities for basic education. After McCleary, the amount that the state will allow our voters to contribute has reduced from $1.50 per thousand dollars in 2018 to $1.20 in 2021.
• Like most school districts, VISD has had an increase in labor costs. However, Vashon did not receive commensurate “Regionalization” — an opaque and inequitable increase in funding apportionment by the state to selected districts.
• Enrollment of students who receive Special Education is decreasing, however, the expenditures necessary to provide services to some of our most vulnerable students has doubled over the last two years while revenues have decreased.
• The state reduced the funding that pays for the extra cost associated with the education and experience levels of educators. Vashon has a highly educated and experienced staff. We value continued education and experience, however, we continually run in a deficit to fund yearly increases in comparison to our yearly revenues.

While we are always thoughtful stewards of our resources and have a strong record of clean audits, we will be more deeply scrutinizing all expenditures, including travel, staff openings, materials and supplies, and more for the remainder of the year in order to seek out all possible savings. In addition, VISD administration will develop a three-year solvency and sustainability plan for the Board to approve early in the 2022-23 school year. This budgeting plan will identify future strategies that will keep our district fiscally solvent and sustainable over the near and far term.

Why the short period of time between Board budget work sessions and the Board taking action?

VISD receives budgeting information at different times in the spring. Projected enrollment, projected operational costs, compensation increases as a result of negotiations, and final  revenues from the state legislature are all factors that help define the 2022-23 budget. With limited information, an accurate and final analysis was not fully known until the very end of April. Given the mandatory notification deadline for reduction in force for certificated staff is May 15th and once the analysis was complete, a Reduction in Force resolution was presented at the April 28th Board meeting followed by a Board budget work session on May 5th and the Board meeting on May 12th.

Are we considering other cuts, in addition to personnel?

As our district grows smaller, the only way to significantly address the deficit is to reduce the number of staff. However, VISD has been trimming their Materials, Supplies, and Operating Costs (MSOCs) over the last several years. In order to relieve some of the shortfall, operations and facilities have eliminated an additional $200,000 for the 2022-23 budget. From these recent MSOC reductions, VISD was able to recover funding to staff school psychologists, school nursing services, VHS office staff, and maintenance staff. These are steps in the right direction but the process doesn’t stop here. Administrative staff will continue to work with all stakeholders to find creative solutions.

In addition, VISD continues to reduce by using available grants to supplement general funded positions, reviewing district costs for outside vendors/contracts, and not filling positions vacated by attrition. Approximately 78% of the staffing reduction plan did not result in loss of staff or staff hours.

Will class sizes be larger because of the reductions?

There are many variables that impact class sizes at both primary and secondary levels. Given our projected budget deficit and lower projected enrollment, and the need to reduce the total number of teaching positions, some but not all class sizes may be larger across the district. As we finish the year and student scheduling processes, our building administrators and counselors will continue to work on student schedules and student placement to make smaller classes.

How are schools and the district office impacted by reductions and should we be cutting administration?

All schools and district departments will be impacted by reductions. Looking at regional comparisons to like size school districts we are appropriately staffed in administration. Two years ago, we moved forward with reducing building administration by suspending the rehiring of an assistant principal McMurray Middle School. Regardless of the increase in unfunded mandates and the responsibilities and obligations associated with them, staffing at the district office has also been reduced for the 2022-23 school year.

How will these reductions impact our ability to implement the new VISD Strategic Plan?

When faced with the current budget reality, reductions have been steered away from programs that impact priority equity groups as much as possible. As enrollment decreases, we also see enrollment across equity priority groups decrease and have to adjust program staffing accordingly. Moving forward into the next school year, we will continue to review grant options as well as funding support from Vashon Schools Foundation to supplant what the state is continuing to underfund.

Is Vashon Schools Foundation (VSF) able to help with bridging budget shortfalls?

Yes, our incredible foundation, supported by you the community, is continuing to work with the district as we navigate the current budget reality. For example, in addition to ongoing planning, VSF will be providing more funding to support our current partners as well as providing funding for CES Outdoor School and Exploratory Week (currently not budgeted for 2022-23 due to budget shortfall). Anyone from the community can donate at this VSF Donation Link.

Message from Dr. McSheehy:

I want all of our school community to know that despite any reductions, Vashon Island School District is an outstanding school district that will continue to improve and grow as we move forward to fulfill our Vashon Promise. The people we may lose through this staff reduction process are amazing, brilliant people who will continue to make great contributions as they have made here in VISD. Even without them on the VISD team, we will continue to have a fantastic group of staff here who I am proud to work with and who are wonderful role models and supports for our students. We also have the most supportive community that I have seen in my experience as an educator. I look forward to continuing to expand the great collaboration we have with our staff as we work together creating solvency and sustainability in our schools. This communication is an effort towards accomplishing this goal as well as creating open and honest communication with our community who partners with us daily. Lastly, we have incredible students and as we make reductions we will do this work keeping them our top priority.

If you have any further questions not answered by or regarding the FAQ, please contact Superintendent Dr. Slade McSheehy at smcsheehy@vashonsd.org.