BERKELEY, November 23, 2010—Berkeley Public Education Foundation (BPEF) (bpef-online.org) announced today the 2010 recipients of its annual Classroom Grants.  “Due to repeated annual budget cuts, our schools are in an exceedingly difficult spot which is reflected in the highest number of dollars requested and awarded for these grants in the organization’s history,” said Molly Fraker, Director of the nonprofit organization. “BPEF has answered the call.” Begun 27 years ago in a volunteer’s living room, BPEF has grown to become Berkeley’s single largest source of private outside funding to reach teachers and programs in every Berkeley public school, from Pre-K–12. BPEF believes that directly supporting teachers is one of the best  and most efficient ways to help students achieve and succeed.

The 2010 grants, 230 in all to over 300 teachers applying individually or in teams, range from $150 for a class of second graders to collect and publish their writing, to a $9,000 District-wide grant for books that support the newly adopted K-5 Language Arts program. A sampling of other grants include books and storytelling puppets for Franklin Pre-school teacher Karen Sudjian ($500); printmaking materials for Cragmont School’s Art teacher Joe McClain ($800); ten laptops for a portable computer lab requested by a team of teachers at Willard Middle School ($10,000); and half a dozen document cameras plus expanded wireless service for Berkeley High School humanities teachers ($3,000).

Unrestricted dollars that BPEF raises underwrite classroom grants, a large district-wide volunteer program and support for unique programs offered within the public schools by other organizations.  BPEF’s School Volunteers, initiated in 1991, brings donated time, talents and skills of over 2,000 community members into all Berkeley schools. Funded organizations include Berkeley Symphony, whose Music in the Schools serves nearly 4,000 students in all eleven elementary schools with a year-long program of instruction and performance; Community Resources for Science, which helps K-8 teachers in Berkeley build confidence in their science teaching by providing information and lessons, scientist volunteers and support with extracurricular activities; and the Writer Coach Connection, whose 250 volunteers, from Cal students to retirees, undergo six hours of rigorous training to prepare them for the job of coaching middle- and high-school student writers.

Berkeley Public Education Foundation was begun in 1983, when the impact of Proposition 13 property tax restructuring was beginning to be felt in public school classrooms.  A group of Berkeley parents and community leaders responded by establishing BPEF to raise awareness and funds on behalf of our city’s public school teachers and students, who were bearing the brunt of the dramatic reduction in public education financing.  This core leadership group began building an annual source of funding that educators could tap to enrich their classrooms and expand the horizons of their teaching. “BPEF has always been about enrichment, innovation and leadership,” said Fraker.

Highlights of BPEF’s many years of support include early seed funding for the Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Project which, with BPEF’s help, was piloted and then adopted as the new Language Arts curriculum across all Berkeley K-5 schools. In the early 1990s, BPEF was asked and accepted the challenge to raise an extra $1 million to build a Family Resource Center at Rosa Parks School during its reconstruction following the Loma Prieta earthquake. When music was in jeopardy in our schools for a year due to a funding gap, BPEF spearheaded a campaign raising over $300,000 to keep music teachers and instruction going uninterrupted.

Congratulations to the teachers who were awarded BPEF grants and to the all the students in Berkeley public schools who are the beneficiaries of the community’s donations and commitment to excellence.

Measures H & I will ensure uninterrupted funding for essential routine maintenance of our public school facilities (H) and resources for significant repairs, replacements, new construction and upgrades of facilities (I).  Failure to pass these measures will compromise investments made over  two decades in new and remodeled schools.   Our teachers and students deserve to be in safe, attractive, clean and modernized facilities.  We encourage Berkeley’s caring citizens and voters to renew these measures and continue this community’s tradition — envied by neighboring districts — of putting our dollars behind education!

Berkeley Public Education Foundation will be hosting a free informational reception on NOVEMBER 14, from 4 to 6 PM to introduce pre-school parents/guardians to Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) kindergartens, and provide an overview of the school selection, registration and placement processes. Melisandra Leonardos from BUSD’s Admissions Office  will present and respond to questions.   Location:  Northbrae Community Church,  941 The Alameda, Berkeley.   Please RSVP with your name and the number attending to bpef@berkeley.k12.ca.us  or 510-644-6244.  Click here to download a flier for the event.

All BUSD families, students, faculty and staff are invited by BPEF and BUSD to a free, private evening at Lawrence Hall of Science to view the exhibit “Scream Machines: The Science of Rollercoasters.

DATE:  Thursday, October 28, 2010
TIME:   6:00 – 8:30 PM

Click here for more details!

Parking:  A BPEF volunteer will be on-hand to direct you into a FREE lot for this event.

We are proud to have been a funder of BUSD’s inaugural “Summer Bridge” program for a group of incoming Berkeley High 9th graders. To hear and see more about the program and the ropes course supported by BPEF click here for a brief video – use the password 2020vision.

