About SLED

San Leandro Education Foundation is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2008 which is dedicated to raising resources and improving the lives and education of children in the San Leandro Unified School District. SLED's supporters include parents, community members, elected officials, educators and business leaders who share the belief that strong public schools are essential to our quality of life and the future well-being of our city.

SLED's role is to serve as a bridge for those in the community who want to invest in our children and schools and the future of the San Leandro community by providing opportunities and mechanisms to leverage valuable resources where they are needed the most. Won't you join our efforts?

Like us on Facebook: SLED- San Leandro Education Foundation
Follow us on Twitter: @SLEDfund

Mission Statement

SLED's mission is to identify and mobilize local, regional and national resources in order to bring increased funding, innovative programming and strong partnerships to San Leandro Unified School District’s public schools.

We believe:

Strong public schools are essential to our quality of life and the future well being of our city
Vibrant communities require high quality public schools
The education of our children is the responsibility of the entire community
Academic enrichment enhances the educational experience and creates lifelong learners who are better equipped to adapt to change

Focus Areas

Arts Education Center at San Leandro High
Enrichment
Health and Safety
Technology
Volunteerism

SLED 2011 Annual Report

Click below to download a [.pdf]

Board of Directors

President: Deborah Cox
Treasurer: Jill Raimondi
Secretary: Dawn Valadez

At-Large:
Faye Clements-Caruso
Chris Crow
Sarah Galvin
Louis Heystek
Michael Pretto
Lee Thomas
Martin Vitz

Advisory Board Members:
Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan
State Senator Ellen Corbett
Chabot-Las Positas Community College District Trustee Isobel Dvorsky
Nancy Guarino, Bank of the West

AmeriCorps*VISTA Project Coordinator:
Jennifer Courtney

Deborah Cox

Deborah Cox is a Co-Founder and President of the San Leandro Education Foundation. Deborah moved to San Leandro in 1997 with her husband and son. A strong believer in public education, Deborah has been active in her son’s education beginning with the Broadmoor Cooperative Preschool, and has been a board member and president of the parent groups at Roosevelt Elementary and Bancroft Middle School. She served at the President of the Estudillo Homeowner’s Association for four years, is on the boards of: California Conservatory Theater, Leadership San Leandro, and PACE. She has been a member of the San Leandro Human Services Commission for the past five years and actively supports many of the local non-profit agencies in San Leandro. Deborah was the Co-Chair for the Yes on Measure A San Leandro School district Parcel Tax campaign and continued on as Co-Chair of the Measure B $109 million school bond campaign that was passed by the San Leandro voters in 2006. She serves as the chairman of the Measure B/Measure M Citizens Oversight Committee.

Jill Raimondi

Jill Raimondi is a co-founder of the San Leandro Education Foundation. She has lived in San Leandro for over 20 years and has three children in the San Leandro public schools. She is an active parent at all three schools her children attend. She sits on the Boards of the Roosevelt and Bancroft PTA’s and is on the School Site Council at San Leandro High School. She is also the parent representative on the SLUSD Budget Advisory Committee. Jill graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.S. in Business Administration. Jill is a CPA and is currently the CFO of Housatonic Partners, a private equity firm.

Faye Clements-Caruso

Faye Clements Caruso

Faye Clements Caruso has lived in San Leandro for 20 years, and held sales and sales-management positions for nearly three decades. She is an active community member, participating in her neighborhood association (EHOA) for a number of years after first arriving here, working on several political campaigns over the years, spending the last nine years involved in her church, fundraising for Assumption and, recently, St. Joe's schools. She has also served on Assumption's School Board for the last seven. Faye believes that San Leandro offers an unmatched strong community and a healthy lifestyle conducive to raising balanced and happy children, and wants to help ensure that our schools are always closely aligning with these values and reflecting the best of San Leandro.

Chris Crow

Chris Crow has been a part of the San Leandro community his entire life. He attended Jefferson Elementary, Bancroft Middle School, and graduated from San Leandro High School in 2002. After earning an A.A. in Liberal Studies from Chabot College, he went on to work for McDermott Costa Insurance Brokers as a Commercial Lines Producer. An active community member, he has served on the City of San Leandro’s Planning Commission for District 2 and is currently involved with the San Leandro Sports Foundation, San Leandro Rotary, Leadership San Leandro, and Relay for Life of San Leandro. He is also the Assistant Wrestling Coach at San Leandro High School.

