During the past couple of months, Monrovians have been having a lively discussion about fundraising.
It all began with a marquee at Clifton Middle School asking Monrovians . The next screen specified to save your receipts from certain dates. People were most likely shopping at the mall for Christmas, so what damage could this really do?
Well, lots, it seemed when our newest elect Board Member saw this advertising out of context. Mr. Hammond did what he is required to do when he has a question -- call the superintendent. Being the holidays, a decision was made, after another two calls were received, to pull off the Shop Westfield Mall advertisement.
It took over a month to make a decision to put the sign up, though now the highlight is to save your receipts. These actions caused lots of dialogue, , some at the PTA Council meeting, some at the Board's meeting. It unfortunately also caused some funds to be lost from the people that did shop at the Westfield Mall but did not know it would make a difference to our school fundraiser.
We now know that everyone had all of Monrovia's best interests at heart. Our PTA is concerned about raising funds, our Board of Education is concerned about making sure we shop Monrovia, but all of us know that Monrovia is part of the San Gabriel Valley and no one is asking to avoid shopping Monrovia. All that is being asked is that if you are already going to shop at the mall, why not turn in your receipts to help our schools?
To button this up really nicely, Mr. Rob Hammond has graciously agreed to donate an acoustic guitar for the upcoming "Surf's Up at the Mayflower Auction." Thank you Mr. Hammond! We look forward to seeing you at the auction!
If you, your family or friends (adults) would like to attend the the Mayflower fundraiser:
March 24th, 6-10pm
Cost: $40 per person, $75 per couple, plus money for the auction!!
Dinner is included, no-host bar
Dalcorp Car Museum
852 S. Alta Vista Ave,
Monrovia, CA
For ANY receipts you might have from the Westfield Mall, please turn them in to either Clifton (who REALLY needs funds) or Mayflower (who is always happy to get funds). Deadline is April 30th, 2012.
We have our Munch Accross Monrovia throughout local restaurants, please check the Patch, or with friends and family that have children at our MUSD schools for ongoing events. It is great to support our local restaurants while also helping our schools during these financial challenging times.
Would you kindly provide links to the tax information cited (if you still have then handy)? Re Texas: MY wife's company was recently targeted by a Texas recruiting team and came very close to relocating to Austin, Texas. Here's what Texas had to offer (I have not verified the claims of the recruiters): -Lower rent. -No Taxes -Almost double the amount of college grads available for the workforce -Affordable housing prices (less pressure to pay high wages to workers) -Active communities - trails network, local lakes are accessible for water sports In the end, the company chose to stay put, the younger employees attitudes ranged from very supportive of the move to tolerant as they could now afford to buy a house and looked forward to enjoying healthier lifestyles. But the older employees, who sit in the seat of power, were too established and connected to their communities to relocate and they are compensated well enough to pay the high cost required to enjoy a decent quality of life in California.
In addition, you may recall my blog from last month on DonorsChoose.org. The needs you have cited would be a great project to submit and then publicize. Best of luck.
I don't know what the needs for music are for our kids, but I certainly will look into it. I know that the elementary schools have a program at Wildrose after school. The middle schools, especially Santa Fe, have a great music program, and so does the High School. We currently have a deficit of funds at some of the PTAs, we need to make sure we have that covered before we take more on. With that said, we would love to have you help us! I love your postings!
And as a point of clarification: Tom Adams does donate to our schools, not only financially but with in-kind donations...allowing schools to use his businesses resources. Please join us on Weds., Feb. 22nd @ 7pm for the next Board meeting – hopefully this will be an extremely brief discussion and the schools can start talking about education again.
PTA is not asking Monrovians to change our shopping habits, we are asking to leverage what we already do. If you, your family or friends happen to shop at the Westfield malls, please send your receipts to Clifton. You can physically send them there, you can mail them (226 South Ivy Avenue, Monrovia, CA 91016, attn Kim Petulla), or take them to the concierge at the mall. Lots of people shop online, Mr. Adams has a family member that is a fan of Chico, which has a brick and mortar store at the mall, how difficult would it be if for one time instead of shopping online at Chico, JC Penney, etc, we can walk to the actual store, do the shopping we were ALREADY going to do and give the receipt to Clifton? I am certain not one single person has changed their shopping habits based on the Clifton marquee sign. We all love our little boutique shops, the Doll Maker, the amazing restaurants we have in town. Lots of people participated at the Wine event on Myrtle as well as the New Year celebrations. The Farmer's Market & street fair is always buzzing with activity. As our economy continues to improve, so will our town!
Thanks so much for the link! If I understand the charts correctly, buying anything anywhere in the state of California supports education since state sales taxes are the single largest source of funding. While we are on the subject of finances: My neighbor is a pastor of a church and he claims they just saved some money by working with Solar City and entering into a solar lease program. There was zero out of pocket cost to the church and over time, as rates increase, the savings will increase. Although we are likely moving to Pasadena for the next school year, if we were to stay in Monrovia, we would be interested in a hybrid of public and private education i.e. MUSD partner/sublease with private education providers so that our child can stay on campus for additional education both academic and phys ed. Seems wasteful to send parents rushing all over town to tutors and athletics when our existing facilities are underutilized - this model would be good for the city since gyms and academic businesses do not generate as much revenue as retail and reducing traffic enhances quality of life and increases property values.