Schools Foundation Delivers $25,000 Check to District

Students from ’s baseball and show choir programs were all smiles as they accepted a $25,000 check from the Wednesday afternoon.

The donation was the latest installment in the foundation’s $100,000 commitment to help save extra- and co-curricular activities at Logan for the 2011-12 school year. The money will go toward instructor stipends, officials said.

The foundation, with support from the New Haven Boosters Association, made the pledge to raise the funds last school year when sports, music, performing arts and other activities were in danger of being cut.

It was through their efforts that the programs were preserved, said district spokesman Rick La Plante.

“When Guy Emanuele Jr. was superintendent, his vision was to create amazing co-curricular programs,” said Michael Ritchie, a board of education trustee and co-founder of the New Haven Boosters Association. During Emanuele’s tenure, he brought in Tommie Lindsey and Ramiro Barrera, who respectively run the school’s award winning forensics and band programs.

It would have been a shame to lose those programs, Ritchie said.

Logan athlete Alex Martinez said he couldn’t imagine the school without its famed sports and extra-curricular programs.

“That’s something I don’t like to think about,” said Martinez, a junior whose played baseball all three years he’s attended Logan. “We strive too much off of our co-curriculars.”

Martinez praised all of Logan’s programs. “Show choir — they’re great to watch,” he said, pointing to his peers who were also present to accept the foundation’s check. “Performing arts are a big part of our Logan culture.”

Initially a one-time donation, the foundation may make a similar effort to help programs in the 2012-13 school year, New Haven Schools Foundation president Cindy O’Brien said.

“They went above and beyond even what the foundation thought they would do,” La Plante said.

All of the money came through community donations and fundraising efforts such as the . Another Race to Save Student Activities will be held May 6.

Half of the $100,000 came from community donations from organizations such as the Masonic Homes of California, Tri-CED Community Recycling and Wells Fargo.

“The community really came through for us,” O’Brien said.

Donors included:

• : $10,000
• : $10,000
• Wells Fargo: $10,000
• Fremont Bank: $5,000
• Office of Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer: $5,000
• Washington Hospital: $5,000
• : $2,500
• : $500
• PetersenDean Roofing and Solar Systems: $500
• Project 51: $500

While the support from the foundation and community is overwhelming, the district isn’t counting on donations to bail them out again as it continues to face a dwindling budget, officials said.

“You can’t expect this year after year,” La Plante said, stressing the need for the community to support Measure H, expected to raise $12 million over a period of four years.