With schoolchildren, parents, and teachers in attendance, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians presented a $24,000 technology grant to Santa Ynez Valley Charter School on Wednesday, Sept. 16, during the school’s morning assembly on the playground.
The grant is a portion of the eleventh annual Chumash Charity Golf Classic’s proceeds, which will help satisfy the technology needs at four local schools—College School District in Santa Ynez, Los Olivos School District, Solvang School District, and Santa Ynez Valley Charter School.
“We hired Lanspeed, a Goleta-based tech firm, to consult with these four schools and determine their greatest technological needs,” said Vincent Armenta, Tribal Chairman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. “This way, instead of giving each school the same gift, we let the experts inform us about how we could best help our local schools.”
Mark Palmerston, executive director of Santa Ynez Valley Charter School, said the $24,000 grant will go toward hiring a level-one technology services staffer, which the public school desperately needs.
“They helped us evaluate our needs, and one of our greatest needs was to have a tech person to help with those little things that make everything work,” Palmerston said in a press release. “It’s important for us to have the Internet and our devices working. As a charter school, we get limited funding from the state and have limited resources. So having this new position funded will allow our teachers to focus on serving our students instead of dealing with technology issues.”
The Chumash Charity Golf Classic, which was held Aug. 13 at Alisal River Course, raised $120,000 to be shared among the four schools. Gifts for the three remaining schools will be revealed in the coming weeks.
This article appears in Sep 24 – Oct 1, 2015.