Samo approaches its 4 million dollar deadline

For its first centralized fundraising the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF) set a lofty fundraising goal of $4 million to provide learning resources to all SMMUSD schools with the same quality learning as a part of the Vision for Students Success.According to Principal Eva Mayoral, Samo’s needs include professional development in order to increase teaching methods, discretionary funding to enhance the arts and Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, additional staffing and smart response monitors."This was a result of many hours of meeting over these two years that people discussed what would the benefits be,” Mayoral said.According to the SMMEF Director of Annual and Leadership Gifts Jessica Ureña, the Ed Foundation has received large scale support that has helped contribute to the program’s success.“We were very excited to announce that, thanks to the support of many families, students, teachers, staff, businesses and community members, the Education Foundation’s first Vision for Student Success campaign raised $3,203,730,” Ureña said. "It has been a remarkable year of record breaking fundraising results for SMMEF.”Librarian Dana Bart-Bell said that the Ed Foundation evaluates and re-evaluates the allocation of funding in order to ensure that the money is going to be well spent.“The Ed Foundation has been immensely supportive of this district and its goals,” Bart-Bell said.According to Jennifer Reynoso ('15), she believes that the priority should be to update some of the teacher's equipment.“My history teacher for example uses an old school projector that overheats often and has set us behind on note taking,” Reynoso said.Reynoso also hopes that the music program receives more funding because a lot of money is spent in getting proper music, instruments, uniforms and sectional teachers.“This program is vital in creative expression, earning gateways to amazing scholarships, providing a sense of community and so much more,” Reynoso said.Since the SMMEF was unable to reach their $4 million goal, the SMMUSD Board of Education will discuss allocating additional funds to the Vision for Student Success program so that the entire program will be rolled out in the 2014-15 school year, according to Ureña.“Next year we will continue to collaborate with our PTA and school leaders to engage our families in our fundraising efforts,” Ureña said. “SMMEF staff will also continue to pursue major gifts from community members, businesses and corporations to reach our $4 million annual goal.”