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By: Brendan McDonough

Reporter for North Tonawanda

Education cuts are hitting schools hard. In North Tonawanda leaders at the Christian Academy of Western New York says they are coming up with alternative way to offset those cuts.

On Saturday they held a basket raffle. It is one of 2 major fundraisers the school has every year. Rather that raise tuition prices they say money raised from the raffle, will be used instead of hiking prices.

“Because we are a Christian School we are not funded by the state, we are funded by tuition and fundraisers like this and donations from the community,” said Susan Woodward, Event Organizer.

Students from Pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade attend the school. Tuition is 4300 hundred dollars a year. It’s well below the average cost for private elementary schools, which is at $ 12,452 and private high school tuition is an average of $ 23,834.

They are steep prices and to help keep them from climbing organizers says they tried to offer a little bit or something for everyone at the basket raffle.

“We have a large basket raffle that has a 15-foot kayak, we have concert tickets, we have an American Doll and everything in the large basket raffle is valued at over 100 dollars,” said Woodward.

They are hoping to raise as much as possible and even though the event ended Saturday, school officials say they are still accepting donations from the community.

The next fundraiser for the school will be sometime in the fall.