Price Is Right: Schools Get Something for Nothing : 1992 THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Companies Get Into the Business of Education

Despite the recession and some of the toughest budget cuts Orange County’s public schools have ever experienced, Lorraine Dageforde believes that 1993 will be a very good year.

As proof she hauls out a shopping list of items needed by the county’s cash-strapped schools: computers, desks, chairs, bulletin boards, printers, copiers, carpeting, storage boxes, three-ring binders, paper and particle board.

No problem, Dageforde says. What’s more, none of these items will cost the schools a single penny.

That’s because in 1992 Dageforde created an unusual program called Surplus for Schools. The program, co-sponsored by the Orange County Department of Education and the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, allows for businesses to donate surplus items to county schools.

Dageforde, who works for the Orange County Department of Education and bears the unwieldy title of business education partnership specialist, initiated the program last January by sending letters to 75 companies and asking for donations of unused equipment. Since then, the program has mushroomed, and recently Dageforde sent out a letter to 600 firms.

That’s why she’s so optimistic about 1993.

“So far, about 50 businesses have donated, but we expect it to grow geometrically in ’93 for several reasons,” she says. “Companies that have donated continue to donate andthey are telling other companies about it. So it is spreading by word of mouth.”

Dageforde, whose idea it was to start such a program, says she is pleased things are going so well.

“Businesses are happy about it because they have these things and they may not be able to use them. Lots of businesses tell us these things were sitting in warehouses or boxes and they had no idea what to do with them. And businesses want to help the schools, but their budgets are tight now, too. This allows them to help without spending any additional dollars. And they can deduct it from their taxes.”

Dageforde says she has been astounded at some of the items that have been donated.

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For example, PacifiCare donated an entire warehouse full of office furniture. AST Research offered 20 computers. Silicon Systems donated 50 office desks. Canon USA sent a brand-new electronic typewriter. Hyundai donated a car. Honda donated 40 engine blocks and 10 cars.

(Donations are picked up within 72 hours. For information about how to participate in the program call Lorraine Dageforde at (714) 966-4344.)

“Each donation is different,” Dageforde says. “One company donated 150 magazines. And a travel agency donated five boxes of travel brochures and one school took them all. The way it works is that when I get information about donations from a company, we post it on the electronic bulletin board.”

The posting takes place at noon every day and is flashed electronically onto computer screens in the offices of 28 school districts in Orange County. To participate in the program, districts must be a member of a network called Computerized Communication System: Your Electronic Solution (CCS:YES). “The schools have someone watching the board and we get calls within the hour--sometimes in five minutes,” Dageforde says. “We average three to eight calls on every item donated. And that is within the first hour.”

Wray Miller, who is in charge of data processing for the Huntington Beach Union High School District, sets his wristwatch alarm to go off every day at noon to remind him to go check the listing. “If there is anything on of interest, we transfer it from their system to our computer system to make the item available to all our campuses. If we want to get it out in a hurry we can get it to all the sites in 10 minutes.”

But sometimes, Millers says, the items are gone before he even has a chance to flash an electronic message.

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Cynthia Grennan, superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District, says she has had her schools make a wish list, and the person who monitors the electronic bulletin board calls whenever an item from the list pops up.

“It is an excellent program,” Grennan says. “It has been a blessing to the district. We have acquired about $70,000 to $90,000 of surplus equipment and furniture since last February. It has saved us a tremendous amount of money and has been a godsend . . . We have gotten computers, a motorcycle, office supplies, a car to use in auto shop for instructional purposes only. Not every young person has a car, so kids can take auto shop and have a car to work on.”

When Dageforde mailed her original letter last January, she asked for everything from scrap paper to materials for science classes, she says. “During the first six months we had about 30 companies come forward with donations,” she says. “We intended to start small so we could get efficient and work out all the bugs.”

Richard Evink of Silicon Systems in Tustin received word about Dageforde’s program and had his company donate 50 desks that weren’t being used. “What I have done is talk to the people in the company and got the word out to them,” says Evink, facilities manager for the firm. “I think it is very positive for both the company and for the school districts.”

In January, Dageforde intends to mail out bulletins about available items to all Orange County school districts to build a greater awareness of the program so that districts that may not be participating can do so in 1993.

“Some districts may not be watching the board, and we want to make them more aware of the things that are there,” she said.

initial,2 Since the program began a year ago, she says, few items have gone unwanted. “There are very few things that we don’t have use for. One was an old blueprint machine that was kind of out of date, but usually the only things that go by the wayside are things that are very old or need repair. Although we do take things that need minor repairs.”

Some of the more unusual items that have been donated include a drilling machine, Seal-A-Meal equipment and the engine blocks, Dageforde says. “What is interesting is that we have some companies that donate repeatedly.”

Occasionally, when a company donates such coveted items as computers, Dageforde takes applications from interested schools. “AST Research is donating 20 computers and we have 70 plus applications for these computers,” she says. “And certain other items because of their great value, we take applications so we can see that the schools really know how they will use them.”

Cynthia Grennan says that in her school district everyone is instructed not to take items that can’t be used. “We are honor bound not to take something and then not be able to use it,” she says.

But Lorraine Dageforde doesn’t think that is much of a problem because schools need everything, she says. “The schools that are taking advantage of it are just thrilled with the donations, and the businesses are pleased to help our schools in such an efficient way.”