Community News
Newcomb Academy Finds Budget Shortfall Solution
From Issue: Volume XX - Number 13
6/29/2012
Heather Walker
Principal Gray Lange holds symbolic one million dollar check.
In nine short years, the Newcomb Academy Foundation, a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization, started by a handful of involved parents in 2003, has raised more than $1,000,000 for the students at Newcomb Academy (K-8) school in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD).
What started as a grass roots campaign to backfill a lack of district funding, turned into a passionate, close knit community of parents, volunteers and donors all committed to providing the students of Newcomb Academy with academic enrichment programs, supplies and technology not provided by LBUSD.
As a result, the students of Newcomb Academy benefit from elementary and middle school computer lab instruction, elementary keyboarding lab and MIND/ST Math programs, elementary science lab, expanded music class offerings, after school second language instruction and more.
In recent years, the Foundation also has played a role in saving middle school electives and sports programs when LBUSD funding has fallen short.
“The programs funded by the Newcomb Academy Foundation have become a staple part of the educational experience for the students at Newcomb Academy,” said Jim Kruger, an alumni and parent of three graduates who, along with Board member Juan Salcedo, is a founding director of the Foundation. “Newcomb’s legacy of educational excellence is known throughout Long Beach. As a result, families proactively choose to send their children to Newcomb through the district’s “School of Choice” initiative.”
For the 2011-12 school year the Newcomb Academy Foundation funded approximately $141,000 into the Newcomb Academy school budget. The Foundation raises these funds annually through membership drive donations, an annual jog and jump-a-thon and the Foundation’s annual Golf Classic, which takes place every June.
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