Rooted School Vancouver

Every student deserves more than one option.

At most high schools, four years of technology is available. A few students take it — the ones with a computer at home, the ones whose parents knew to ask, the ones who tested into the right track. Everyone else gets sorted somewhere else, early and quietly.

Rooted School Vancouver requires it of every student. No application, no audition, no honors section. That isn't a program we added. That's the school.

Why it matters here. Clark County has strong high schools and real jobs. What it doesn't have is a dependable bridge between them for students who aren't already on the inside track. Too few local graduates hold a credential or a degree eight years out, and the earnings gap that opens at eighteen is still open at thirty-five. We call our work Closing 228 — after the number of years it would take, at the current pace, to close the racial wealth gap. We're not waiting that long.

How it works. Currently a 100 students, every one of them known by name. Project-based and student-directed learning. Daily support from an adult whose job is to know you. And a four-year career escalator: ninth grade learns about work, tenth grade goes and looks at it, eleventh grade practices it, twelfth grade does it — off-site, for pay, for credit — alongside college credit at Clark College and credentials employers recognize.

It's working. Since we opened in 2023, reading proficiency has climbed from 48% to 78%. This June, we graduate our first senior class.

What your gift does. This is the year the last rung gets built. Our first seniors head into paid work placements this spring — and right now those wages are rationed, which means we are choosing which students get paid. Your gift ends the rationing. It also covers credential exam fees — $260 puts one student through the full CompTIA sequence, essentials included — plus transportation to worksites and the daily supports that keep every student on track.

$15,000 by September 24. Every dollar stays in Clark County, at a free public charter school that isn't going anywhere.