Edward Boss Prado Foundation donates $25,000 at kickoff event, more funds needed
Photo courtesy MHUSD
Students in the MHUSD “Amplify” program enjoy fun educational activities.
By Calvin Nuttall
Facing a looming $13 million annual budget deficit by 2025, the Morgan Hill Unified School District established a new education foundation to help fund extracurricular programs and enrichment opportunities for students.
The nonprofit launched April 30 at Mama Mia’s Restaurant. The idea for the foundation started when philanthropist Cecelia Ponzini and MHUSD trustees started chatting about ways to fund programs for students in financially struggling households. Ponzini’s nonprofit the Edward Boss Prado Foundation will donate $25,000 at the kick-off event.
“There are many families that have more than one child and sometimes they can’t afford for the second or third child to go to science camp or field trips,” she said. “We’re here to support them.”
Horner and former MHUSD trustee Wendy Sullivan took to the podium March 7 at the Chamber of Commerce monthly breakfast to announce the creation of the Morgan Hill Education Foundation.
“What we like to call the ‘extras’ are actually essential,” Horner said. “When you ask people about the most important or memorable thing from their time in school, the most common answers are things like, being on yearbook staff, or playing basketball, or one of these things. They are not the classical academic subjects, but are super meaningful to our students.”
Horner heads up the foundation as chair of the board, which includes Sullivan as well as Adam Escoto, Nick Gaich, Cecelia Ponzini, and MHUSD Superintendent Dr. Carmen Garcia. Their stated mission is “to enrich the educational journey of Morgan Hill Unified School District students by providing resources and support that empower them to achieve their fullest potential.”
The push to open the foundation began four years ago, spearheaded by Sullivan, Horner, and Escoto. Together, they formed an ad-hoc committee to examine comparable foundation models, including the Gavilan College Educational Foundation.
“They have a long-standing foundation, which now is quite vibrant,” he said. “I’m really pleased that she (Sullivan) has continued serving on the board of this foundation. She did a ton of work, and Adam did as well, looking into what other schools have done. What works and what doesn’t work.”
The new foundation will not be the first education foundation in Morgan Hill’s history. It was preceded by the Live Oak Foundation, which dissolved in 2018. Though largely successful, it often suffered from the misconception that it benefited only Live Oak High School, Horner said.
“In my time active in the community I have been on the founding board of three nonprofits,” he said. “Every time we started, I thought, ‘OMG, do we really need another nonprofit?’ It turns out, often, that you do. It always starts with, ‘Isn’t there some other way?’”
The foundation will organize funding from the community at large to lay a framework with which to support programs in the long term. The majority of fundraising now comes from parents in piecemeal to address immediate needs. MHEF will serve as a hub to collect and distribute funds sustainably.
“I don’t have any kids in school, and I don’t have a grandchild in school, but we all know I am very passionate about how to serve our community,” Horner said. “That is what we tried to distill into our mission statement.”
The need for the foundation is especially relevant today, as schools face a major budget deficit. This comes after pandemic-era one-time funding allowed schools to significantly expand services, including hiring crucial mental health personnel. Many of the new programs are now in danger of being cut as the district looks to eliminate more than $5 million in spending.
“We’re cutting back and trying to minimize the harm to kids,” Horner said. “You can’t cut back without having an impact, but we’re trying to minimize the effect. That is one of the reasons for the foundation, and why we’re asking for everyone’s support, so we can build up funding over time and allow these extras to have some additional support.”
Even before the recent deficit, there was a pressing need for a new foundation to support Morgan Hill’s schools, Sullivan said.
“We, historically, have been one of the lowest-funded districts within the County of Santa Clara,” she said. “When we were looking at the data four years ago, for each of our students in this district, we received about $5,000 less per child than other similar districts within Santa Clara County. When you take $5,000 per child times 8,000 children, there is a large funding gap.”
Based on initial feedback collected by the foundation, stakeholders believe its funding priorities should cover athletics, including competitive and non-competitive; music programs, including band, choir, music appreciation and history; performing arts, like theater and dance; visual arts, field trips, and guest educators.
“We got a lot of feedback about parents wanting to have more enrichment opportunities off-campus,” Sullivan said. “One of the biggest barriers for our schools is the cost of transportation. Parents are wanting more field trips for their children, and also bringing experts and speakers to school sites.”
While these are the funding priorities set by initial feedback, the foundation is still looking to do more outreach. They are also working on putting together a survey of the students, which will collect feedback from fourth-graders up through high schoolers.
Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill-based freelance reporter and columnist.
