Introducing the Live Oak Education Foundation

By Tamra Taylor, Superintendent Live Oak School District

I’d like to use this month’s column to discuss a new development in the Live Oak School District about which I’m very excited. Over the past two years, a small group of parents have been working diligently to establish the Live Oak Education Foundation. They recently secured their 501©(3) status and just launched their first fundraising campaign at our schools’ Back to School Nights.

Similar to the Santa Cruz Education Foundation, the Live Oak Education Foundation will raise money through “ask” campaigns, corporate donations, grant-writing and special events to support hands-on enrichment activities in their priority areas. Those priority areas are: the visual and performing arts, the “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and positive play.

Currently, the Live Oak School District is able to fund music and art for 4th through 8th grade students through our parcel tax. The Foundation’s ultimate goal is to expand music and art to the lower grades.

In the meantime, we support their efforts to find innovative ways to bring art and music to Kindergarten through third grade students, such as paying for teachers to attend this summer’s Arts Institute provided by the Santa Cruz County Arts Council and County of Office of Education. That Institute helped teachers learn to integrate the visual and performing arts with English Language Arts curriculum.

The Foundation’s focus on the “STEM” fields supports the District’s current goal to engage students in collaborative inquiry-based learning that prepares students to be successful in the 21st century job market. We are very grateful to the Foundation for securing a grant through Makology to help us purchase a 3D printer for Shoreline Middle School. The printer will be used to provide a “hands-on” learning component in 7th grade math and 8th grade science classes, as well as our new STEAM elective.

“Positive play” is the Foundation’s third priority area and focuses on ensuring safe spaces (both physically and emotionally) for kids to play. The Live Oak Education Foundation wants to make sure that recess is a safe and fun time to play for all kids. The Foundation actually came about as a result of a successful effort to win an Imagination Playground set for Live Oak Elementary School. The Imagination Playground brought an innovative indoor play experience to hundreds of children and it shed light on how we could begin to think differently about play for our district children. As in the other areas of focus mentioned, positive play is aligned with the District’s goal of physical and emotional health for all students. We are thankful to have the Foundation’s support in this very important area.

Live Oak teachers, administrators, parents, and myself are very excited about the launch of the Live Oak Education Foundation and what they can bring to our students. I would encourage you to support them in any way you can. Please visit www.liveoakedfoundation.org to learn more.