During the 2021/2022 school year, the DEF Board of Trustees decided to focus its efforts and funds on bridging the academic gaps of students that followed the most difficult phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of the pandemic on K-12 student learning was significant and widened pre-existing opportunity and achievement gaps in literacy and mathematics. 

In response, DEF created the $250K Challenge, Bridge the Gap, to help fund:

• After-school programs (such as robotics, coding, computer science)

• Classroom text sets

• Early Literacy and Math Programs

• Interventionists

• Socio-emotional Resources

On Tuesday, November 8th, 2022, the Durango Education Foundation Board of Trustees and Executive Director, Diana Cruz, presented the district with $100,000 to be added to the $250,000 already raised during the campaign to bring the total Bridge the Gap funding to $350,000.  The effort was a proud showing of Durango's support for our public schools.