YES is the non-profit education foundation for the Ross Valley School District that raises money to fund arts and other programs for our four RVSD elementary schools and one middle school. We also play an important advocacy role in the District to support arts education as a core curriculum element.

California’s educational funding has been drastically cut over the past 30 years. Today the state ranks 49th in school spending and as a result, programs including art, music and libraries that used to be included in standard public school curriculum are at risk of being discontinued or severely scaled back.

State funding, property taxes and parcel taxes alone do not cover the funding gap for the quality education that our community wants to provide for our kindergarten to 8th-grade children.

The YES Foundation funds high-quality instruction for art, music, poetry and STEAM (Science Technology Arts Engineering and Math); theater productions; library books; and middle school special interest clubs, after-school sports and PE dance. The simple truth is that without the funding organized through YES, these programs would be cut or severely scaled back.

The funding of the YES Foundation is made possible by the generous donations of the Ross Valley School District families and community. To find out more information about the YES Foundation, check out www.yestokids.org.