In order to provide what Hamilton School needs to be successful, we need to raise money now more than ever. We’re asking that you join with us to HAVE A HEART.  Our school, students and community need your help.

The PTA relies on the Have a Heart to provide the majority of funds for the essentials that we make available to Hamilton School.

Without this fundraiser, we are at risk of losing funding for school essentials as follows:

Help us reach a goal of $31,000 for our school! 

You have a unique opportunity to give to your school while making a difference for our entire community of students, teachers, staff, and parents.

Thank you for your support.

RISE Scholars, Inc. was created to provide curricular and co-curricular enrichment opportunities exclusively for Hamilton School, which is a Title One school with 74.4% of its 589 students living in a low-income household. Our programs support academic and personal growth for Hamilton students who have much fewer extracurricular opportunities and lower academic achievement compared to the majority of their peers in Marin County. To reduce this opportunity/achievement gap, we have created robust programs, which help enable Hamilton students to reach their full potential and compete on a more level playing field with their contemporaries. We walk alongside the administration and faculty at Hamilton School in our collaborative support of Hamilton students.

We are committed to the needs of these students and would LOVE your help in raising $200,000 in our fund-a-need campaign. 100% of the fund-a-need will go to support the school year and summer enrichment programs we are providing at Hamilton School.

This is an exciting year for us as all our programs are in person, on campus and poised to make a real difference. Here are highlights of our programs and projects:

1. Mentor Hamilton: A one-to-one Mentor program matching Hamilton students with a caring adult from the community that comes alongside them and is a source of support and encouragement in their life. The Mentor’s role is not academic. Through weekly meetings on campus, the mentors develop a relationship with their mentee that encourages them to be the best version of themselves. Our Mentors create strong bonds with their mentees and many stay with them through high school and into a college or career.

2. RISE Interventional Tutoring Programs in Reading and Math: 67% of our Hamilton students do not meet grade level reading standards and 80% do not meet math standards. To address this crisis, we have created two 1:1 interventional tutoring programs: RISE in Reading (RiR), which launched last fall, and RISE in Math (RiM), which will launch next fall. For RISE in Reading, tutors work weekly one-on-one with second grade students, guiding them through a specialized proven curriculum, to ensure they can read at a second-grade level, before they need to ‘read to learn’ in third grade. RISE in Math will ensure that third grade students who do not meet math standards, secure foundational math skills before 4th grade. Why 2nd and 3rd grade? A long-term study by the Annie E.Casey Foundation found that students who were not proficient in reading by the end of third grade were four times more likely to drop out of high school than proficient readers.

3. Hamilton Athletics: Hamilton School provides no sports programs, so we are continuing to move forward with our vision of a robust athletic program for all students' grades 2nd through 8th who want to be involved in athletics. This year we were able to hire a part-time, Interim Athletic Director who is helping us create teams, join leagues, find coaches, and expand grade level offerings appropriately. We offer Boys and Girls teams in the following sports: 2-8th grade Soccer, 6-8th grade Cross Country, 4th-8th grade Basketball, and 6th-8th grade Track and Field. Our goal is for all of these opportunities to expand to 2nd through 8th grade next year.

4. Hamilton Chess:  Hamilton students think learning and playing the game of chess is fun, and we think so too!  But playing chess is also a great way to develop critical thinking skills, practice sportsmanship and teamwork while becoming a persistent learner.  This was a big year for the Hamilton Chess program.  Through a private donation, we were able to hire a full time Director of Chess for Hamilton School, Abel Talamantez.  We have no doubt that this will be a game changer for our very popular Chess program!

5. SummerHawks: This will be our 4th year of providing a 5-week academic summer program for 120 of our current 3rd-7th grade students. "On average, students lose about 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in math during the summer." - John Hopkins study on summer learning. We aim to better prepare the students for re-entry in the fall. This program includes both academic and enrichment opportunities: Math, Writing, Reading, Robotics, Coding, Stem Challenges, Sports, financial literacy, and our very popular Keys to Success program, etc. and will be held July 5th - August 5th. Last year our students improved on average 53% in their grade level math assessment.

6. Summer Bridge: Many of our 8th grade students are not prepared for high school Algebra and English. This is our 4th year of providing Algebra prep and our second year of providing 9th grade English prep for matriculating 8th grade students.We have hired a high school Algebra teacher and a high school English teacher to create 3-week Prep courses forthesestudents so that they will have a better chance for success as they enter their high school career. High School Math and English are the biggest stumbling blocks for students from Hamilton and in Novato. We aim to change that with this program.

7. Scholars Program: This is a pilot program for middle school students, which will provide them with in-depth mentoring, tutoring and additional services throughout high school and into college. Currently, we are working with two former Hamilton students, who are now juniors in high school to help guide them through their college search.

Rise Scholars has important and lofty goals, and a committed all volunteer Board. But we need your help to make it happen! Please join us in helping to change lives.

RISE Fund a Need: 2021/2022 Estimated Program Budget: $400,000

Please know how much we appreciate all of you and the difference you are making in the lives of the children at Hamilton School. We are ever grateful for your support. We could not do this without all of you.