‘Fundshifting’ success and opportunities ahead for West Seattle Public School Equity Fund: ‘We have strengthened all our schools’

By Jason Grotelueschen
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
Photos by DIWAS Photography

For most public elementary schools, having a strong parent-teacher association is a crucial goal. However, the available PTA funding often varies widely between schools. One grassroots West Seattle group has been working hard to change that.

The West Seattle Public School Equity Fund (WSPSEF) celebrated its third year earlier this summer with a community event (pictured above and below) at West Seattle Elementary, and the group has also released its new 2024 Impact Report online, declaring, “We have strengthened all our schools and increased opportunities for all our students …”

The WSPSEF group was founded in 2021 by Andrea Dimond, Kristen Corning Bedford and Shannon Woodard with a focus on “fundshifting” – working to equitably distribute community contributions to narrow the gap so that well-funded school PTAs don’t keep getting richer while less-funded schools struggle. (see our WSB coverage of the group’s progress as of the summer of 2022)

For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, Kristen Corning Bedford said that WSPSEF expects to be able to distribute about $51,000 in PTA funds to Sanislo, Roxhill, Highland Park, Concord, and West Seattle. PTA funding was approved by schools during their June meetings, and is expected to be delivered early in the school year (by October at the latest).

In its first year (2022-23) the group distributed $20,917, and in 2023-24 WSPSEF distributed $49,566. To put this in a per-student perspective, each recipient school received $36 for each student for the most recent school year.

According to the WSPSEF website, the group’s goal is “To create an equitable resource of PTA funding for our West Seattle public gradeschools (including K-8).”

The West Seattle Public School Equity Fund operates simply: a portion of the PTA budgets from well-resourced public elementary (and K-8) West Seattle schools is contributed to a shared fund, which is managed by parent and/or staff advisers from each of the participating schools. The funds are then distributed annually to historically under-resourced public elementary (and K-8) West Seattle schools.

The group was launched after its founders discovered that when examining the area’s “redlining” map from the 1930s (see it here), the highest percentage of students from low-income families (which are now Title I schools), are in the “redlined” areas. The group hopes to disrupt these historical inequities by bringing West Seattle’s neighborhoods and school communities together.

The group’s current fiscal sponsor is the Alliance for Education, and all financial contributions and distributions are managed by their staff and board (see their Fiscal Services page for details). In the group’s first year, their founding fiscal sponsor was the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association (DNDA).

Corning Bedford said that one of the most impactful changes she’s witnessed is the creation of new partnerships and friendships between PTAs, which leads to more sharing of knowledge and resources.

“This increases the internal capacity to meet individual student needs day to day, while creating bold leadership to advocate for an equitable education for all of our kids,” she added. “We know that the public school landscape and our neighborhoods and the needs of our students are always changing, but our goal remains to sustain the momentum of this community allyship.”

According to Corning Bedford, some additional key points about the program are:

Fundshifting has increased PTA dollars at some recipient schools by up to 70% per student. At those schools, this additional funding has provided the PTA with flexibility to do things like put on no-cost family gathering events and subsidize teacher supplies, things that they haven’t been able to do in the past.

At contributing schools, it’s changing the conversation about budgeting and fundraising, increasing awareness about the discrepancies between schools and holding challenging conversations about why those discrepancies exist.

In our first year, we had 4 contributing schools and a pooled fund of $20k to split between 5 recipient schools. In our 3rd year, we have 8 contributing schools and a pooled fund of $50k between those same 5 schools. That’s 100% participation from all WS public grade schools (including K8) with at least one representative from each school on the Advisory committee.

94% of the funds are passed through to schools (the 6% fee goes to our fiscal sponsor, Alliance for Education, who manages the money). We have no paid staff, just a team of 24 dedicated parents and community members donating 400+ hrs/year to create this community, and put on fun events celebrating that community.

Want to get involved? If you’re part of a West Seattle elementary or K-8 school community, connect with the PTA at your school about their partnership with WSPSEF, or visit the group’s website to learn more.