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Lehigh Not A Sponsor For CEEF Fundraising Gala

Despite being listed as a sponsor on invitations, the longtime CEEF sponsor Lehigh Southwest Cement Company said it will not donate to the March 16 event.

Lehigh Southwest Cement will not be supporting this year’s Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation (CEEF) fundraising gala in March, despite the fact that the company has sponsored the event in the past and is prominently featured on invitations and in publicity.

The company cited a scheduling conflict with participating in the black-tie gala on March 16. In addition, Sandra James, former Cupertino mayor and Lehigh public relations and community affairs manager, said Lehigh is re-evaluating its donations for 2011, and may give money to new organizations that need money more than the educational foundation.

James also confirmed that she resigned from the CEEF board and said it was not related to Lehigh’s donation decisions, but rather to her own full schedule.

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A news report in the Chinese-language World Journal on Tuesday morning, using CEEF Executive Director Minh Ngo as a source, said the nonprofit organization rejected a donation from Lehigh last week over controversy generated by the company’s cement kiln and quarry just outside of Cupertino. Ngo denies making any of the statements attributed to her in the World Journal's article.

On Feb. 8, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisorsto grant Lehigh vested rights to its quarry operation, which means the company will not have to pursue new use permits on most of its land. The vote was criticized sharply by local citizen groups that oppose Lehigh’s operations.

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Several parents from different schools in the Cupertino Union School District told Patch that Lehigh, in general, and the county’s decision, specifically, has become the hot topic in car-pool queues in school parking lots around the district and on a few parent and community e-mail groups.

“There was e-mail flying about how to collect signatures and how to contact the county to vote no,” said Mette Christensen, a Cupertino parent. She said she has been a part of numerous conversations in the last week with parents who are worried about mercury output at the cement plant and how they thought it might be harming their children and negatively effecting home values.

“The community at large, from what I have experienced is very much against Lehigh,” she said.

Christensen said she was uncomfortable when she received an invitation to the CEEF gala that listed Lehigh as a sponsor.

“It struck me that Lehigh was mentioned as a co-sponsor, and I found that not appropriate, because of what just happened with the county. That didn’t sit well with me.”

She said she called the CEEF office last week to complain, telling the person she spoke to, “I hope people will not show up at the event because of Lehigh being a sponsor.”

In the World Journal story, Ngo is quoted as saying, “It’s not in our interest to be involved in the disputes of this controversial issue.”

Ngo told Patch Tuesday afternoon she was misquoted and her statements were misrepresented in the World Journal story. She denied that CEEF had returned a donation to Lehigh.

“Lehigh has consistently supported education for children in Cupertino," she said. "For this year, they are weighing their options and decided not to donate to the gala. We haven’t returned any funding for this year; we haven’t received any funding for this year.”

James also denied the report. She said the company has a limited budget and that decisions need to be made as to which organizations could be most helped by its donations.

“We’re rethinking our educational resources … we haven’t finalized those discussions at the corporate level,” James said. “I can tell you, as an organization, we are very committed to education; we always have been, we always will be.”

As to stepping down from the board, James said she serves on multiple boards and that she felt CEEF was in a strong position and didn't need her services at this time. James originally served on the CEEF Advisory Board but was asked to join the board of directors because of her human resources background while CEEF was looking for a new executive director, according to both James and Ngo.

Thousands of CEEF invitations were mailed weeks ago listing Lehigh as a sponsor of the gala. As of last Friday, Lehigh was still listed on CEEF's website as an event sponsor, but James' name had been removed from the list of board members following her unexpected resignation. This week the company's name is absent.

Whether CEEF rejected a donation, or Lehigh decided not to participate for unrelated reasons, it marks a shift from a long-standing company policy to support CEEF with thousands of dollars each year, dating back to the quarry’s original owners, Kaiser.

Past community newsletters sent out by Lehigh to Cupertino neighborhoods and posted on the company’s website have prominently featured photographs of CEEF members with corporate officials, or officials participating in CEEF events, such as an annual golf tournament.

Last year CEEF partnered with the Cupertino Union School District in the fundraising campaign, “Their Future is Now!” which raised $2.5 million to keep teachers’ jobs in the face of budget cutbacks. Lehigh donated $5,000 to the campaign, according to Lehigh’s summer 2010 newsletter.

“CEEF is grateful that Lehigh continues to support the same values of excellent instruction in the Cupertino Union School District,” CEEF Board President Neil Sundstrom is quoted as saying in the newsletter. “We are pleased to accept this donation as a partner of ‘Their Future is Now!’ campaign.”

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