Bookmans Announces Three Finalists in the 2014 Bookmans School Challenge
As finalists in the 2014 Bookmans School Challenge, Dobson High School in Mesa, Pueblo Magnet High School in Tucson and Safford K-8 Magnet International Baccalaureate World School in Tucson secured $3,000 for their schools and continue to vie for the top prize of $15,000 in cash. All of the video submissions from the semi-finals illustrate creativity and community support, but only three schools could move to the final round.
“Every school has a compelling story and we want to help share those stories,” says Sheila Kressler-Crowley, Marketing Director for Bookmans Entertainment Exchange. “This year Dobson, Pueblo and Safford told us stories about how they foster a love of learning in the face of harsh funding realities and mandates. We look forward to visiting their campuses and seeing their programs first-hand.”
To select the final three, Bookmans called for a fan favorite in addition to two internally selected schools. With a convincing 32% of the votes in Bookmans’ Facebook poll, Dobson emerged as the popular choice. The School Challenge committee appreciates the strong support for publicly funded schools and the school pride exemplified in the video submissions and Facebook comments. Bookmans encourages all the schools who applied to keep us up to date on their programs.
Keep up with the Bookmans School Challenge team as we visit each school by following us @Bookmans on Twitter. Bookmans will announce the School Challenge winner, who will receive the $15,000 giant check, on Monday, March 3. For more information on the Bookmans School Challenge visit our School Challenge page.
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Perhaps you should end the charade of the “popular choice” and automatically put the school with the largest enrollment into the final three.
Or even better, simply get rid of the “popular choice” and simply choose all three finalists based on merit, instead of giving the smaller schools the false hope that they might get an “automatic bye” into the top three.
I’m very disappointed in your selection process.
We hear what you’re saying. School enrollment is only one factor that determines how well a school can do in the poll. Other factors include age (elementary schools are at a disadvantage because students aren’t allowed to have Facebook pages) and access to technology (Title I schools have larger populations with no internet access). This is the reason why we select two schools internally. Having said that, our first poll moved forward a school with a high homeless population. We’ve seen elementary schools garner a couple thousand votes. In addition to allowing us to help the schools showcase themselves on a statewide stage, we learn a great deal about the school communities. Once a school applies for the School Challenge, we can see what their needs are and how we can help them outside the Challenge. In our eyes, they are all winners.
I am truly sorry that you are disappointed. The intent of the School Challenge is to spread good news about the hard work of students, educators and families at a time when the news is bleak and schools are over-mandated and under-funded. No school applies to the School Challenge without merit. In our eyes, they are all meritorious. People who have followed the School Challenge over the years know that the School Challenge is only one way we celebrate schools. We have helped schools who never made our final three, or even our top ten, create life skill rooms, media centers, and cyber cafes. Bob Oldfather makes outreach his marketing priority. This is why we ask School Challenge applicants to stay in contact with us.