The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians recently completed the first year of its Technology in Schools Program by delivering 48 Chromebooks and two mobile charging carts to Guadalupe Union School District.
The $13,869 gift, presented during a board meeting at Mary Buren Elementary School, brings the total value of Technology in Schools Program donations, which were spread across five local educational institutions, to more than $47,000 in 2017.
Other beneficiaries included Santa Barbara Community Academy, La Honda STEAM Academy in Lompoc, Cabrillo High School, and Santa Ynez Valley Christian Academy.
The Technology in Schools Program is part of the $1.2 million the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians donated to local nonprofit groups this year.
“In 2015, we earmarked the funds raised from our annual Chumash Charity Golf Classic to be distributed to local schools in the form of technology upgrades,” said Kenneth Kahn, tribal chairman for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.
“We saw how the funds helped those schools, so we decided to create a program within our charitable foundation that focused on helping teachers and students meet their technology challenges in the classroom,” he said.
This year, Santa Barbara Community Academy, which is part of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, received $6,500 to put toward the purchase of the Lexia Core 5 Reading Program for use by its 200 kindergarten through second-grade students.
La Honda STEAM Academy in Lompoc received $7,500 for its innovative MakerSpace program.
Cabrillo High and Santa Ynez Valley Christian Academy each received nearly $10,000 in Chromebook computers and mobile charging carts.
Guadalupe Union School District will put its 48 Chromebooks to use in classrooms at both Mary Buren Elementary and McKenzie Junior High.
“We were just in the planning stages of putting together our technology initiative when we learned about the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ grant program,” Guadalupe Union School District Superintendent Ed Cora told the School Board on Dec. 13.
“We got the information, our public affairs office wrote a grant request and here we are today,” Cora said. “These Chromebooks are going to help us a lot.”
The tribe will begin accepting Technology in Schools Program grant requests for the 2018-19 school year on Jan. 1. This allows school administrators or faculty to apply for technology grant dollars to purchase hardware and/or upgrade infrastructure.
The deadline to apply will be May 31.
For more information on how to apply or to learn more about the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ giving programs, visit www.santaynezchumash.org/contributions.html.
— Veronica V. Sandoval for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.