Group gives more than 20 awards to local schools
Morgan Hill – For the 23rd year in a row, local students are benefiting from the hard work of the Live Oak Foundation, an organization formed to help Morgan Hill Unified School District schools.
This year, the foundation awarded 22 grants totaling $19,724 to help schools offer specialized programs or buy classroom materials, such as books or equipment.
“This is one of most gratifying organizations that you can be a part of because you actually put money in the hands of the teachers,” said Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education member Shelle Thomas, the wife of Live Oak Foundation President George Thomas. “Because the community values what we do and what our teachers do, that support is possible.”
The foundation hosts a popular wine tour and dinner each fall and accepts donations year round to benefit the schools.
Every year, district teachers submit grant applications to the foundation’s board of directors. Criteria for selection include innovation and ability to benefit a maximum number of students.
Some of this year’s grants included $700 to El Toro Elementary School teachers Alice Packard and Jackie Lee for their Healthy Living program; $1,071 to Live Oak High School teacher Anne Zhang to use for the Literary Circles program; $1,495 to Ann Sobrato High School teacher Jennifer Rilea for United Streaming; and $1,000 to Paradise Valley Elementary School teachers Sabrina McDaniel, Carol Ferri and Laura Schenkelber for purchasing nonfiction books.
Sobrato librarian Terri Eves-Knudsen said United Streaming, the database access grant for Sobrato and Britton Middle School, is typical of the kind of academic supplements the Live Oak Foundation provides.
“It supports all academic areas,” she said. “It gives teachers online access to a database of videos. Teachers can go into the system, select their subject matter, whether it is literature, history or math, then select a grade level or a California state standard they want to teach and download a video to show their students.”
Britton and Martin Murphy middle schools as well as Burnett and Paradise Valley elementary schools received two grants, while Live Oak and Central high schools received three, and Los Paseos, El Toro and Machado elementary schools and Sobrato each received one grant.
“We are pleased we can help the students of the district by giving the dedicated teachers who created these proposals the tools they need,” George Thomas said.
The foundation’s goal, Thomas said, is helping all district schools purchase tools and programs and pay for “extras,” like special speakers, special staff training and substitutes for staff development, beyond what the district budget provides.
“By allowing teachers to implement these kinds of programs, to purchase things like math manipulatives, tape recorders, digital projectors, the Live Oak Foundation and the community that supports it, is truly enriching the educational opportunities for all of our students,” Shelle Thomas said.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
