St. George’S Lands $2 Million Donation Microsoft’S Gates Donates To School’S Fund

Banks near the Little Spokane River just got a little more full.

But not because of rising water.

With a swoop of his mighty Microsoft pen, billionaire Bill Gates donated $2 million to the St. George’s School capital campaign.

Gates’ donation was announced on Friday at the private school in north Spokane, which sits beside the Little Spokane.

The announcement of Gates’ donation was made just before graduation ceremonies for the class of 1998.

“This is a big day in the history of St. George’s School,” said Jonathan Slater, the school’s headmaster. “This is our largest campaign by four times.”

The grant will be distributed by the William H. Gates Foundation.

The school’s five-year, $10 million capital campaign, including $1 million for an endowment, has brought in $8 million to date.

Construction will begin this summer on a new upper school and a 350-seat theater. An existing building will be converted to a middle school for sixth- through eighth-graders.

The new and refurbished buildings will allow the school to expand enrollment from 300 to 400 students before the turn of the century.

St. George’s, which was founded in 1955, is the only independent, co-educational, K-12 college preparatory school in Eastern Washington.

This phase of the St. George’s fund-raising effort was aided greatly by Gates’ sister, Kristi Blake of Spokane, who has two children enrolled at the school and also is a member of its board of trustees.

“I think it’s an education that couldn’t be duplicated at any other school,” said Blake of the schooling her kindergartner and third-grader receive.