Claremont Educational Foundation

Claremont Educational
Foundation

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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Deborah Kekone and Karen McMillen

(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

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

TBD,
Principal Liaison

Monica Olesniewicz,
Development Assistant email

Michelle Foulger,
Administrative Coordinator email

FAQs

What is CEF?
Claremont Educational Foundation is a local non-profit educational foundation devoted to raising money for all Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) schools. CEF collaborates with the school district and the community to assist in providing all students the best education possible. CEF is the district's primary partner in providing support and enrichment opportunities that help every student receive an impactful and achievement-filled education from CUSD. We grant funds to each school throughout the district with a focus on art, music and technology enhancements.
Who manages CEF?
CEF is a non-profit educational foundation with a volunteer board of directors including dedicated parent volunteers, CUSD staff, and local business leaders who share their expertise in a variety of areas. These include education, finance, fundraising, business, law, events planning, community relations and communications. CEF employs two part-time staff members – our Development Director as well as a part-time administrative assistant. During our SLICE of Summer sessions, we temporarily hire CUSD teachers and other staff to conduct SLICE classes as well as a program coordinator. Please feel free to submit inquiries by email to info@supportcef.com.
Where does the money go?
Monetary gifts made to the Claremont Educational Foundation go directly to enriching and sustaining quality public education for students attending the Claremont Unified School District (CUSD). CEF provides school site grants that fund art and music instruction in the elementary schools and technology at the secondary schools as well as smaller grants for programs and projects that benefit CUSD students.
How are CEF's fundraising dollars impacting Claremont students this school year?
Each academic year, CEF provides block grants to fund critical art and/or music instruction at elementary schools, along with technology at the secondary schools. In addition to our primary grants to the district, CEF also funds smaller grants for programs and projects that benefit CUSD students. In recent years, these grants have amounted to over $165,000 each school year.
Why should I contribute to CEF?
Community contributions to CEF are instrumental to preserving an exceptional Claremont Unified School District education. CEF provides flexible funding, not otherwise provided for by the District's general funding, that school principals can spend at their schools for art and music programs and technology.
Why should I consider giving to both CEF and my school's PFA?
CEF and PFA are both crucial parts of the funding mix that the district must assemble every year to keep CUSD schools strong. CEF is committed to an equitable distribution of funds across CUSD per school level, so that all students benefit. CEF supports programs focused on art and music at the elementary level that would otherwise not be available without the additional funding. In addition, CEF gifts hardware and software to individual school sites offering additional support for the district’s Common Core commitment. The PFA supports materials, programs and events at individual school sites. PFA funds such things as classroom enrichment and supplies, school site improvements, playground equipment, student scholarships for field trips, and site-specific programs such as assemblies and parent-run community-building activities.
How will my contribution help my child?
Since CEF provides an equitable disbursement of funds across district schools per level (elementary, middle and high school), every student at every school benefits. CEF supplements each school’s district funding for key enrichment programs and technology needed to accommodate new Common Core curricular requirements.
Does CEF accept large gifts and endowments?
Yes! CEF welcomes large gifts and endowments, as both unrestricted funds and donor-restricted funds, to fund one-time projects as well as part of our long-term portfolio. Click here to download a PDF of our Investment Policy Statement.
How can local businesses support CEF?
The local business community is instrumental to CEF’s successful annual gifting. Annually, dozens of businesses and professionals contribute over $100,000 in gifts and in-kind donations. If you are interested in learning more about the Business Partner program, please contact us at info@supportcef.com
What are CEF Teacher Innovation Grants?
Each school year, CEF solicits applications from CUSD educators for the Innovation Grant program, which supports unique projects that engage students in high-impact learning opportunities. The focus of the grants is innovation, offering teachers and principals the opportunity and incentive to experiment with promising new ideas. The grant proposals ideally align with CEF’s areas of focus – art, music and technology.
How is CEF connected to the SLICE of Summer program?
SLICE of Summer is an independent program operated by CEF. All coordination and administration of the SLICE program is under direct supervision of the CEF board. The SLICE of Summer program addresses a need in Claremont by providing courses specifically designed to support enrichment opportunities and advancement for students as well as summer employment opportunities for CUSD staff members. Whenever possible, scholarships are made possible through financial support from community members and business partners.
Why does CEF only offer scholarships for the SLICE of Summer Enrichment program?
Each summer, CEF offers a few different programs through SLICE of Summer. The Enrichment program is operated solely by CEF, which allows us to independently seek out sponsors to underwrite opportunities for limited need-based scholarships. Our other programs, including SLICE of Credit and SLICE of STEM, are offered in collaboration with other parties and have shared revenue models as well as involving other contractual or legal restrictions that limit our ability to offer scholarships for these programs.
Why can't I purchase tickets online for one of your fundraising raffles?

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

Does CEF offer in-kind donations to other organizations?
Claremont Educational Foundation offers limited in-kind donations to Claremont public schools each school year for use in fundraising events. Each fall, starting September 15th, 12 general admission tickets for our in-person events will be reserved to be used only as items in a silent auction or raffle (with state-issued raffle permit) that takes place during that school year. In-kind donations may not be used as giveaways, gifts, door prizes, or drawings or raffles without a buy-in. Ticket requests are first-come first-served and are limited to a maximum of two tickets per school site each school year. The final day to request in-kind donations will be when all tickets have been donated or no sooner than 30 days prior to the final event to which tickets will be available. We are not able to provide in-kind donation requests from schools and school booster groups outside of CUSD, gift certificates for our SLICE of Summer programs, or cash sponsorships. In-kind donation requests from other Claremont community organizations will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Email info@supportcef.com with formal requests. Please include which school and fundraising group; name, date, and location of event; and how the donation will be used.
How does CEF use email addresses, phone numbers, and other personal data it collects?
At CEF, we do not sell your data or share it with third parties (including our business partners and Claremont Unified School District). Phone numbers, mailing addresses, and email addresses are used solely for the purposes of sending information about CEF programs and events (including those in partnership with other organizations, businesses, and CUSD), soliciting donations during fundraising campaigns, and during the course of reaching out to potential business partners. Please contact us if you have any questions.
What is CEF's public communications policy?
All opinions held by Claremont Educational Foundation will be expressed on official channels: CEF’s website, email, or social media accounts. Any opinions expressed by employees, board members, business partners, and sponsors outside of these channels are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of CEF.
Does CEF have a DEI (Diversity, Equitability, and Inclusion) policy?

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

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