With all of the turbulence of the past few years, it seems that a lot of the knowledge about ‘How we got here’ has been lost. Many long time families have had kids move on to high school and that includes most of the past LEAP board members.
So, I thought it may be helpful to start a series of posts about the way we do things now and the path that lead us here.
Way back, prior to 2017, each program in the Lagunitas School District would raise money for themselves and there was very little crossover. Each program had its annual fundraiser:
- Montessori – The Fall Fest
- Middle School – Bingo Night
- Open – Spaghetti Dinner
Waldorf probably had a fundraiser, too, but I don’t recall what that was. LEAP also had one main fundraiser a year, Valley Visions.
There was something we called the ‘Handshake Agreement’ where each program agreed to have only one fundraiser a year each. The handshake agreement came about because the programs kept throwing fundraisers throughout the year and the parents, kids, vendors, donors, etc… all got sick of being asked for more and more and more. More money, more time, more volunteering, more donations… it really pitted the programs against one another.
During the recession that started around 2008, school budgets were on the chopping block. Property tax revenue fell as house values were being reassessed and taxed at a lower rate, and our district relies heavily on our property taxes. So, to offset these budget cuts, the school board made the difficult decision to cut a significant chunk of funding that had been going to the programs. The amount cut was $25,000 per program. Whoa, now in the face of a recession the programs were going to have to raise $25k more per year per program to keep up our budgets.
As you can imagine, the scramble for funds became more fierce. At the same time, more families were relying on two incomes to make ends meet so volunteerism was falling. In each program there was a small group of parents who took on the lion’s share of fundraising work, and we were getting burned out.
At that time, LEAP was mostly administering fundraising that the programs did on their own. LEAP ran pledge and distributed those funds. LEAP hosted Valley Visions which changed shape over the years but was geared towards getting parents together for some food, booze and (maybe) dancing. LEAP also organized the district wide read-a-thon and book faire.
Several of the program fundraising heavy weights came together on the LEAP board and it seemed obvious that we should pool our resources when it came to fundraising effort. So, the idea of district wide fundraising was floated.
Around that time, our programs really began to struggle with fundraising and budget cuts. One program was flush, another barely scraped by and another was in the hole. LEAP worked with the program parent groups to work out a way that all three programs (Waldorf had closed by then) would be OK for that year at least. Programs shared money and resources, so drastic cuts were avoided. For 2017, at least.
Most importantly, during this difficult time, we realized that all children in the district deserved support regardless of program. We couldn’t move forward with a system that would leave kids without educational enrichment just because of a poor fundraising year.
It became apparent to the people who were doing most of the heavy lifting for fundraising at the time, we would all do better if we worked together. We agreed to consolidate our asking of money from donors (much to Good Earth’s joy, I’m sure) by creating our unified sponsorship program. We agreed to ask all district parents to pledge money instead of leaving it up to programs to solicit for themselves. We agreed that LEAP would over see all fundraisers (the Winter Cafe is an exception since it is run by the kids and the money entirely passes through, not going to the program).
In the years since unified fundraising began, the average annual revenue has been on the upswing (with the exception of the 2020-2021 school year for obvious reasons).
You may have noticed new LEAP banners and signs, a new logo and generally a swell of LEAP activity over the past several months. This is due to a wonderful group of new LEAP board members who are devoted to all the best aspects of our school district! The energy is palpable and the creativity is bubbling at every turn. If you want to be a part of taking our district into the future, please come to one of LEAP’s monthly zoom meetings, help out with an event, or even join the LEAP board.
~ James Sanders, LEAP board member, parent, and Lagunitas School Board Trustee
