Patch Pick: Orono Foundation for Education's 2013 'A Night In Nantucket' Gala

Guests will be dressed to the nines this Saturday, April 13, for the Orono Alliance for Education's "A Night in Nantucket" banquet and fundraiser.

The 2013 gala will take place at the BMW of Minnetonka in Wayzata, and tickets are on sale now.

Visit the banquet's Facebook page for more.

In 2000, the Orono Alliance for Education was founded to maintain and improve the quality of education offered by Orono Public Schools in a time of decreased funding from the state. Because of its small size, the district is not eligible for many state and federal grants available to larger school districts. In fact, its $613 per student funding is less than the state average. 

The Orono Alliance for Education raises money to provide the necessary funding to fill the district’s budget gaps and is a collaboration of parents, the school board and administration and members of the community.  

To date, over $3 million has been given to the Orono Schools by the Alliance. 
Funds have been used to increase advanced placement classes, language offerings, accelerated math sections, professional development opportunities for teachers, as well as to maintain reasonable class sizes. At this year’s celebration, specific money was raised to support the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program at Orono. 

Editor's note: some information for this post was written by Stephanie Larsen, who wrote about the 2011 banquet for Patch.