JFK Parents Plan 'Save Our School' Fundraiser

They've thousands of letters to Albany, delivered impassioned pleas to school leaders and braced for meant to seal Port Chester's $2.1 million school budget gap.

But Port Chester's parents and students say they want to do more than simply wait for a fiscal miracle or from New York State.

"After the big [school board] on the eighth, parents were coming up to me and saying, 'Can we donate? Can we do something?'" said Terry Taylor, a parent and member of the JFK Early Learning Center's PTA.

On Friday, parents and kids will team up for a "Save Our School" fund-raiser at . JFK's Early Learning Center is one of several programs that could be slashed to make up the $2.1 million budget gap.

To raise money and awareness, kids will wear pajamas to school on Friday, and their families will make direct donations to the school district. The Early Learning Center was founded in 2008 to alleviate overcrowding at Port Chester's elementary schools and bring the district's youngest children under one roof and one program.

If ELC becomes a casualty of the budget process, those kids will be returned to overcrowded classrooms at Edison, and elementary schools.

"It's going to have a snowball effect as they move up through the grades," Taylor said.

Parents and organizers at JFK hope their counterparts at other schools in the district will be inspired to start their own fund-raisers. Supporters can donate by signing checks to Port Chester Public Schools and sending them to JFK Magnet School c/o the JFK PTA.

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