Sarah Galvin

Sarah Galvin has strong ties to the San Leandro community - she has owned her home here for the past eleven years and her law practice has been located on Estudillo Avenue since the year 2000. She is a solo practitioner offering estate planning, trust administration and mediation services, with clients ranging from young families to retiring baby boomers. Sarah is currently President of the Board of Magnolia Womens Recovery Program in Hayward and is a member of the San Leandro Unified School District (SLUSD) Citizens Bond Oversight Committee for Measure B. In the past she has served as Vice President of the Davis Street Family Resource Center Board of Trustees. She is also active in business association San Leandro LeTip.

Louis Heystek

At age 19, Louis Heystek was elected to the San Leandro Board of Education in 1998, making him the youngest person ever elected to public office in San Leandro. During his eight years on the School Board, Louis is most proud to have helped implement Measure A and later pass Measure B, the two school facilities bonds which have invested $163.8 million (plus millions more in matching funds) in revamping every campus in San Leandro. Louis has worked as a staffer on several regional political campaigns and is now a licensed Realtor with Prudential California Realty. While earning a B.A. in Political Science, with a Minor in Dutch Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, he also earned an A.A. in Radio & Television Broadcasting from Chabot College. He and his wife live in San Leandro’s Broadmoor neighborhood.

Michael Pretto

Mike Pretto has been a San Leandro resident since 1974. He was a San Leandro Planning Commissioner from 1979 to 1995 and in 1995 was co-chair of the “Yes on Measure D” campaign for San Leandro schools. Two of his grandchildren attend a San Leandro Unified School District school. He is employed by the City of Santa Clara, working on rate, financial, and legislative issues for their Electric Utility. He is deeply concerned about the lack of adequate funding for public schools and feels that the San Leandro Education Foundation can be a valuable financial resource for needed projects and activities that cannot be funded through conventional revenue sources.

Lee Thomas

Lee Thomas moved to San Leandro in 2006. He currently works for the San Francisco Unified School District, but also has ten years of non-profit work with various organizations. He has involved himself in the San Leandro community by becoming President of the Floresta Homeowners Association, joining the Citizen Advisory Committee for the Marina re-development project, and serving as a Human Services Commissioner. He and his wife are proud parents of a 2 year old and a 4 month old. His hope in joining SLED is to help the schools become better funded as we enter into a decade with quickly changing technology and diminishing government budgets.

Dawn Valadez

For more than 20 years Dawn Valadez has worked in the non-profit and social services fields with children, youth, families and service providers in a variety of settings. She serves on numerous community boards and advisory groups. Currently, Dawn works as an independent consultant providing fund development; grant writing; strategic planning; training; staff, board and program development; and communications and PR including multimedia and social networking tools to non-profit, education, and health organizations. Dawn is also a producer and director of documentaries about youth and education. Dawn is the parent of a teen son who attends San Leandro High School and has lived and worked in San Leandro for more than 18 years.

Martin Vitz

Martin Vitz has lived in San Leandro for 41 years, over 20 of those spent as City Planner for the City of San Leandro. He and his wife, Polina, have three children, all of whom attended San Leandro schools from kindergarten to 12th grade and he now has grandchildren at Roosevelt School. He has been active in a number of community organizations related to education and the arts since retiring from the East Bay Regional Park District. He has watched the community change in many ways over the years, yet remain unchanged as a desirable and convenient community in which to live, and hopes to help it continue that pattern.

Jennifer Courtney
AmeriCorps*VISTA Project Coordinator

Jennifer Courtney is SLED’s full-time AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer working as the fund's Project Coordinator, expanding and creating the structure and plans for all of SLED’s programs. She grew up in San Leandro, attended McKinley, Bancroft, and San Leandro High. She is a graduate from Mills College with a B.A. in Public Policy, where she served as editor in chief of the campus newspaper for a year and a half. She has worked as a freelance journalist and most recently was employed by a public utility.