The new school year is a time of dramatic change. For our kids, it’s a long-awaited opportunity to see friends and teachers and to resume their progress toward maturity as young people. For parents, it’s a moment to remind ourselves of how resilient, strong, and amazing our children have been through the last year — and to feel sincere excitement and happiness as these kids get opportunities to learn, grow, and even socialize again. La Jolla Elementary offers an unparalleled experience for our children because of our incredible families and their amazing generosity to the school and their children, year after year.
Friends of La Jolla Elementary helps the school reach these goals by supporting the school financially. Last year, we were able to fund an additional full-time teacher and three support teachers to reduce class sizes and combination classes, to fund our school’s art and music program, to fund teacher accounts so our teachers have the supplies they need for their classrooms, and to fund critical learning materials like Everyday Math that enrich our children’s education.
We didn’t stop there. We worked with the school to increase funding as new developments were needed throughout the year. Most notably, as one of our beloved kindergarten teachers retired, Friends of LJES was able to cover additional funding so that a classroom of LJES students wasn’t forced to change teachers mid-year.
This year, we have committed to doing even more. We are funding two additional full-time teachers, four support teachers, a visual and performing arts enrichment, supervision of outdoor recreation, and all the staples of prior years that are critical to our kids’ experience in school.
We need your help to support our school! We know that our families have same generous, involved, and supportive spirit that LJES has always been relied upon. There are so many ways to get involved — you can donate to the Annual Giving campaign, support LJES as a business sponsor, attend the La Jolla Open Aire Market every Sunday, and turn out for the La Jolla Art and Wine Festival, resuming this fall! We are also planning a repeat of our amazing Golden Pineapple spring gala, which was a special and incredible fun night that allowed us to confidently expand our budget for this year.
If you’d like to contribute, or if you’re interested in volunteering to help, please reach out! We are so excited to rebuild our fundraising efforts and our tight-knit community this year, and would love to include you in our plans!
Katy Hall
