Christina Broadwin, mother and parent of three, became involved in 2010 with the grass root campaign, “Save Fremont Students.” School budgets were being drastically reduced. With 32,000 students in the Fremont Unified School District, a 25 million shortfall was announced. This meant that all music, art, science and PE teachers would be laid off and programs lost, the 20-1 classroom ratio would be increased to 30-1 in elementary schools and class size increasing to 35-40 students in high schools. The parents in the district felt this was unacceptable and decided to start a campaign to raise 4.5 million by July 15, 2010. The group first met over Memorial Day weekend, 2010, two weeks before school was to end, to discuss how they were going to accomplish this.
All the schools in the district participated, teachers, parent and students were involved and the campaign was endorsed by the School Board and the Fremont Education Foundation. A donation of $475 per family was being asked. After much research through the Bay Area, they discovered that other school districts who also asked for donations to cover shortfalls, asked for an average of $300 per family. Families were allowed to designate if they wanted their wanted their donation to go to the elementary, junior high or high school level.
They had multiple donation streams, alumni, future families, small and medium size businesses, current families and corporate matching grants. They had rallies, held flea markets, Shop for Students Day at certain local stores, set up donation tables around the city. They tapped into viral messaging (Facebook, Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, bizM3 and Paypal). Within 10 days of starting the Facebook page they had 2,000 friends. They promoted via radio stations and newspapers. Utilization of high school students was essential to their success. The students organized their own fundraising, managed it and ran it.
At the end of 7 weeks, they presented the Fremont Unified School District a check for $700,000. They were able to hire back 6 specialty teachers who work at the elementary school level. Given more time, they feel they could have raised more money.
The unforeseen benefits of the campaign were the friendships made all across the district, created an awareness in the city about the problem which helped to pass Meausre K, a parcel tax of $13 million over 5 years for our schools, and helped to make the teachers feel valued.
There is a possibility that the parent group may work with the school district again this year.