Generous gifts from the Palo Alto community have already helped PAFE and ASF make a difference in every school in Palo Alto.

At the elementary level, ASF’s 2003-4 campaign raised nearly $1.2 million in funds, enough to provide approximate $220 per student to every principal. Those funds are being used in a wide range of important ways in elementary classrooms, paying for reading specialists, classroom aides, science programs, SPECTRA art, library assistance, and materials for science and art programs. Every time your child brings home a piece of art from his SPECTRA teacher, each time she reports that the aide in her classroom helped her out, and every time a student goes to see a reading specialist, your financial support has helped make that happen.

Wearing ASF-PAFE T-shirts, Superintendent Mary Frances Callan and School Board Member Gail Price receive a check for $1,188,372 from ASF Co-Chairs Matt Passell and Louise Valente at the May Fete Town Fair.

During the 2003-4 school year, ASF also raised more than $115,000 to support our middle and high schools. These funds will help pay for programs such as Team Teaching, Art Support, Intervention and Enrichment Programs, Counseling Services, Technology Support and Professional Development for teachers.

PAFE has worked for nearly two years to successfully complete its $1 million program to equip the new high school science labs built under the Building for Excellence initiative. Lab purchases have included critical equipment like….

Just prior to its high school science campaign, PAFE raised $200,000 for middle school science labs, so supporting secondary classrooms with gifts for science education has been a major part of PAFE’s campaigns for several years.

PAFE has also awarded $100,000 annually in special grants given directly to teachers. These grants support such requests as curtains and sound systems for school theaters, special teaching materials, technology updates, and support for special education.

PAFE donors purchased state of the art lab equipment to support Palo Alto's unusually rich 21-course high school science program. This new 8-inch Celestron telescope with GPS accurately simulates the night sky in three dimensions and real time to take astronomy students on journeys through and beyond our solar system.

In 2003-'04, PAFE purchased $1 million infurnishings, equipment and technology to fully outfit the 20 new science labs at Gunn & Paly.