Parent to Parent: Volunteers Dial for Donations to Save Teaching Jobs

Erin Mayer hung up the phone and raised her arms in excitement.

“I got $349 and digits,” said Mayer, the mother of a student at , referring to a credit card number a donor provided.

Mayer and about 15 volunteer parents spent Tuesday night calling families throughout the asking for donations to help 51 teachers and counselors keep their jobs.

Phone banks were set up at the offices of in Calabasas and Farmers Insurance in Agoura Hills, and will continue from the same locations through this Thursday. Calls for donations are planned to resume next Monday through May 12. Parents from different schools will take turns manning the phones each night.

The fundraising campaign, dubbed Save Our Schools, kicked off in February and has so far raised $291,000, said Karen Kimmel, the district's chief business official.

Teaching jobs make up a large chunk of a $3.8 million budget shortfall–due to cuts at the state level–the district is facing for the 2011-12 school year, Kimmel said.

About $200,000 more in donations is needed to rescind 80 percent of notices of potential layoff issued in March for 44 teaching positions at the elementary and high school level and seven counselors, she added.  

Reaching Save Our Schools’ initial goal of $1 million would help all of those employees stay on staff, Kimmel said.

Money that will be saved from 28 retiring teachers’ salaries and funds from Ventura County to run the district’s special needs program will also be used to trim the deficit, she said.

Volunteer parents were given cards listing phone numbers of all Las Virgenes Unified families to call. There are 10,965 students in the district.

Karen Lijewski, a parent of students at and in Agoura Hills, was placing calls from the

“I want to help raise money to keep our schools running at the quality that we’re used to,” she said. “I want to save our teachers, and I want my children to have the best education possible.”

Chaparral Elementary Principal Somer Harding was also placing calls and raised about $2,000 by 7:30 p.m. She said six teachers at her school were given notices of potential layoff.

Harding said she is optimistic that Save Our Schools will raise $200,000 by next week.

“The parents in this community are really involved in the schools,” she said. “They are driven to give their children the best education they can."

The district’s Board of Education is scheduled to vote on finalizing layoffs at a meeting next Tuesday.

However, Kimmel said donations would still be accepted after the board's vote and rescind layoffs in June if enough money is raised.

Volunteers asked parents to donate $850, but accepted any contribution.

At a meeting last Tuesday at Chaparral Elementary regarding the potential layoffs, Calabasas parent Jonathan Davidorf said he and other parents would be inclined to donate more if they could pick which school they wanted there money to go toward.

“I don’t want to write a check and have it go to some other school in the district and my kid never benefits from it,” he said.

Kimmel said parents could indicate on their checks whether they want their money to go to an elementary, middle or high school, but cannot choose a specific school because the funds must be allocated to ensure no campus is short staffed.

Kim Egerstrom, a mother of two Chaparral Elementary students, said she was pleased with the volunteer turnout on Tuesday night.

She said it's challenging to get parents to set time aside during evening hours.

"It conflicts with things like dinner and sports," Egerstrom said.

Volunteers were given scripts to guide them during calls, but Mayer said the selling point is simple.

"The fact that every dollar is going toward rescinding [layoff] notices," she said, "that's a big deal!"

The t is scheduled to consider funding a science program for fourth and fifth graders that's on the chopping block at its 5 p.m. meeting on Wednesday.