NCHS gets $33K gift for books

With schools state-wide having to cut back on spending because of budget woes, monetary gifts are not taken lightly.

An anonymous donor recently gave North Callaway High School $33,000 to spend toward purchasing new textbooks.

Carol Green, NCHS principal, said the school is already working on using the money to order the needed books.

"I thought it was awfully nice of them to think of us, and we felt very honored to have received it," Green said.

Brian Jobe, English department chair, said the donor wishes to remain anonymous, but it is known the person is a patron of North Callaway School District. He said the donor offered the funds about two weeks ago in hopes that others would give similar contributions in the future.

Although others have donated toward scholarships for NCHS students, Green said this is the first time in her years at the school she remembers someone donating specifically for the purchase of books.

"It will open up a lot of opportunities for our kids that we wouldn't normally have," she said.

Jobe said with recent district budgetary slashes, having enough textbooks to go around is one area of classroom instruction that has suffered. He said North Callaway has done a "great job" providing students with as much as possible, but the school can only afford a certain number of books per classroom and sometimes there aren't enough. That is where the $33,000 comes in.

"This provides us the ability to cover the number of actual students," Jobe said.