Manhattan Beach Education Foundation
Board Minutes – July 9, 2002

Meeting Place: Pat Parker’s home

Attendees:
Members: Geoff Bremer, Webster Burns, Randy Dotemoto, Carolyn Leserman, Anne McLaughlin, LeRoy Nelson, Pat Parker, Judith Reece, Carol Rowe, Freddi Segal-Gidan, Gary Wayland, Richard Wennekamp
MBUSD Representatives: Dr. Sheralyn Smith, Lynette Campbell
MBEF Staff: Susan Patterson
Guest: Wendy Carson, parent

Call to Order: 7:39 PM

1. President’s Notes: Carolyn Leserman introduced Wendy Carson, who was attending her second meeting. Carolyn would like to recruit more working board members. Board members were asked to think about what committees they want to be on next year.
   
   Carolyn asked board members to think about the objectives for a membership survey. Suggestions will be solicited via E-mail. Survey forms would be coded by donor category. The survey should educate as well as gather data from our constituents.
    
2. Minutes: June minutes distributed at meeting. Approval deferred until next meeting.
    
3. Financial Report: Gary Wayland presented preliminary data for the full year. Total revenues: $717,916. Revenues were a little lower than last year in all areas except directed donations. Grant expenditures: $469,068. Endowment Fund balance increased from $1,075,886 to $1,219,469. Preliminary Wine Auction net revenue: $213,208. 2001 Grants balance: $20,122. Dr. Smith will follow up on the grants with balances.
   
   Gary requested authorization to move our brokerage account to MorganStanley. Motion by Gary Wayland/seconded by Pat Parker was approved.
    
4. Executive Director’s Report: Susan Patterson needs signatures of officers for bank account. Wanda and Susan will both be gone and the office will be closed for two weeks in August.
    
5. Business Education Partnership Report: No report was available in Sherry’s absence.
    
6. Assistant Superintendent’s Report: Dr. Sheralyn Smith thought the Wine Auction was fabulous. Summer school is in session. Staff development will be minimal this summer—mostly for the math adoption this fall, funded by a special grant. A CD of the All District Choir was played during the meeting. The music program is expanding at the high school this fall—the choral program will be full time, and string and music theory classes are starting. Chris Schwabe agreed to come out of retirement to help build the program.
    
7. MBUSD Board of Trustee’s Report: Lynette Campbell reported that the current hot topic at the District is random drug testing, particularly as an option for students who have been caught with drugs on campus. At the high school graduation, the students seemed to be much happier with the school than in previous years.
    
8. Fundraising Reports.

1. Wine Auction: No report was available.
    
2. Golf Tournament: Randy Dotemoto reported that the PV course raised their costs so that the $250 fee for each golfer just breaks even. To make money, we need to find additional sponsors: $2,000/hole, $1,000 or $500 for a special events. For the silent auction, we need donations of twosomes or threesomes at country clubs.
    
3. Membership: Richard Wennekamp had no report.
    
4. New Event: Pat Parker reported that Lisa Paulson proposed a fundraiser for Grad Night like the one she proposed for MBEF. Contributions would be funneled through MBEF, which would share a small portion of the net proceeds. George Mihlsten is interested in organizing an Oktoberfest in 2003.

9. Grants Committee Report: Webster Burns proposed additional grants at the high school: Academic Recognition $3,000; Model UN laptops $3,000; Robotics $2,500; Strings, Music Theory & Music support $16,700. Motion by Webster Burns/Judith Reece was approved. The Grants Committee plans to help refine the Language Lab proposal for next year.
   
   Webster proposed funding a counselor (or acceptable alternative) at the middle school up to $45,000 to help relieve the budget crunch. A counselor affects more students than the grant requests that were submitted. Concerns were expressed that funds freed up by our grant might be used to restore non-academic programs. Concerns were expressed about expectations for next year if the budget crunch continues. Webster modified his proposal to specify that the funding would only be for one year and to require that any funds freed up by the grant must be used for an academic purpose to be specified within 90 days. Concerns were expressed that we were establishing a bad precedent by supporting a funded position. Motion by Webster Burns/Freddi Segal-Gidan was approved by a small majority.
   
   Webster proposed a discretionary fund of $4,186, leaving a balance of $35,000. It was pointed out that we only spent $581 of the discretionary fund last year, and we have less supplies and equipment in this year’s budget. Webster changed the proposal to a discretionary fund of $1,186, leaving a balance of $38,000. Motion by Webster Burns/Geoff Bremer was approved.
   
   Webster proposed that the high school strings/music grant be designated as our annual Sara Content grant. Motion by Webster Burns/Carol Rowe was approved.
    
10. Old Business/New Business: None.
     
11. Meeting Adjourned: 8:55 PM.
     
12. Next Meeting: August 6, 2002, 7:30 PM @ Carolyn Leserman’s

Respectfully submitted by LeRoy Nelson, Secretary on 7/31/2002

Approved with correction to last paragraph of Section 9 on 8/6/2002