A Note from Becca Todd, BUSD Library Coordinator:

The Friends of BUSD Libraries Committee is having its first meeting of the year and new members are always welcome.   We will meet on Thursday, October 7, at 7 pm in the Willard School Library.   Click here for more information, or contact Becca at 644-4895, or Becca_Todd@berkeley.k12.ca.us

Monday, September 27, 2010:  1:30 – 4:30
Sutardja Dai Hall, Banatao Auditorium

A national debate has raged since mid August when the Los Angeles Times published its evaluations of 6,000 elementary school teachers in its series, “Grading the Teachers.” The report has been a wake-up call to those in research, journalism and education circles to grapple with the evaluation, journalistic and policy issues raised by the LA Times. On September 27, UC Berkeley answers that call by holding the first and largest public forum to consider the methods and implications of the LA Times report, what promising teacher evaluations are on the horizon and, ultimately, how and whether teachers and students can benefit from them.

Information and location details can be found at  http://events.berkeley.edu/?event_ID=34393&date=2010-09-27&tab=academic

Come out to Aurora Theatre on September 21 for a special benefit evening for Berkeley Schools!   A generous donation of tickets means that all proceeds from the evening will support Berkeley Public Education Foundation’s grant and volunteer programs, providing enrichment opportunities for students in our pre-school through 12th grade classrooms and after-school programs. 

Celebrated Bay Area actress Margo Hall will be making her Aurora debut in Trouble in Mind, a 1950s play whose themes of race, power and privilege continue to resonate today.  A play-within-the-play centers on a mixed-race cast attempting to mount a production of a “progressive” new play on Broadway in the 1950s. This production—an anti-lynching drama set in the South—is written by a white man and directed by a white man, and marks the first opportunity for a gifted black actress to play a leading role on Broadway. But what compromises must she make to succeed?

Aurora Theatre is an intimate venue where the audience feels part of the action on stage.   Ms. Hall and Director Robin Stanton have kindly agreed for a post-play conversation that will draw us even further in to the play’s history and themes, and to the qualities of this particular Aurora production.  

We hope you can join us for this unique evening of engagement in the theatre and our Berkeley schools!  Tickets are available only through BPEF.   Click here for more information and purchase information, or call BPEF at 510-644-6244.

On Wednesday June 30 Berkeley Unified School District announced the selection of Pasquale Scuderi as the new Principal of Berkeley High School, where he will assume leadership beginning with the 2010-11 school year.  Read more about the announcement here: New Berkeley High Principal Announced   Having served in an administrative capacity at BHS during 2006-08, Scuderi is known and respected by the community.  Janet Huseby, who as the BHS Volunteer Coordinator travels between teachers, parents, administrators and students, expressed unqualified enthusiasm at the announcement, noting “he knows the staff, and the school, and the challenges,  which puts him in a position to build on the accomplishments of the past seven years rather than starting from ground zero.”

Mr. Scuderi will be one of three new principals serving BUSD schools next year.  Others are Jeremy “Paco” Furlan, joining the Rosa Parks Elementary community from Eugene, Oregon, and Alexander Hunt, who will take the reins from 20-year veteran Cheryl Chinn at Malcolm X.  Principal Hunt comes to Berkeley after ten years as a principal in Redwood City.

BPEF welcomes these new leaders and looks forward to working with them in the years ahead.

Over 450 public education advocates and supporters filled Hs Lordships on May 14 to recognize BPEF’s four honorees for their outstanding contributions to Berkeley schools.   This popular annual event spotlights achievement among teachers, administrators, volunteers and community leaders, and  raises significant funds for BPEF’s PreK through 12th grade grant and volunteer programs.

Thanks to the very generous support of businesses, organizations and individuals BPEF raised over $165,000 at the event! Don’t miss being part of this spirited and inspiring day next May (check back soon for the date).

Honorees for 2010 are profiled in depth in the luncheon program found here but with thanks to our editor friends at Berkeleyside blog brief highlights they ran in a May story appear below. You can also view a slide show here.

Tom Prince, Literacy Coach at BUSD and Berkeley Arts Magnet. Since the early 1990s, in Oakland and now Berkeley, Reading Recovery has been the chief inspiration for Tom’s work. This unique program focuses exclusively on intervention with struggling first-grade readers, starting from the positive premise of building up from what a student can do, rather than focusing immediately on what they can’t.

Richard Silberg, Drama Teacher, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School. A 22-year veteran of Berkeley schools, Richard first taught 6th grade at Columbus Elementary beginning in 1988. In 1991, Richard moved to King Middle School and, with his colleague Phoebe Tanner, opened the first 6th grade class in any Berkeley middle school. Richard became the first actor hired by Berkeley’s Shotgun Players. At the urging of Principal Neil Smith, Richard first began teaching drama at King in 1995, and today at least two-thirds of King’s students have a class with Richard at some point during their three-year tenure.

Jabari Anderson, Two-Way Immersion Teacher, Cragmont Elementary. In his eleventh year as a teacher in 1st and 2nd grade multi-lingual classrooms, Jabari believes firmly that there are many paths into the brain, be they tactile, visual or verbal — or a combination of all three. His project, to produce materials and an instructive DVD to support language acquisition and reading fluency in the classroom and at home, represents the kind of innovative reach that BPEF has enthusiastically supported over the years.

UC Berkeley’s Cal Corps Public Service Center. Cal Corps’ deep commitment to organizing student volunteers provides extensive summer and school-year tutoring support for developing K–8 readers at Berkeley public schools, city recreation centers, and other non-profit youth programs. Its mission, to “promote leadership through service, and to foster social justice and civic engagement”, is powerfully reflected in BUILD — Berkeley United in Literacy Development.