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California ranked fifth in the nation in state-funded per pupil expenditures in 1980, when the Peninsula Education Foundation, based on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, was formed. At that time, school districts across the state were entering an extended period of serious financial difficulties due to recent legislative and court decisions. Programs were cut, school days shortened, maintenance pared down. Now, almost twenty-five years later, California ranks 35th and lags in achievement. But the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District is a bright light in the state, thanks in part to the Education Foundation’s commitment to fill gaps caused by funding shortfalls.
In the late 1970s, a group of community volunteers were alarmed and galvanized to take action by the deep budget cuts that were starting to profoundly affect the quality of education provided students in the Palos Verdes School District. They founded the Peninsula Education Foundation to raise private financial support for programs that would enhance and enrich education for all students in all the schools, elementary, intermediate and high schools alike. Vital programs and staff such as music instruction, library personnel, technology lab assistants, and guidance counseling centers that have faltered and disappeared in many other public schools are supported by the Education Foundation.
The Norris Foundation provided the leadership gift that enabled the formation of the Education Foundation. Aside from private donations, the two principal fund-raising events are the annual giving campaign and The Main Event, an annual dinner, auction, and dance. Since its founding, the Education Foundation has met annual pledges to the district, raising and gifting to the district more than $10 million dollars.
The Norris Foundation continues to support the Peninsula Education Foundation, with funds earmarked for the College Career Counseling Centers in the district’s two high schools, Peninsula High School and Palos Verdes High School. The centers provide guidance counseling and information on scholarships and financial aid, community service opportunities, career opportunities, internship programs, and more. In 2003, the Counseling Center at Peninsula High School doubled its space, making it more conducive for students to use its resources. The Counseling Center at Palos Verdes High School opened in December 2003, affording students at this new school the same advantages
as their peers.
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