Fund-A-Need

FUND-A-NEED GRANTS

Fund-a-Need Grants for this school year, separate from the KIK Annual Commitment, help support school community initiatives such as digital platforms, library enhancements, and unique tools to supplement student learning. KIK is the funding arm of the 2020-21 Fund-a-Need program and has partnered with the Kentfield Schools PTA (KSPTA) to administer the grant award process to realize special projects and make supplies available to our school community. KIK appreciates the Fund-a-Need Donors who generously gave last spring for this school year’s grants. See list of donors at right column.

After 3 rounds of grant applications and awards, KIK had some remaining funds.  The KIK KSPTA Grant Committee voted to gift the remainder to the schools through a Principal Discretionary Spending Fund.  The funds will follow the same guidelines as the grants and were distributed equally between the two schools.

FALL 2020 UPDATE: BACICH PLAYGROUND FUND-A-NEED

At the KIK Spring Auction back in 2019, our community raised nearly $100K to help with the construction of a new Bacich Playground through a “Fund-a-Need.” These designated dollars must be used for the specific program for which the Fund-a-Need was intended and cannot be redirected. The current playground is 20 years old while the average lifespan of a play structure is 10-15 years!  

While our district has been moving forward with a number of capital projects paid for by bond money, our community has been patiently waiting on construction for the new playground.  While waiting, there was some discussion about re-purposing the donated funds. However, considering

1. the age of our current playground

2. that the field and the playground are the focal points in our community, and

3. that construction/playground costs will only go up, the district and KIK decided that playground rehaul is one of our priorities for our community and children as students return full time to school following the pandemic. 

A little more info: KIK needed to work with our district to come up with the remainder of the cost of construction.  To secure extra funds, the District and Board of Trustees went through an exploratory design and programming period which determined that the entire cost of the playground overhaul requires:

1. grading and infrastructure work (about $150K), and 

2: the playground equipment itself ($100K). 

We have the $100K secured thanks to our donors! The remainder of the money will come from bond money set aside for capital improvements.  

Why didn’t this happen earlier? Our district and trustees have set aside the playground issue for a time while dealing with a number of fiscal priorities and unprecedented emergency issues.  Now that the remainder of the monies have been secured and plans are being finalized, KSD and KIK can now move forward with finite plans for the new playground. Thank you all for your patience and dedication to our Greenbrae/Kentfield community and schools!

Tune into our Board of Trustees Meetings and/or Archives for playground updates. KIK would like to again thank our Fund-a-Need donors that gave generously to build an updated and safe playground structure for our community.

FUND-A-NEED HISTORY

Every year, our community raises money through the Fund-a-Need program at the Spring Auction to deliver a specific need to our school district. In years past, our Fund-a-Need program has raised money for the following: