While we celebrate LREI's 90th anniversary, we remember that donations from the school’s community kept the Little Red School House open when the New York City Board of Education told Elisabeth Irwin that it would no longer support her experiment. Today, support of the Annual Fund honors our past and ensures LREI will continue leading progressive education well into the future.

Tuition dollars allow LREI to do what we have to do ­— educate our students. The Annual Fund allows LREI to do what we want to do:

• Offer our teachers extraordinary professional development that enables them to travel, to grow in their profession and to bring that enrichment to the classroom
• Remain accessible to a student body that reflects the diversity of background and experience that mirrors our city
• Ensure all of our students are ready for the 21st century world by equipping classrooms with the latest technology, offering Mandarin beginning in Fifth grade, and providing multiple opportunities for international and domestic travel

The Annual Fund makes the difference between a good education and a great one.

Last year, we raised over $840,000 from the Annual Fund, $43,400 for the Senior Gift and over $200,000 from Raise the Roof, our biennial Big Auction. We are honored that so many parents, alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, faculty, staff, friends and neighbors support LREI each year. We hope we can count on your support this year.

This year, our fundraising goals are:

• Raise $880,000 for the Annual Fund, increase parent participation to 80 percent and raise alumni participation to 15%
• Raise at least $100,000 at our biennial Art Auction on March 15, 2012
• Raise $30,000 for the Senior Gift, a special restricted fund that celebrates the Class of 2012. The students themselves will decide where the funds will go and what legacy they want to leave.

Achieving these goals would be a wonderful way to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the school that means so much to all of us.