In 1991, the Claremont Educational Foundation (CEF) was founded for the purpose to "save our schools" during a fiscal crisis caused by state budget cuts. Since those early days, our organization has evolved, but our mission has remained the same: "to protect and enrich quality public education in Claremont through community involvement.”
Who We Are
Claremont Educational Foundation is a local non-profit educational foundation devoted to raising money for all Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) schools. Our Mission: “To protect and enrich quality public education in Claremont through community involvement.”
What We Do
Claremont Educational Foundation collaborates with the school district and the community to assist in providing all students the best education possible. CEF is the school district’s primary partner in providing support and enrichment opportunities that help every student at every school receive an impactful and achievement-filled education from CUSD. We grant funds to each school throughout the district, as well as educators and community partners, with a focus on art, music and technology, totaling more than $3.8 million dollars since 1991.
Why We Do It
CEF exists to help Claremont schools excel because we believe that improving our schools by working to close the gap left in state funding, improves our community. Because education is so much more than what takes place in the classroom, we offer enrichment programs and hold community conversations about issues that affect education. With the help of volunteers, community members, and business partners, our work benefits every child at every school in the district as well as impacts the greater community of Claremont.
How We Do It
In addition to our many revenue-generating programs and events, CEF relies on support from the local community as well as corporate donations to fund our successful annual gifting program.
Please see our FAQs for common questions asked to CEF.
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(From left to right): Emily Cavalcanti, 2023-24 CEF President, Christine Leible, board member, John Heitkemper, board member
A Message from The Presidents
Hello!
We are delighted to serve as your Presidents for the Claremont Educational Foundation for the 2024–25 school year.
Several years ago, CEF developed a leadership model in which the CEF presidency role and responsibilities are shared, allowing us to spread out the leadership duties and ensure smooth functioning for our organization. Our current leadership team is May-May Sugihara (President), Carol Alvarez (President-Elect) and Emily Cavalcanti (Past President).
Why did we decide to become involved with CEF? We all have made a personal commitment to support quality public education in our schools because we have seen the impact of CEF firsthand with music and art programs at the elementary schools and access to up-to-date technology at the middle and high school levels. We have seen how these programs enhanced our own children’s education, as well as their peers, and value CEF’s goal to positively impact every student at every school in the district.
Please join us in supporting our kids and our community!
Sincerely,
May-May Sugihara, 2024–25 President
Carol Alvarez, 2024–25 President Elect
Emily Cavalcanti, 2024–25 Past President
2024-25 Officers and Executive Committee
May-May Sugihara,
President
Carol Alvarez,
President Elect
Emily Cavalcanti,
Past President
Lee Kimmel,
Co-Treasurer
John Heitkemper,
Co-Treasurer, Finance Chair
Art Landerholm,
Secretary
Lynn Forester,
Grants Chair
Mike Mendez,
Fundraising Events Chair
Anaissa Sprague,
SLICE of Summer Co-Chair
Alissa Turcios,
SLICE of Summer Co-Chair
Board Members
Vincent Arenas
Rueyling Chuang
Cheryl Fielo
Alison Fleming
Jack Harper
Kathee Hennigan Bautista
Nicole Ouellette
Shivani Patel
Paola Prince
Scott Smith
Mitchell Stein
Sherylle Tan
Amy Weiler
Directors Emeritus
Richard Chute
Ken Corhan
Bob Fass
CEF Staff, Support & Liaisons
Dr. Alex McDonald,
School Board Representative
Dr. James Elsasser,
Superintendent of Schools
Jessica Rodriguez,
Principal Liaison
Monica Olesniewicz,
Development Assistant email
Michelle Foulger,
Administrative Coordinator email
FAQs
In California, charities and certain other private nonprofit organizations may conduct raffles to raise funds for beneficial or charitable purposes in the state. This exception to the general constitutional prohibition against lotteries requires that at least 90 percent of the gross receipts from these raffles go directly to beneficial or charitable purposes in California. Penal Code section 320.5 governs which organizations qualify and how the raffles must be conducted. Raffle participants and winners must be age 18+ and legal U.S. residents so tickets must be sold in person to verify that status.
For more information, visit https://oag.ca.gov/charities/raffles
Yes! During CEF's 2021 annual retreat, board members underwent DEI training in order to craft a thoughtful and meaningful DEI policy that focuses on board membership, fundraising, giving, and programming. We consider the policy to be a living document and recognize that our goals will continue to evolve as we seek to uphold the highest standard of diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Click here to read the policy.
Following adoption of the policy, an ad hoc DEI committee convened several times over the course of a year to create the framework for a permanent DEI committee focused on board member make up and recruitment, fundraising, and grant-giving. In September 2022 a permanent DEI committee was added to the organization by unanimous vote.
“Early exposure in elementary school to music, which I know CEF makes possible, is so important. It provided me a foundation in music that led to my discovery of the double bass at El Roble and then the CHS Jazz Band where I was introduced to jazz bass. Currently, I am attending Oberlin College and Conservatory outside Cleveland, Ohio where I am double majoring in Jazz Bass Performance and Anthropology. Please consider a gift to CEF today to make sure the arts continue to be offered in the Claremont elementary schools.”
Kamran Curlin, CHS Class of 2018