Leader of Santa Barbara Education Foundation Ready for a Change
After working tirelessly for nine years, executive director Tina Fanucchi plans to step down in February.
When a public school district has little or no money for music, and a private foundation comes along to ensure the initiation of a program in which every fourth-grader in the district receives violin lessons, you can be certain that somewhere, someone is working like mad behind the scenes.
In Santa Barbara, that person has been Tina Fanucchi.
For nine years, Fanucchi has been the executive director of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation, not to mention its only full-time employee. However, Fanucchi, 46, has announced that this calendar year will be her last.
“I feel like I’m needing some time to rejuvenate,” she said Monday, sitting in the backyard of the San Roque neighborhood house that she remodeled herself.
Foundation board member Mark Ingalls described Fanucchi’s drive and energy as extraordinary.
“She’s obviously got a passion for both education and music,” he said.
Working tirelessly has long been a way of life for Fanucchi. She has started three companies: The Lone Palm, a café and juice bar in her native Carpinteria; Equity Mates, an organization that enables nonrelatives to get together to purchase property; and Befana, a construction company. The latter two were bought out and are still in operation.
The entrepreneurial spirit runs in her family. Her late mother, Rosemarie Fanucchi, co-founded the Coastal View News in Carpinteria, serving as its editor-in-chief until 2003. She died of cancer at 69 in 2006. Her father, Nilo, ran a construction company.
Fanucchi is staying with the Santa Barbara Education Foundation until February, at which point she plans to take a few months off before diving into another job.
She said her biggest hope for the future of the schools and the foundation is that voters approve two parcel tax initiatives on the Nov. 4 ballot, Measures H and I.
The parcel taxes — of which passage requires two-thirds majority approval — would put money back into some of the local school programs, such as music, theater and foreign language, that have declined in recent years.
“Now more than ever, especially in these economic times, we need support like this,” she said.
The foundation is spearheading the campaign in favor of the ballot measures.
Measure H pertains to residents living within the seventh-through-12th grade district, or secondary district, which stretches from Goleta to Montecito. At $23 annually per parcel, it would bring more music and foreign language to the schools, as well as restore the small class sizes in ninth-grade math that were recently eliminated in a round of budget cuts by the school board. Measure I pertains only to those living in the elementary district, which exists within the boundaries of the city of Santa Barbara. At $27 annually per parcel, it would allow the district to expand its music program to include grades kindergarten through third grade.
If passed, the taxes would be collected for four years.
“It’s kind of daring to speak of a measure during such turbulent economic times,” she said, “but even with that said, $50 a year for four years — I mean, that’s two large pizzas — it yields $1.6 million.”
Passage of the initiatives would allow the 27-year-old foundation to get back to focusing on school programs other than music, as it had been doing before recent years.
In the mid-1990s, for instance, it paid for six school playgrounds. In 2001, it purchased pull-down maps, books and encyclopedias for every classroom in fourth through sixth grade. Ingalls said that the Santa Barbara Education Foundation plans to start expanding its focus, to serve as more of a vocal advocate of the public school district.
“Several board members would like to see the education foundation work with the district to help highlight its successes, and not just focus on budget crises,” he said. “The only time we see the district in the paper is when it’s defending itself. We think we can help be a voice for public education.”
He said the organization soon will establish a committee charged with initiating a search for Fanucchi’s successor.
John Robinson, the president of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation, praised Fanucchi’s performance.
“Tina has done a tremendous job leading the Santa Barbara Education Foundation,” he said in an e-mail to Noozhawk. “She leaves the organization with a strong board, a great track record of providing meaningful financial support for the Santa Barbara schools, and the confidence to carry on the good work into the future. We are grateful that Tina is providing us with six months notice, so that we will be able to conduct a thorough search for a dedicated and knowledgeable successor.”
Fanucchi, who holds an undergraduate degree in sociology from UCSB and a master’s degree in public administration from California State University Northridge, said she is interested in working in the other dimension of the foundation world: the portion that vets proposals and gives out money, as opposed to the one that writes grants and asks for money.
“Most fundraising professionals, we have a set life span,” she said. “And I’m feeling like I’d like to give up that part of my career.”
Noozhawk staff writer Rob Kuznia can be reached at .
