By Sheryl Mee MacPhee
The Quarterly, Fall 2001
When I attendedpublic elementary school in the east San Gabriel Valley in the 1960’s and1970’s, there were may opportunities for us to learn more than just reading,writing and “rithmetic. Our school offered an active drama club and vocalchorus for all grades, and we were instructed in a wide array of performingarts, fine arts and music. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but we were also learningas well, about things like rhythm and tempo, public speaking and imagination,and although we didn’t realize it at the time, mathematics, critical thinking,communication and teamwork. As a parent, it is important to me now that mychildren be given the same opportunity for enrichment in their public schoolsin South Pasadena.
But the arts andenrichment programs that were so commonplace in California public schools inthe 60’s are nonexistent in today’s education climate. In 1978, voters passed thelandmark property tax law Proposition 13, and the California state funddistribution for public schools changed. Gone were the nonessential andenrichment classes like music and art instruction at the elementary schools.Across the state, public school districts slashed music, art and bandcurriculums and field trips. As public schools struggled to provide studentswith a good education with substantially less state funds, it was back tobasics for the children …. reading, writing and ‘rithmetic only.
Bob weaver, currentlya member of the South Pasadena Board of Education, was a parent with twochildren in South Pasadena’s public schools in 1980, when he witnessed theforced elimination of the elementary schools’ vocal music curriculum. Weaverand a group of concerned parents quickly formed the South Pasadena EducationalFoundation (SPEF), a non-profit, volunteer fundraising group that would seek tofill the gaps in the educational budget produced by Proposition 13. Its firstyear, SPEF raised an impressive $35,000, and did what the state couldn’t:return the vocal music curriculum to the city’s elementary schools for the nextsix years.
South Pasadenaparents and residents weren’t the only visionaries when it came to theirschools’ future health. In 1978 and 1980, respectively, concerned parents in LaCañada Flintridge and San Marino were also forming non-profit groups to provideadditional funding to their school districts. Pasadena, a forerunner in thefoundation front, initiated their foundation in 1971 as a result of adistrict-expressed need for teacher small grants. These “local educationalfoundations” (LEFs) join approximately 400 additional California LEFs initiatedsince Proposition 13 passed. All of them share the same commitment: broadeningsupport for public education and local schools by raising funds fordistrict-wide use.
Since theirinception, the foundations have raised funds to support a myriad of academicprograms and materials, including additional teachers’ salaries, music and artseducation, teacher grants, foreign language instruction and high schoolmentoring/career programs. Many of the LEFs, including the groups in SouthPasadena and La Cañada, work “in partnership” with their local districtadministrators to determine where the funds are needed most.
In 1998, SPEF’s Boardof Directors and district administrators determined that the city’s threeelementary schools would greatly benefit from the addition of a permanentperforming arts and music curriculum and foreign language classes at the SouthPasadena Middle School. Educational research has consistently confirmed thatearly exposure to music, arts and foreign languages has a positive impact onall aspects of learning, providing multiple ways for students to exercise intellect.
The result was SPEF’sPALETTE Campaign, an acronym for “Performing Arts and Language ExpressionTeaching Through Enrichment.” Through a series of targeted fundraisers,including phone banks, mailers and their annual “Parti Gras – A Taste of southPasadena” event, SPEF volunteers raised the necessary funds to hire theteachers and support the curricula – now entering its fourth year. Earlier thisyear, SPEF added the South Pasadena High School to its funding initiative,developing a program specifically to expand class offerings in the music andarts, and enhancing its guidance counseling program. To fund all theseprograms, SPEF raised $320,000 this past year, and gave the largest gift totheir district in the foundation’s history.
Fully funding academicand enrichment curriculum so that they become the proprietary programs of theeducational foundation is also the focus of the La Cañada FlintridgeEducational Foundation (LCFEF). “Although we obtain suggestions from ourdistrict administrators for new items, our focus this year is on programs thatwe completely fund,” said LCFEF board member Char Adams. “We can’t just handoff the money and not see it working to our best interest,: said Adams. “Wehave to be accountable to our supporters.” Among the various programs thatLCFEF has continuously provided are K-12 fine arts, additional teacherssalaries, a high school college counselor and “Institutes for the 21stCentury,” a business and professional mentoring program for high schoolstudents in grades 7-12. This past year, LCFEF gave their district $680,000 tofund these and other programs and curriculum.
