Together We Can!

They Said It Couldn’t Be Done, and They Were Wrong!

I hope you’ve all been paying attention these last few weeks to the extraordinary transformation that’s taken place in our community.

When the Las Virgenes Unified School District initiated its own Save Our Schools Campaign, it was greeted with a large dose of skepticism. In truth, it is unprecedented for a school district, i.e., a government organization, to conduct its own fundraising campaign. This typically happens through a third party non-profit organization, like an education foundation. However, at the time that the district needed to start the campaign, T.H.E. Foundation for Las Virgenes Schools was in its infancy; we hadn’t even finalized our bylaws!!

Facing potential budget cuts of the kind that would have decimated many aspects of our children’s education, LVUSD, under the direction of Karen Kimmel, Chief Business Official, decided they could not sit back and just let these cuts happen. They took action, and it paid off immensely.

People, cities, businesses, and organizations in a matter of weeks came together with one goal: to save 51 LVUSD teachers and counselors who were given layoff notices on March 15 due to state budget cuts.

The LVUSD-driven Save Our Schools campaign, which promised to use every dollar to rescind these layoffs, has raised nearly $400,000 to date in direct donations from members of all five communities served by LVUSD. In the last two weeks alone, almost $100,000 was raised by dozens of volunteers manning phone banks across the district. As a result of this campaign, as well as an early retirement incentive proposed by the Las Virgenes Educators Association, sponsorship of the 4/5 Science program by the LVMWD , financial support from the city councils of Westlake Village and Hidden Hills, and S.O.S. bracelet sales and S.O.S. Facebook page postings, the LVUSD Board of Education was able to rescind 43 of the 51 notices at its May 10 board meeting. Tremendous!

This effort bodes well for the message that the Together Helping Education (T.H.E.) Foundation for Las Virgenes Schools will be sending, that the wellbeing of our school district is a community issue, and requires everyone to support the great schools that drew us to this region.

Everyone who donated time, money and effort should be proud of the contributions they made. But we are not out of the woods quite yet.

If you have children in the elementary schools, you may be looking at slightly higher class sizes, but your basic services have been saved. Not so at our high schools. The counselors are still at risk. 

If more money can't be raised, we will be left with only 4 counselors at each school. Based on a student body of over 2000 students, this will mean a student/counselor ratio of more than 500:1. The generally acceptable ratio is about half that. Additionally, the Freshman counseling program that started this year at Agoura HS, that dedicated two part-time counselors to meet with and work with each Freshmen family, will be gone. Let's also keep in mind that some of the counselors placed at the schools may not have high school counseling experience, but are entitled to the positions.

If you have not yet donated to the S.O.S. campaign, if you know those who haven't, or if you believe that you could have given more, please do not hesitate. Donations can be made by credit card (Visa/MC) or check. Got to the lvusd.org website for information and to donate online. Time is of the essence. May 20 is the final deadline for deciding on the remaining layoff notices.

We are so close to reaching our goal of rescinding ALL the layoff notices. Our children need our counselors. Consider this: if you don't contribute a little now to save our school counselors, you might find yourself paying a lot more for a private one later. 

The momentum created through the LVUSD SOS campaign has demonstrated that our community is not willing to sacrifice our children’s education and welfare to wait for Sacramento to get it right.

Let’s use this momentum to affirm our belief that we must take direct financial responsibility for our school district. A great public school education must be supported locally and directly.

Let’s work towards a new reality for 2012. Instead of agonizing about the number of layoff notices issued, let us hold our heads high and say proudly that we worked together to have all the teachers, counselors and programs we want for our children and for our community. I’m willing to do what’s necessary to see that day. Are you?