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Hello! My name is Trish Wood and I am the Director at St. James Christian Schools in San Leandro, Ca. I have worked at St. James for 20+ years and I have had the pleasure to be a part of so many children's lives and watch them grow up. Let me tell you a little bit about St. James and why we need your help.
St. James Christian Schools is a non-profit and has been around for 35 years. Many children started their school years in the Two's Program and stayed all the way through the 5th grade in the School Age Program. St. James has a Two's program, a Preschool Program, a Pre-K Program, and a School Age Program. St. James is first and foremost about children first and then community. Once you have been a part of St. James, you are part of the St. James family for life.
Right before the Pandemic, St. James Christian Schools started raising money for a security code lock for their school front gate, fireproof shade tarps for the play yards and new safety surfacing under the School Age play structure. St. James had some money that some parents donated for security but when the Pandemic caused the shelter in place, we had to close their school in the middle of March. We applied for the PPP loan, but it took many weeks for us to get approved, so we had to use the school savings to pay utilities, rent and teachers. Parents gave donations to help us through that time too! Eventually we were approved for the PPP loan, but it only lasted a few months.
During that shelter in place, the teachers did virtual school from their homes and kept in close contact with families. They also did extracurricular activities with the children such as, a teacher car parade and drove by the students homes in San Leandro and Oakland, a virtual Trolls movie night, a virtual teddy bear picnic, virtual bedtime stories, a drive through Pre-K Graduation, a Flat teacher project (look up Flat Stanley) and pen pals with school age students. You always feel the love from our St. James teachers.
Thankfully, St. James could reopen on June 8th for essential families and for all families a week later. The teachers cleaned, organized, moved furniture, put up safety signs, created new protocols and got the school ready for the students.
At that time, the Alameda County and Child Care Licensing stated we could only have groups of 12 children. St. James Preschool’s regular capacity is 40 children, but we could only have 24 children. The School Age Programs regular capacity is 45 children, but we could only have 24 children. St. James was running at 50% capacity and could not afford any big projects.
Just recently they increased the cohorts’ number to 14 children per group with 2 teachers. Currently we are at 12 children in the Twos and 14 children in the Preschool. The School age has 28 children. Like it’s stated above, we are still around 50% capacity and even with the smallest of increase we do not have the funds for any big projects.
St. James normally has a Silent & Live auction BBQ in March that helps us with finances and big projects but we had to cancel it due to the Pandemic. We were able to raise some money with a small silent on-line auction but we still do not have the funds for big projects.
We will send out a letter to all who donated with our Tax i.d. number at the end of the year for all donations.
I have numbered the "BIG" projects in order of necessity.
1)Safety Play Structure Surfacing in School Age estimate: $16,020
2)Fireproof Shade Tarps estimate : $11,000
3)Security Code Lock estimate: $3,600
Please share with friends, families and any BIG businesses that you know might be interested to help!
If anyone is interested in sponsoring any of these projects with their business name recognition and advertising, please let me know!
Thank you very much,
Trish Wood, Director
Check out our website at:
stjameschristianschools.com
St. James Christian Schools is a non-profit and has been around for 35 years. Many children started their school years in the Two's Program and stayed all the way through the 5th grade in the School Age Program. St. James has a Two's program, a Preschool Program, a Pre-K Program, and a School Age Program. St. James is first and foremost about children first and then community. Once you have been a part of St. James, you are part of the St. James family for life.
Right before the Pandemic, St. James Christian Schools started raising money for a security code lock for their school front gate, fireproof shade tarps for the play yards and new safety surfacing under the School Age play structure. St. James had some money that some parents donated for security but when the Pandemic caused the shelter in place, we had to close their school in the middle of March. We applied for the PPP loan, but it took many weeks for us to get approved, so we had to use the school savings to pay utilities, rent and teachers. Parents gave donations to help us through that time too! Eventually we were approved for the PPP loan, but it only lasted a few months.
During that shelter in place, the teachers did virtual school from their homes and kept in close contact with families. They also did extracurricular activities with the children such as, a teacher car parade and drove by the students homes in San Leandro and Oakland, a virtual Trolls movie night, a virtual teddy bear picnic, virtual bedtime stories, a drive through Pre-K Graduation, a Flat teacher project (look up Flat Stanley) and pen pals with school age students. You always feel the love from our St. James teachers.
Thankfully, St. James could reopen on June 8th for essential families and for all families a week later. The teachers cleaned, organized, moved furniture, put up safety signs, created new protocols and got the school ready for the students.
At that time, the Alameda County and Child Care Licensing stated we could only have groups of 12 children. St. James Preschool’s regular capacity is 40 children, but we could only have 24 children. The School Age Programs regular capacity is 45 children, but we could only have 24 children. St. James was running at 50% capacity and could not afford any big projects.
Just recently they increased the cohorts’ number to 14 children per group with 2 teachers. Currently we are at 12 children in the Twos and 14 children in the Preschool. The School age has 28 children. Like it’s stated above, we are still around 50% capacity and even with the smallest of increase we do not have the funds for any big projects.
St. James normally has a Silent & Live auction BBQ in March that helps us with finances and big projects but we had to cancel it due to the Pandemic. We were able to raise some money with a small silent on-line auction but we still do not have the funds for big projects.
We will send out a letter to all who donated with our Tax i.d. number at the end of the year for all donations.
I have numbered the "BIG" projects in order of necessity.
1)Safety Play Structure Surfacing in School Age estimate: $16,020
2)Fireproof Shade Tarps estimate : $11,000
3)Security Code Lock estimate: $3,600
Please share with friends, families and any BIG businesses that you know might be interested to help!
If anyone is interested in sponsoring any of these projects with their business name recognition and advertising, please let me know!
Thank you very much,
Trish Wood, Director
Check out our website at:
stjameschristianschools.com
Organizer
Trish WOOD
Organizer
San Leandro, CA
