Hello Vista Grande Families!
My name is Jennifer Penwell and I am your new Foundation president. I have been on the board of the Foundation for the last 6 years as the Treasurer. This month my son Cooper just finished 5th grade and will be moving on to De Portola Middle School. I also have a daughter that attends Vista Grande and will be starting the 3rd grade in September.
I really love our school and have enjoyed being on the Foundation board all of these years. I wholeheartedly believe and have witnessed firsthand that the work we do to raise money for our school makes a real difference. Like most parents, when I was looking at Vista Grande for my incoming kindergartener all those years ago, I wanted to make sure that my child was going to have access to all of the important enrichment programs such as art and music. Seeing that these types of programs were being cut from school budgets across our nation, I wanted to choose a school that still prioritized having this well rounded curriculum. After learning that the school's Foundation was paying for the bulk of the art and music programs at Vista Grande, I felt relieved. This meant that these programs would not be affected by changes in the school district budget.
Our foundation spends approximately $40,000 a year to fund the enrichment programs at Vista Grande. This budget of $40,000 does not include other big items that we have helped bring to our school such as a new audio visual system for assemblies. During the 2018-2019 school year we spent approximately $27,000 on enhancements to our school bringing our total spend to almost $70,000! All of this money was raised by the foundation through donations from Vista Grande families and the community.
I am looking forward to the next school year and will be working with the other board members this summer to get ready. We appreciate all of the support we get from our Vista Grande families. Without your support we wouldn't be able to raise the money necessary to keep our student programs alive. We are proud to help bring art, music, science, and much more to our students. We are always looking for more support. Please consider joining us at our next board meeting on August 13th at 6pm to see how you can help Vista Grande Elementary thrive.
Have a great summer!