The following letter was mailed to all BLA parents in mid March. If you have made your contribution, thank you! If not, there’s still time. Fundraising progress and donor names will be posted on this website soon.

March 15, 2008

Dear Parents and Guardians:

Like the Boston Latin Academy students before them, our children continue to build upon a legacy of educational excellence. Here are just a few of the awards earned by BLA and its students:

· Silver medalist in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report America’s Best High Schools for academic excellence among American high schools
· First in Massachusetts on the English MCAS and eighth on the math MCAS
· Two hundred and two Adams Scholarships awarded to the class of 2008
· Five Gold Key and four Silver Key awards at the 2008 Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards

The good news is that our students are excelling and that BLA is competitive with the top public schools in the state and the nation. The bad news is that they don’t have the resources in the classroom, in the course offerings and in the extra-curricular activities they will need to remain competitive. And, although the Boston Public Schools provides us with excellent teachers, it cannot provide us with everything we need.

So what does the school need? Our immediate goal, and the main purpose of this letter, is to ask your help in obtaining a new language lab to replace our outdated 18-year-old, tape-based, analog Sony. (Yes, it’s older than most of our students.) We were inspired to ask you by Mrs. Carvalho, Director of World Languages, and her modern language teachers Ms. Beer, Mrs. Byron, Ms. Guandalini, Ms. Homann, Ms. Hou, Mrs. Kinkead, Señor Roma and Mrs. Seddon. These dedicated faculty have spent many hours of their own time working on this project so that our children can have the best and continue to be the best. So far they have researched and evaluated possible replacements and presented their findings to parents in a Power Point presentation at the February SPC meeting. They believe that this new language lab would:

· Help students increase oral proficiency using recording and authentic conversations
· Give students access to authentic materials via a multimedia approach
· Help students with differing learning styles access the curriculum using multimedia tools
· Increase teacher flexibility in presenting and engaging students in the target language (French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese)

They are now looking for help to raise the money for a new, moderately priced, digital, multimedia language lab that they estimate will cost about $135,000.

Please, don’t be intimidated by this figure because it’s only a fraction of what we really want and need for our students and our school. The Boston Latin Academy Booster Club is aiming to raise one million dollars towards an endowment to be used to update the science labs, purchase needed equipment and pay for stipends to expand curricular and after-school offerings. Is this fantasy? Of course, but we must think big and believe that a fantasy can become reality. Can we get the funds? Why not? If 100 people donated $4,000, that would be $400,000. In three years, we would have over $1,000,000. So how do we do it? As parents, we give what we can and then we find people with significant means who believe in our mission and want to help us achieve it. Alumni, parents, friends, community leaders, businesses and foundations are all potential donors.

Please, help us with your contribution. Please, help us build a donors list. Fill out the form below and send it with your check as soon as you can. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Chris Carter, co-chair
Connie Manzi, co-chair

Boston Latin Academy
ATTN: Language Lab Project
205 Townsend Street
Dorchester, MA 02121

I want to help with my tax-deductible contribution of $_________________ .  I will send my check, payable to Boston Latin Academy, and this form to the address above. (Please write Language Lab Project in your check memo.) Here is my contact information:
Name:_________________________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________________________
e-mail:____________________________ Phone:____________________
Student name:____________________________________ YOG: _______

My employer _________________________________will match this contribution, and the matching form is enclosed.

I DO NOT want to be listed as a contributor on http://www.blaparents.org.

I know a BLA graduate, friend, community leader, business or foundation that may be willing to help and recommend that you contact:
Name:__________________________________________________________
Address:________________________________________________________
e-mail:____________________________ Phone:_____________________

I have some comments or suggestions:
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________