Hello Portland Public Schools Board and Superintendent Smith,

I am writing as an alumna of the MESD Outdoor School program. I volunteered as a Junior Counselor at Eagle Fern from 1988-1991, completing six sessions of what was the best career foundation I could have hoped for. I also worked as an ODS Program Leader while in college. I had the privilege of working with Jeff Dallas  and Scott Sievertsen for several years, both of whom I see are still on ODS staff 20 years hence, unbelievable dedication that was there from the beginning.

My training as a then- “Junior Counselor” gave me a multitude of critical job skills, life skills, and I realize now, as the mother of a five-year-old, parenting skills. This all in addition to educating me about the natural wonder of Oregon, my family’s home state for generations. 

Here is a list of what Outdoor School gave me as a teenager, gifts that helped me shape my life as an adult:

1. Access to responsible, dedicated adults that worked one-on-one with me to improve my teaching and problem-solving skills and inspired me to mature into an environmentally conscious adult.

2. A flexible stage for practicing leadership skills, public speaking, creative communication and goal-setting. Plus plenty of room to push my own limits in these areas. This built confidence in me that ultimately led me to develop my own business.

3. Awe at the depth and bounty of natural wonder that is Oregon. As a result of ODS, I was inspired to learn as much as I could about natural history of the Pacific Northwest, eventually earning a B.S. in Botany at the University of Washington. 

4.  The chance for me, a suburban girl, to work directly with my peers from all over Multnomah County, taught me how to work successfully with people from all kinds of backgrounds, thanks to the dedicated coaching of the “Senior Counselors” (Program Leaders). I volunteer for and lead civic projects regularly at my current home in Minneapolis.

5. The beginning of a lifelong love of nature and desire to share it with the next generation. I teach workshops that use art as a bridge to concepts about nature and science, and I spend as much time as possible in nature with my daughter. 

I have drawn on my Outdoor School experience at every stage of my life.  Now I have a vibrant business selling the botanical textiles I design, mentoring interns through my business, and providing art programming in public schools that connects students to nature through art-making. 

Not a day goes by that I don’t recall Outdoor School and relish the luck I had to be a part of it. I never even got to be a sixth-grader in the program, as I grew up in Clackamas County. In this day of expanding computer labs and online learning, I have always been glad to know there is still a place where hands-on learning about both people and nature was still valued as a part of education. 

The Outdoor School Program embodies a tradition of learning that is more important than ever. Children need adults to introduce them to nature, as it has been spelled out so thoroughly by Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods. Teenagers need job and life skills that they will draw on all of their lives as I have, not to mention their own exposure to nature. Oregon needs citizens that are interconnected through their experience of nature and working together.

It is truly unfortunate that such an outstanding program must fight for its existence year after year. I hope you will understand from my letter that Outdoor School fulfilled far more than an extracurricular-type function such as sports or clubs for me, both of which I was also involved in heavily. It is a multifaceted learning experience that Oregon can be proud to have pioneered, and proud to have preserved through this many years of budget woes. This leanly-managed program, run on high-school volunteers and a skeletal staff, provides an astounding value that is beyond sentimental. 

In your budgeting considerations, remember that this program packs a punch that I’m sure is hard to find. An all-in-one job-training, parenting-, social- and business skill-building, leadership fostering, environmental education program like Outdoor School must be maintained with adequate and stable funding in order to continue providing the wealth of services it offers. 

Respectfully,

Dear Superintendent Smith and Board Members,

I am writing to you in regards to the proposal to cut the Outdoor School program for next year. As a former high school student leader in the Outdoor School program, I urge you to give serious further consideration to this proposal.

In high school, I was very active in the Outdoor School program and saw numerous changes in the lives of many young people through the program. Outdoor School not only provided many children the opportunity to experience education in a creative and open setting, it also allowed students to think beyond the classroom and flourish in an environment they might not otherwise have access to. Not only were students given the chance to learn science in a hands-on atmosphere, but the lessons that they took home extended far beyond academics.

Many of the students from underprivileged backgrounds were given care and support from their student leaders and the staff at Outdoor School that they might not otherwise receive at home. Students learned about team work and cooperation, about respect and manners, and above all else, that they were in a safe environment where they could learn to be who they wanted to be. As a high school student, Outdoor School was the most precious thing that I could be involved in. I looked forward every spring and fall to going back to Outdoor School where I could make new friends, be with old friends, teach science, sing silly songs, and most of all, impact young lives. Some of my best memories are from Outdoor School, and I may not be studying to become a teacher right now if it hadn’t been for my experiences in the program. With all due respect, you can’t put a price on the benefits of Outdoor School.

The impact that the program has on everyone involved from the sixth grade students, to the high school leaders, to the staff, is invaluable. My heart, along with hundreds of others, would break if this program no longer existed. I believe that lately, education has taken far too big of a hit in terms of funding and priority than it should, and there needs to be a push to preserve the importance of education and its institutions. Outdoor School IS an educational institution unlike any other; one that over the years has made an impact on so many people. Again, I urge you to please reconsider this proposal and the damaging effects it would have on education in the Portland Public School District.

Thank you, 

Tara Starr