Cupertino Parents Reach $2 Million Goal To Save Teacher Jobs

About 107 teachers in the Cupertino Union School District can now discard the pink slips they received in March thanks to a group of parents that raised $2 million to save their jobs.

The parents are members of a Cupertino-based campaign called Their Future Is Now and, working in conjunction with the Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation, they raised $2 million in two months, said Hoi Yung Poon, a marketing campaign consultant whose son is in kindergarten at Christa McAuliffe Elementary in Saratoga.

"It was really a community effort," Poon said. "Everyone chipped in."

Poon and others presented a check to the district this afternoon at a news conference held at Stevens Creek Elementary School in Cupertino.

The parents raised the money by calling on the support of fellow parents, and teachers, as well as the business and local community.

About $35,000 to $40,000 was raised during the May 4 community day event where more than 80 businesses in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Los Altos and Saratoga donated anywhere from 2 to 100 percent of their proceeds to the cause, Poon said.

All in all, more than 4,000 donors contributed to the campaign, including students and teachers.

The initial goal was to raise $3 million, Poon said, but an additional $1 million will be allocated from employee furlough savings. All school personnel have agreed on a proposal to take five furlough days equating to a 2.5 percent salary cut, saving the district about $2.5 million, Poon said.

The $2 million will go directly to the district to save the jobs of 107 teachers and thereby maintain the 20-to-one class size ratio at schools in the district. To balance its budget, the district had proposed bumping the average class size to a 30-to-one ratio in the upcoming school year.

The 18,000-student district, which serves families in Cupertino, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Los Altos and Saratoga, faces a $7.3 million deficit in the upcoming fiscal year due to $17 billion in education cuts across the state in the past two years.

Poon said the campaign is now considering long-term solutions.

"It's great that we have accomplished our goal and are able to save all the teachers' jobs," she said. "But at the same time we really need to work on long-term solutions because there are many other school districts who do not have the time or resources to work on such fundraising campaigns."