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 05:48 AM
Wonderful story. The warm sounds of those band instruments will echo for years—in the key of F for Fanucchi.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 07:48 AM
Thank you for featuring Tina as your cover story. I’ve known Tina since we were 5 years old, and I know that she will continue to accomplish wonderful things! Thank you for supporting our schools and all of our children, Tina.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 08:41 AM
Tina is a remarkable woman and has been inspiration to me many times over to reach out and make things happen in this world! So honored to have her as my friend.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 08:47 AM
I am very thankful to have had the opportunity to spend some wonderful years growing up with Tina.....she is beautiful inside and out! Her energy and love are to be admired and she will be missed by the Foundation.... Best wishes my friend!!
Lyndsey
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 10:12 AM
Having worked (if only briefly) with Tina as a board member on the Keep the Beat section of the public education foundation (which she also began), I was amazed at the competence and creativity of Tina Fanucchi. She will have my admiration always and I can only assume the next organization which is lucky enough to hire her will have the benefit of a truly exceptional mind and spirit.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 01:38 PM
I have watched Tina in action. I am a past president of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation. Tina has been an energetic force that has been invaluable to the public schools in Santa Barbara. I want to thank her for her tireless effort and contribution to the students of our city.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 08:18 PM
Thank you, Tina, for working countless hours towards bringing music to all the children of the Santa Barbara School District. You’re shoes are going to be hard to fill and we will very much miss your passion for what you do. Best wishes to you on your future endeavors.
» wrote on 10/28/08 @ 09:14 PM
Tina’s success (from the Goldstar tax returns)
2007---Total Revenues 153,000 Gross Expenses 88,000; Tina’s salary 55,200; Tina’s w/h tax 10,200
Tina’s Ex. Dir. Expenses as percentage of Total Revenues:42%
2006---Total Revenues 88,000; Total Expenses 127,000; Tina’s Salary: 55,000: Tina’s reported expenses as percentage of Total Revenues: 62%
Thanks.
» wrote on 10/29/08 @ 02:43 PM
Dear Full Disclosure,
Please get your facts straight. Tina earns a pitiful $50K a year while she works more than full time, actually over time, giving us a huge bang for our buck! You will see how hard it will be to fill her shoes once she has moved on. She has taken the time over the years to develop relationships with some of our communities most generous funders and has always gone the extra mile to see that they were proud to invest in SBEF and it’s programs. Funny how you left your name off, perhaps it would be bad for you to criticize this stellar member of our community, given her deep reach into all facets of Santa Barbara and surrounding communities.
Thank you for another opportunity to praise her good works.
In Service,
Laura Inks
Arts Educator and Youth Advocate
» wrote on 10/29/08 @ 04:16 PM
Great Story… Thank you to Santa Barbara Education Foundation for helping to Keep the Beat!
» wrote on 10/29/08 @ 04:52 PM
Thank you for your wonderfully written article on Tina. I have had the honor and privilege of serving on the board of the Santa Barbara Education Foundation with Tina. Her commitment to enriching our district school programs should be applauded and my admiration for her dedication is boundless.
» wrote on 10/30/08 @ 11:57 PM
Working with Tina Fanucchi on the SBEF Board over the years has been a great pleasure. Tina has continued to give her all to make a positive difference for children. She has shown the utmost integrity and her intention for the betterment of the community rings true. Among her many accomplishments fundraising to help music teachers keep their jobs was a notable triumph. The foundation’s success is a reflection of her exceptional leadership. She will be greatly missed.
» wrote on 10/31/08 @ 06:33 AM
Thank you, Full Disclosure. I am very excited to know the Santa Barbara Education Foundation might soon be in the hands of a professional who will actually realize its tremendous potential to do good for our schools. Tina Fannuchi is obviously a personable woman and well loved by her friends (she did a great job of populating the SBEF board with many of those friends, thus avoiding the possibility of diligent oversight of her “work”, but the foundation really has underperformed during her leadership. One needs only compare the monies raised by other, more recently formed public school foundations in the past two years to see where the SBEF has fallen short. Best wishes to Ms. Fannuchi to be sure, but this is much better news for those of us with children in the Santa Barbara School Districts who need and deserve much, much more.
» wrote on 11/02/08 @ 10:10 AM
Thank you Tina for your years of dedication and leadership with SPEF! Your unwavering commitment and SPEF’s extremely generous support of our district’s elementary instrumental program made it possible for an additional 1000 students to have the opportunity to play a band or orchestra instrument this year. Wow! What an awesome accomplishment! We couldn’t have done it without you!