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It’s transition time for the Taylor Family Foundation with key parts of its mission achieved. When Elaine and Barry Taylor conceived their foundation more than 20 years ago, Elaine’s heart was breaking for children diagnosed with AIDS or carrying the virus. Treatment regimens had not been developed and they reached out and supported those children and their families.
That developed into Camp Arroyo on Arroyo Road in Livermore initially in partnership with the East Bay Regional Park District and the YMCA. The funding driver was the annual Day in the Park event that originally took place in the Taylors’ yard at their home in the Lamorinda area and then moved to the Arroyo Road site on the grassy meadow there.
The event gained momentum so it was generating $1 million or more. The pandemic ended that event an prompted the re-examination of the foundation. Supporters received a “letter of gratitude” note last month announced a new season after 35 years and 25 years of camp. It’s moving to a grant-giving organization, continuing the Barry Taylor Scholarship for low-income students as well as its grants for families who need help in a medical crisis and the camping fund.
The 2022 federal 990 form showed more than $17 million in assets that positioned the foundation well to move forward.
What always struck me about the Taylors is their servant heart. You would find Barry moving umbrellas to shade guests at their tables during the live auction or Elaine serving by wrapping Christmas gifts at Broadway Plaza to earn money for the foundation. They both were financially set and could have lived a country club lifestyle.
Instead, they choose to serve and served well as their hearts led. There’s a message here for all of us.
March is a tough month for school trustees. They must make decisions about the budget year that starts July 1 and do so without solid information.
For the instructional staff, they will determine staffing levels and most program offerings now because potential layoff notices for teaching and administrative staff must go out by March 15. The law, when written, likely was well-intended, but it leads to the guessing games in district offices and in board chambers this month.
In Pleasanton, trustees have signed off on a plan to eliminate the equivalent of 13 positions to save almost $3 million. What those will actually be will come later when the budget fog clears a bit more.
Pleasanton has a tougher challenge than other districts because its enrollment, upon which state funds are allocated, continues to fall. The trustees reviewed the latest demography report earlier this year and it predicts a continuing decline in enrollment in the younger grades.
To its credit, the district staff has launched a campaign to attract Pleasanton workers who commute into their jobs to move their children to the local schools instead of the schools where they live. Whether that will work remains to be seen, but the tiny Sunol district has attracted the majority of its 270 students by from inter-district transfers.
Pleasanton, with its strong rankings by various organizations, is desirable for many parents. If a parent is going to pay for child-care, doing it close to their job site has plenty of positive aspects.
While Pleasanton trustees and senior staff are slicing next year’s budget, it’s a similar story in Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon. All are suffering as a result of the state’s budget last year with its minimal cost-of-living adjustment and the end of the federal pandemic funds.
Livermore trustees agreed to eliminate 40 positions to deal with its estimated $10 million budget last month in preparation for the March 15 deadline.
Same story in Dublin and San Ramon where trustees have prune budget plans for the next fiscal year. Dublin eliminated more than 24 positions to trim nearly $6 million while the much larger San Ramon Valley district approved plans for reducing nearly 200 positions to save $26 million.
Just a difficult time for school leadership and, with the exception of parcel taxes, trustees have no control over revenue. That’s contrasts with cities and counties that have revenue streams they can control.
No mention that Trump wants to dismantle the US Department of Education that plays a supporting role in K-12 funding?
Trump wants to return funding to the states as block grants. The feds never should have had a role in education that fundamentally is a state and, more importantly, local function. Federal funds are allocated to low-income students, who are almost non-existent in the San Ramon Valley, make up about 10 % in Pleasanton and more than twice that in Livermore.