Los Pen Looks for Locals to ‘Give Big’

The award-winning Los Peñasquitos Academy is one of several local organizations banking on a giveBIG fundraising campaign by the San Diego Foundation to help expand and maintain its current crop of services.

"Each year we struggle," said Anthony Bayro, a third grade teacher in the academy. "This year is the year that we've come the closest to shutting down."

The academy is described as a "school within a school," a five class network that provides an extra hour of morning instruction, and eight days over the summer, for 168 students at Los Peñasquitos Elementary School in Rancho Peñasquitos. Bayro said the program needs about $14,000 to finish out the year.

Through 7 p.m. Thursday, the San Diego Foundation is hosting a giveBIG campaign where donations will be matched on a pro-rated basis. Here's how it works: The foundation has a base $150,000 matching pool, and how much is dispersed to each of the nearly 400 organizations in the Better Giving Program depends on the total amount raised. If the matching pool is equal to 25 percent of the total raised (in this case, $600,000) each organization's donations would be matched 25 cents on the dollar. If the matching pool is equal to 10 percent of the total raised ($1.5 million), each group would receive 10 cents on the dollar, etc.

For Los Peñasquitos Academy, which recently received a 2011 Golden Bell Award for instruction from the California School Boards Association, the donations mean a chance to keep going this year and hopefully expand in the future, Bayro said.

The program serves 168 third- through fifth-graders who begin school an hour early, and have access to program teachers by phone from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. six days a week for homework help. Students from all over the district apply to get into the program, which allows more time for in-depth study of social studies, science and other subjects, Bayro said.

Program families commit to ensuring their children are in school, completing assignments and asking for help if they need it.

"If you don't know how to do it, all you have to do is call us," Bayro said. "We eliminate all the excuses that are out there."

Donations for the matching program can be made through 7 p.m. Thursday at givebigsandiego.org. The site also includes full details on the rules of the program, and a list of the organizations participating.

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