Schools
CEEF to Raise $150,000 for New Reading Requirement
At the Carnival-themed Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation (CEEF) gala Saturday, superintendent Wendy Gudalewicz and CEEF executive director Minh Ngo announced a fundraising campaign for meeting a new requirement of non-fiction reading.
State-mandated requirements will soon change the reading curricula of Cupertino schools. Non-fiction will take at least 50 percent of the readings in elementary school, 55 percent in middle school and 70 percent in high school, according to superintendent Wendy Gudalewicz.
In her speech at the Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation (CEEF) gala Saturday, Gudalewicz explained the new policy is meant to better prepare high school graduates for college readings, which are mostly non-fiction.
While school districts are required to implement the new rules, Gudalewicz said there is no funding coming along with the mandate.
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"We have zero resource," she said.
Following Gudalewicz's speech, CEEF executive director Minh Ngo announced that Saturday's gala was kicking off a 10-week fundraising 'Campaign for Great Schools: Books for a Better Future' for $150,000 to purchase non-fiction books for more than 18,000 students in the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD).
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"We raised $18,800 through the Gala's Fund-a-Need. This will be matched by CEEF for a total campaign kick off of $37,600," says Minh Ngo, CEEF executive director.
The gala itself had a fundraising goal of $100,000 for classroom music, art, and innovative technology-based curriculum, according to Keith Kitchen, president of CEEF.
Kitchen presented the CUSD Teachers of the Year 2012-13 Awards at the gala.
For the Carnival theme of the gala, Arthur Murray San Jose Dance Studio demonstrated the samba and tango as dinner entertainment.
Two CUSD core staff members participated in the performance by dancing the samba with professionals. Communications manager Jeremy Nishihara and director of instruction Karen Barrett won thunderous applause.
