Publication Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Fund-raising goal no PIE in the sky
Fund-raising goal no PIE in the sky
(March 23, 2005) Group has raised $1.7 million for schools, aims for $2 million
by Alexandria Rocha
In its second year of fund raising, the community-led organization Partners in Education has so far raised $1.7 million for local public schools and plans to keep the massive campaign running through April.
From August through February, PIE volunteers raised about $1.2 million for the Palo Alto Unified School District's 12 elementary schools and $500,000 for the three middle and two high schools. That's about $250 per elementary student and $90 per middle and high school pupil.
The fledgling organization -- formerly two separate groups known as the All Schools Fund and the Palo Alto Foundation for Education -- will also run a spring Celebrate Our Teachers appeal, an online auction and a Realtor campaign.
Last year, the group raised more than $2 million for the district and volunteers have committed themselves to meeting that goal again through the additional petitions.
The donations are used for staffing -- specifically for classroom aides and reading specialists -- as well as programs cut and reduced because of the budget crises, said Al Russell, a member of PIE. The funds will support the 2005-'06 school year.
Parent-led fund raising is much more common in the private school sector. However, with recent budget cuts from the state, rising enrollment and sliding property tax revenues, the local educational community has taken on the public school funding job.
Community members receive an onslaught of requests for money each year, and some are beginning to feel strapped.
Property owners who live within the Palo Alto Unified School District boundaries already pay an annual $293 parcel tax. In June, the district is holding a special election to ask voters to increase that amount by $200 -- to $493 per year for six more years.
The proposed parcel tax, which would bring in about $10 million annually, is also set to go toward salaries.
"I don't think there's a conflict," Russell said. "The only thing that may change if the parcel tax passes, is there could be some change in the focus of what the organization fundraises for. That's very early to speculate."
This school year, Partners in Education requested a $475 donation from parents of elementary-aged children and $360 from the parents of middle and high school students.
The campaigns operated under the notion that individual PTA councils would not send out separate appeals. Some parents, however, did receive requests from their child's school on top of PIE's petition.
Parent Renate Steiner was asked to donate $325 to her student's middle school as well as the two PIE campaigns because she also has a child in elementary school.
Besides the required parcel tax figure, that could have run Steiner $1,458 in donations this school year.
"We did not give to the PIE campaign (for secondary schools), since we had already made our contribution directly to Jordan, as we thought we should do," Steiner said.
There was less confusion, she added, at the elementary level. Ohlone Elementary School, where her younger child attends, did not send out a separate letter in addition to the PIE appeal for funds. It was clear parents should donate toward PIE, she said.
Members of the organization admit it wasn't an easy transition when combining the two former fund-raising teams.
With a new board in the works, the plan is to head steadfast into next year.
"Both groups have adopted the model for the new organization," Russell said. "There is a new united goal to get things going."
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