Anonymous Group Set to Match Up to $100,000 for Schools
A group that wants to remain anonymous has promised to match donations up to $100,000 to help the financially troubled Laguna Beach Unified School District recover from a $1-million shortfall it faces next school year.
Members of School Power, a nonprofit organization that raises money for the city’s four schools, said the group approached them last week and offered to match donations made by June 30.
“We can double our money,” said Bob Whalen, president of School Power, who announced the group’s offer at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “We will take your dollars and spend them on the priorities at each of the school sites.”
School board Trustee Timothy D. Carlyle and his wife, Lyn, became the first to take the group up on its offer, writing School Power a $1,000 check.
“I just think this is really an example of the depth of support in this community,” Carlyle said. “And it makes me feel good knowing I got 2-for-1.”
The district, hurt financially by the Laguna Beach fires of 1993, which destroyed some school property, and then by losses in Orange County’s late 1994 bankruptcy filing, has been scrambling to find new revenue and make budget cuts.
District officials have sent layoff notices to 33 teachers and have said that some enrichment classes such as art and music may have to be dropped.
Whalen said School Power has set up phone trees and started a door-to-door campaign to raise $100,000 from the community so that, with the matching funds from the anonymous group, next school year’s budget can be $200,000 richer.
Adding in the $200,000 that School Power has already raised, officials said, the school district would stand to gain $400,000.
“We love our programs, and we want to keep them all,” Whalen said. “Whether we can achieve that remains to be seen.”
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