El Segundo Education Foundation rallies with gala, $1 million check

The El Segundo Education Foundation on Tuesday accepted the final check in the $1 million pledge from the Rosecrans-Sepulveda Partners for Plaza El Segundo. Contributors included Continental Development Corporation, Mar Ventures, Inc. ,Allan Mackenzie, Dan Romano, Dan Crosser, WE-WAAM Messori Family Trust, Wendy Mantikas, Comstock Family II, LP, Gary Lyter, and Eric Winquist. Photo
The El Segundo Education Foundation on Tuesday accepted the final check in the $1 million pledge from the Rosecrans-Sepulveda Partners for Plaza El Segundo. Contributors included Continental Development Corporation, Mar Ventures, Inc. ,Allan Mackenzie, Dan Romano, Dan Crosser, WE-WAAM Messori Family Trust, Wendy Mantikas, Comstock Family II, LP, Gary Lyter, and Eric Winquist. Photo

The El Segundo Education Foundation on Tuesday accepted the final check in the $1 million pledge from the Rosecrans-Sepulveda Partners for Plaza El Segundo. Contributors included Continental Development Corporation, Mar Ventures, Inc. ,Allan Mackenzie, Dan Romano, Dan Crosser, WE-WAAM Messori Family Trust, Wendy Mantikas, Comstock Family II, LP, Gary Lyter, and Eric Winquist. Photo

The oversized $1 million dollar check that the El Segundo Education Foundation accepted on Tuesday at Center Street School represented many things.

A smaller accompanying check for $100,000 actually went into the foundation’s bank account, representing the fulfillment of a five year, $1 million pledge that Rosecrans-Sepulveda Partners for Plaza El Segundo made the plaza first opened its doors.

Those million dollars, in a very real sense, showed up in classrooms across the district – keeping intact essential science curriculum that the state has ceased to fund, giving kids access to arts and music programs that California long ago abandoned, and paying for counselors who otherwise would have been laid off, leaving students without professional guidance as they take classes with college and the future in mind.

A million dollars also represented hope in a time when public education in this state was under financial siege. At the same time the Ed Foundation’s annual contribution to schools doubled from $450,000 annually to nearly $900,000, the El Segundo Unified School district saw its budget slashed yearly by $4.5 million.

“It’s enabled the foundation to increase grants to El Segundo schools,” said Carol Pirsztuk, the Ed Foundation’s CEO, of the Plaza El Segundo pledge. “We’ve been able to offset the continued reductions from the state so El Segundo Unified has not had to cut programs.”

It wasn’t always like this. When the Education Foundation first started in 1983, its goal was largely to supplement existing programs. By 2000, Ed! was already successfully raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the money was largely directed at programs deemed important but not necessarily essential.

Pirsztuk breaks the schools’ needs into four categories: required curriculum, such as first year high school science and English courses; “must haves,” such as second year ESHS science and school counseling services; “need to haves,” such as literacy, music, and arts programs, and “nice to haves,” such as innovative pocket grant programs that allow teachers to try new methods of reaching students.

Over the course of the recession, the state has ceased to fund anything but bare requirements. Throughout California, school districts were forced to cut programs and lay off teachers. This hasn’t happened in El Segundo, largely because of the foundation, which is now providing roughly 10 percent of the district’s program funding.

“The foundations, not just for El Segundo, but in Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes, and most local schools, are having to go up the ladder as far as what we are funding,” Pirsztuk said. “The requirements are much more expensive, and so even though we are increasing the amount [contributed], we are funding less – because we are now funding things that were funded by the state of California.”

Per pupil funding in California has dropped to 49th in the country. In El Segundo, per student funding is roughly $5,500 annually, which Pirsztuk notes is a fraction of a state such as New Jersey, where per-pupil funding is about $18,000 per year. This means a student in El Segundo receives a cumulative $65,000 in his or her 12 years in public education, while a New Jersey student’s education has been funded $216,000.

“We have to look past California, because the world is getting smaller,” Pirsztuk said. “If kids in California are being funded this much less than kids in New Jersey, what chance do they have?”

Barbara Briney, the director of events for the Ed Foundation, said that the loss of counselors alone would make it supremely difficult for an El Segundo student to prepare for college.

“The reality is they need this help,” Briney said. “As much as public education is free and public for everyone, it’s not. Somewhere somebody has to make up the difference. And that is what the foundation does.”

Briney emphasized that though historically, the Ed Foundation’s corporate supporters have provided the lion’s share of contributions, as needs have grown in the schools a greater need for broader community support has likewise arisen.

“The corporations have stepped up, but the larger community has to step up, as well – you can’t expect one part of the community to do it all,” she said. “They are willing to help us, but we also have to be willing to help ourselves. The reality is we need parents and everyone in the community to support our schools.”

The foundation’s signature fundraising event, its annual gala, takes place Friday night. The event, which takes place at Chevron Park and features food and drinks from over 20 local eateries, is dubbed the “Party in the Park.” It’s a party with a cause – even beyond the $175,000 the Ed Foundation hopes to raise through the event, the gala is a celebration of the community itself, and the key role it has played in keeping El Segundo’s schools among the top in the nation. U.S. World News & World Report’s annual rankings, in fact, this month placed El Segundo High as the 332nd top high school in the nation, outstripping even its much-lauded neighbor, Mira Costa.

“It’s a celebration of what we are doing for our own community,” Briney said of the gala. “We are supporting ourselves, our future, and our kids. Our community can do that when we come together, and this night is about coming together, having a good time, spending some bucks, and keeping it going.”

The “Party in the Park” gala takes place May 17 beginning at 6 p.m. See esedf.org for more information and tickets.

 

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