FOCUS

March 11, 2008

Dear Members of the Board of Trustees:

As supporters of Christian education, we thank you for grappling with the problems facing the Grand Rapids Christian Schools. We share your concern about the future of our schools and support rigorous inquiry into what can be done to improve them and ensure their viability.

We believe that GRCS will benefit—now and in the future—from Oakdale's presence. Oakdale's loyal alumni network ensures student enrollment and potential donors. The energy generated by this intense loyalty has yet to be fully tapped and could be harnessed to fulfill Oakdale's potential. Oakdale's families, faculty, staff and friends are intent on building a racially and socio-economically diverse community that reaches out into our core city neighborhood. Furthermore, Oakdale parents and friends are eager and ready to promote our school.

Over the past two months, Oakdale parents have met to discuss if and why Oakdale should stay open. In those meetings, parents agreed that Oakdale's excellence in education is characterized by our commitment to racial and socio-economic diversity and to reaching out in our neighborhood. We believe that Grand Rapids has few choices for Christian education with this emphasis; Oakdale, then, can be a school to attract the increasing number of people who choose to live in urban, diverse communities.

Finally, because Oakdale parents, alumni, and friends want to see this educational choice survive, we wish to be more involved with promotion and recruitment. We understand the audience we wish to target and we have compelling evidence for parents to choose Oakdale.

We know that we are often seen as insufferably proud of our school. We hope, though, that you as members of the Board, will see that we too are grappling with the problems facing us and desire to benefit not only our children or our immediate community, but the GRCS community as well.

Sincerely,