MISD Partners With Two Groups To Repurpose Surplus K-5 Curriculum

Mercer Island, WA, October 4, 2023 – The Mercer Island School District is partnering with nonprofits CORE Tanzania and The Book Project to repurpose the district’s surplus kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum and materials.

“This is the first time we have arranged for organizations outside our District to take our surplus curriculum and materials so that they do not go to waste,” said Learning Services Director Nova Williams.

The district adopted Benchmark Advance 2022 for literacy curriculum in 2022. The district adopted iReady Classroom Mathematics for third through fifth grade in 2022-23 and for kindergarten through second grade this year. These recent adoptions meant the district had a surplus of previous curriculums.

Creating Opportunities through Rural Education (CORE) Tanzania operates the Twegashe School in Tanzania. Jen Kentnor, a former MISD employee, helped facilitate the District’s connection to CORE Tanzania and the Twegashe School, which were founded by Seattle residents Jeannette and Michael Banobi.

The Book Project is operated by Seattle residents Roger and Susan Atlas. Roger and Susan work to take surplus curriculum and materials from Washington school districts to donate them to school districts and community organizations in the state that can use them.

Both groups came to the district’s administration building recently to determine how much surplus curriculum was available and what percent of it they could use.

Recently Roger and Susan repurposed district curriculum materials by providing them to the Eatonville School District.

“May I express our sincere gratitude for your gift of books for our students in the Eatonville School District,” said Eatonville Superintendent Jay Brower. “Your generosity fosters a connection between our students and promotes goodwill between our school districts. I only hope we can return the favor in one way or another and stay connected.”

“Previously we would have a surplus sale where we would let organization purchase our materials at a very reduced cost,” said Williams. “Moving forward we are going to arrange with our librarians and teachers that when they have surplus texts in the libraries or classrooms we repurpose them for these two groups.”

 “We are looking forward to working with both groups in the future,” continued Williams.

For more information on our curriculum donation materials and program contact Nuria Lencina.