Two years ago my daughter was getting ready to transition to middle school. At the time we lived in Seattle and our reference school had 1,200 middle schoolers. I just could not do that to our daughter. 

I worried, I cried, I sent in applications to private schools I knew we couldn’t afford — all while trying to sell our house and move to a better school district.

Well, the housing Gods shined upon us, and we were able to sell our house and made the move to Vashon — the reason, really the entire reason, the schools. We wanted our kids to get a good education, and we found it.  

We have four kids, two at Chautauqua and two at McMurray, and we could not be happier. We have kids in advanced classes and kids in special ed, and we sing the praises of the schools every week. I have even picked up the phone and called my mom crying because for the first time I felt my kids had teachers who cared about them and their education.

I think people often don’t realize that having kids in public school on Vashon is like having kids in a private school anywhere else. Our kids are incredibly lucky to be receiving the high-quality education they receive on this Island. Our kids get to make ceramic ducks and owls; they have music once a week, and my son got to play with a Grammy-award winning composer — a truly once-in-a-lifetime event.

We all need to appreciate the educational opportunities we have on this Island and show that appreciation by donating to the Vashon Schools Foundation so we can maintain this extraordinary learning environment — not only for our children’s future, but for the future of our community, state, nation and world.

— Jill Dziko