The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians donated 48 laptop computers and two mobile charging carts to Guadalupe Union School District in December, the last of many donations made through the tribe’s first year of its Technology in Schools Program.
Guadalupe Union School District will put its new Chromebooks to use in classrooms at both Mary Buren Elementary and McKenzie Junior High schools, according to Superintendent Ed Cora, who said the district was in the early planning stages of its technology initiative when it learned about the Technology in Schools Program.
“We got the information, our public affairs office wrote a grant request, and here we are today,” Cora said in a Chumash press release. “These Chromebooks are going to help us a lot.”
The donation, which amounted to nearly $14,000 in total, was just one of several Chumash contributions made this year to local schools, including Cabrillo High School and Santa Ynez Valley Christian Academy, which each received nearly $10,000 worth of Chromebook computers and mobile charging carts. The Santa Barbara Community Academy received $6,500 to buy a reading program for its 200 kindergarten, first, and second grade students, according to the release. And Lompoc’s La Honda STEAM Academy received $7,500 for its innovative makerspace program.
The Technology in Schools Program was created by the Chumash to help fulfill high-tech needs in Santa Barbara County classrooms through donations of funds or equipment. The tribe estimates that donations made through the program in 2017 amounted to about $47,000, according to the release, which is part of the $1.2 million the tribe donated to local nonprofit groups this year.
“In 2015, we earmarked the funds raised from our annual Chumash Charity Golf Classic to be distributed to local schools in the form of technology upgrades,” Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn said in the release. “We saw how the funds helped those schools, so we decided to create a program within our charitable foundation that focused on helping teachers and students meet their technology challenges in the classroom.”
The program works through a grant application process, which allows school administrators or faculty to apply for technology grant dollars to purchase hardware and/or upgrade infrastructure.
The tribe began accepting Technology in Schools Program grant requests for the 2018-19 school year on Jan. 1. The deadline to apply will be May 31, 2018. For more information on how to apply, visit santaynezchumash.org/contributions_applications.html.
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash compiled this week’s School Scene. Send information to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2018.