by Mark McDermott
The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation raised $1.4 million for local schools at its signature event, the 31st annual Manhattan Wine Auction, which took place May 30 at the Bay Club’s Manhattan Country Club.
Over 2,400 people attended the sold-out event. Since its debut in 1995, the Manhattan Wine Auction has grown from 10 restaurants and 15 wineries to the largest food and wine festival in the South Bay, featuring over 45 restaurants, 80 wineries, breweries, and distilleries, more than 20 live auction lots and over 300 silent auction items.
“The Manhattan Wine Auction has become a cherished tradition — one that truly reflects the heart of our community,” said Hilary Mahan, Executive Director of MBEF. “This year’s incredible turnout and generosity highlight just how deeply our community values public education. From volunteers to vendors, sponsors to guests—it was an unforgettable night.”
Among the special aspects of the night was the contribution, by an anonymous donor, of tables at center court for families who relocated locally after fires destroyed their homes in Pacific Palisades. Additionally, the Pipkin family, longtime MBEF supporters, donated tables for Manhattan Beach Unified School District’s teachers of the year.
“This year was impactful in many ways, and really demonstrated the generosity and sense of community that we have here in Manhattan Beach,” Mahan said.
Funds raised from the Wine Auction support the MBEF Endowment, a fund which began modestly with a $10,000 donation in 1986, and by this year has grown to $25 million, enabling the Foundation to disperse $1.2 million derived solely from the endowment’s investment returns, while still growing the principal. Overall, MBEF dispersed $7.4 million in grants during this school year. This funding source has become indispensable for MBUSD, which is among the lowest funded districts in California on a per-pupil basis because the state’s Local Control Funding Formula prioritizes schools by metrics such as free lunch programs. The idea is to better help schools in lower income areas but the unintended consequence is the chronic underfunding of districts like MBUSD. As a result, the district last year issued 33 pink slips to teachers, but was able to rescind 20 of those layoffs due to funds both from MBEF and the newly adopted Measure MB parcel tax.
During last year’s budget process, MBUSD Deputy Superintendent Dawnalyn Murakawa-Leopard emphasized to the board that this amount of local support for public schools is extremely rare.
“It’s a highly unusual circumstance,” she said. “Most districts rely on state, local, and federal money, but not nearly the percentage of local funds that we do. And so we have worked very hard over the past many years to try to shore up those local revenue sources…and to continue to educate the community about the importance of local funds, to help people understand that this is really the way that we can control our own destiny and maintain the level of programs that we believe are important in our district.”
MBUSD’s budget adoption process begins this week and will likely, once again, include recommended teacher layoffs.
MBEF grants support everything from STEM programs like MakerSpace to certified physical education instructions and arts and music instruction that otherwise would no longer be offered, but increasingly are targeted to simply protect teaching positions and thereby maintain smaller class sizes. MBEF contributions, and most immediately the $283,000 raised at the Wine Auction’s “Paddle Raise,” will reduce those layoffs.
“With the structural deficit in public school funding in our state, and in particular, how LCFF has impacted our particular community, class size is a significant priority,” Mahan said. “The funding that our district receives is just not capable of creating the learning environment that our community expects for our students, whether that’s through enrichment opportunities, reasonable class sizes, access to more counselors, or creating paths [to help students] navigating the future through our College and Career Center. None of these things are feasible with the state budget. So what we end up doing is really focusing as much as we can on all of these different elements.”
Almost half of MBEF contributions are directed at keeping lower class sizes by saving educator positions.
“We know when our students have more personalized interaction with an adult, with a trusted teacher, leader, mentor, or counselor on a campus that their learning and their experience in school is more successful,” Mahan said. “So that’s what we try to focus on, at the same time as ensuring the opportunities our students have are high caliber and preparing them for the future. We still want to create a well rounded educational experience, so that in our elementary schools, our students still have access to the library, a PE teacher who is certificated, the science labs that bring science to life, MakerSpace for hands-on opportunities and of course music, to expand that artistic side and really, really hone in on the skill sets and the artistic side that can really nurture a student’s learning. It’s a challenge to be able to provide all that we want….I wish we were able to do everything.”
Without MBEF funding, Mahan said, class sizes would range from 5 to 10 more students per teacher per class.
“Our impact is tremendous in this way, but often it is not easily recognizable,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine a class size ever being 40 students in a class, and what that would mean for the quality of our children’s education.”
The presence of the teachers of the year at the Wine Auction as honored guests underscored this critical aspect of MBEF’s mission. The event is celebratory, a night to bask in the accomplishments of another year, as MBUSD continues to be one of the academically highest-achieving districts in the state, despite the challenges that it faces.
One of the signature moments of the night was the presentation of MBEF’s 2025 Legacy Award to Melanie and Richard Lundquist, whose dedication to public education has had a transformative impact throughout the South Bay. As CEO of Continental Development Corporation, Richard spearheaded MBEF’s largest single donation to date—a $1 million gift to MBEF’s Endowment in 2012.
“Melanie and Richard Lundquist are visionaries,” said Mike Brunick, MBEF President. “Their leadership and generosity continue to inspire a powerful culture of philanthropy here in Manhattan Beach and beyond.”
“For us at MBEF, Melanie and Richard have really represented philanthropy, what it means to give back and support public education,” Mahan said. “You look at their history, particularly Melanie’s, and her understanding of the value of public education, it’s tremendous. Our community has been impacted so tremendously by them. It’s remarkable.” ER
