By MORRIE PONGRATZ
LAPS Foundation Board Member
As Giving Tuesday approaches you may be wondering how to best help Los Alamos Public Schools. If you moved here to work at LANL, you may not know that Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) is at the 33.6th percentile for per-pupil spending compared to the national distribution. This means that LAPS spends more per student than about 33.6% of school districts nationwide but less than the remaining 66.4%!
The Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation was established in 2005 to enable folks to address this disparity through personal, tax-deductible contributions. Since then, the Foundation has consistently raised funds to support educational programs, promote professional development of teachers and other school staff, defray operating expenses and help fund school capital improvements. In November 2016, the Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation celebrated its facilitation of $1 million in donations for LAPS. This past spring, in our “Shower with Love” campaign, the foundation funded the requests of over 190 LAPS teachers!
The Foundation Board of Directors has members who are very knowledgeable about the needs of our school district. The board includes two former school board members, seven former teachers, two high school students, two former school principals, several parents, the LAPS Superintendent, Jennifer Guy, and the former New Mexico Public Education Secretary, Kurt Steinhaus. Our superb Executive Director, Jenny McCumber, is also a former school board member. If you want to help our schools, but don’t know how, let the LAPS Foundation put your Giving Tuesday donation to effective use.
LANL employees can also help our schools by giving through a payroll deduction and get their gift matched by Triad at $0.50 per $1! That’s a huge boost to your giving! Think of how many teachers will know that they are supported by our community.
It’s easy to set up through LANL, and you can make a one-time or recurring deduction from your paycheck.
Here is how Triad employees can give to the LAPS Foundation through their paychecks:
- Where do I begin?
- This tool is found on LANL Inside in the My Portal bank of buttons where you access Oracle to enter Time and Labor. Look for the Giving Tool button.
- Click there and wait for the welcome screen; you will be welcomed by name!
- Choose Employee Giving.
- Choose Biweekly (recurring) or One-Time payroll deduction.
- Search for Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation or LAPS Foundation.
- Select Los Alamos Public Schools Foundation.
- Now that LAPS Foundation is in your cart: Add the $ amount you wish to contribute biweekly or one-time.
- Notes: Use the Notes field to add any information you wish LAPS Foundation to have (acknowledge as, maybe a specific program designation, or your home address).
- Select save and proceed, review to make sure you haven’t made any mistakes. You will click through more than one confirmation screen. Please be certain you see a “Successful Submission” screen before logging out.
Not employed at LANL, but still want to donate? Check out the LAPS Foundation website (lapsfoundation.com or fundraise.givesmart.com).
Thank you for remembering our public schools on Giving Tuesday!