In San Marino, theSan Marino Schools Foundation (SMSF) takes a different tack on raising fundsfor the $550,000 they give to support the city’s four public schools each year.According to SMSF Executive Director Colleen Fitzspatrick, SMSF gives donatedfunds to their district as an “unrestricted gift,” instead of targetingspecific programs, and leaves spending of the money entirely up to district administrators.”The people who established the foundation 21 years ago felt very strongly thatit was appropriate to have the school district and the school district and theschool board dictate how our funds are spent,” said Fitzpatrick. In addition totheir yearly $550,000 gift, SMSF also is conducting an ambitious capitalcampaign-raising $3 million in three years to fund furnishings and equipmentfor new classrooms. They are succeeding-nearly $1.5 million has been raised sofar, with two years remaining in the campaign.
But to raise thesenecessary funds, LEFs are shying away from the traditional bake sales andraffle tickets. South Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena all holdfestive community-wide fundraisers, complete with dinner, auctions and music,that provide residents and parents an opportunity to socialize and support thefoundations’ programs. San Marino prefers to utilize direct mail and brochures,and contacts individuals and businesses directly for contributions. Theirsummer “Concerts in the Park” series at Lacy Park is not so much a fundraiser,but a “friend-raiser,” used to build community awareness of their foundations,according to SMSF”s Fitzpatrick. Additional fundraising tactics for thenon-profits include jog-a-thons, summer school class offerings, newsletters andintensive phone banks.
“So much ofwhat goes on in a community is tied to the health and vitality of its schools,”says SPEF Co-President Michele Downing. “Part of our mission statement is toinvolve our community in our activities and fundraising so they become investedin the programs that SPEF funds.”
And LEFs have nodifficulty asking local businesses to participate and “become invested” in theschools as well. Indeed, perusing a list of business donors to LEFs reads likea local business directory-retail stores, doctors, professionals, andcorporations large and small. Adds SPEF Co-President Jerry Markle, “We rely onour local businesses for on-going support, but also count on the larger banks,supermarkets and corporations to ensure we meet our annual goal. They are avital part of our community.” The Pasadena Educational Foundation has been verysuccessful obtaining donations from local businesses, with large amountsreceived from Avery Dennison, Bank of America and Parsons Corporation.
This community-widefundraising is crucial to the individual districts when you consider that theupscale middle class communities of South Pasadena, San Marino and La Cañadareceive less per pupil in state funding than the state average. As LCFEFmentions in their annual report, “While the community of La Cañada Flintridgemay be considered affluent as measured by the value of its residentialproperty, our schools are seriously under financed.” Therefore, LEFs feel it’svital to ask all residents of the city to support the public schools, whetherthey have children in them or not.
The support thedistricts receive in terms of donated funds, volunteers and communitycommitment is quantitative as well. According to the API (Academic PerformanceIndex), all three of the high schools are ranked in the top 10 percent of allCalifornia public high schools in 2000. LCFEF’s annual report also states thatthe three high schools are ranked in the top 50 (out of 800) public highschools in California, based on the 1999 API (California Department ofEducation data).
But for all thesuccess the foundations have had in raising funds throughout the years, theystill face hurdles. For SPEF, that challenge is to inform the entire communityabout the long-term impact their donations have on the public schools. “We’dlike to inform our parents and community about SPEF and the programs weprovide, ultimately increasing our donor base,” said Downing.
In La CañadaFlintridge, LCFEF Co-president Rose Chan also hopes to reach out to her entirecommunity and get more people supportive of their foundation. “We take our goodeducation for granted,” said Chan. “Our goal is to communicate that our firstpriority is our schools, and we hope to convince people to continue to give asthey previously have.”
From kindergarten totwelfth grade, educational foundations offer public school districts a plethoraof enhancements. Whether raising funds for arts and music programs, languagearts, technology or high school career counseling, the foundations fill anecessary gap in school funding and the school districts would not be assuccessful without them.
Public school parentswho grew up in the 60s and 70s experienced a very different education than theones our children have now. Intensive instruction in music, drama, fine artsand other non-core curricula were all commonplace in California public schoolsthirty years age. These education essentials, plus all the other learningingredients that existed in pre-Proposition 13 public education, are a vitalpart of our children’s learning experience, and what parents want and expecttoday for their children. Educational Foundations ar our way of ensuring thatthe education our children receive will be as well rounded and all encompassingas the education we remember from our youth.
