At Thursday night’s Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board meeting, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation Linda Greenberg Gross announced it had received the largest gift in its 30-year history, and described the $4.8 million bequest as “transformative.”

The largest gift ever received by the three-decade old foundation, the gift from the estate of the late Peggy Bergmann, will be divided into
two parts.

$2.4 million has been designated to establish an arts endowment for the purpose of providing semi-private music instruction, as well as the purchase and maintenance of musical instruments, for economically disadvantaged students throughout the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The newly-created endowment will be known as the Peggy Bergmann Arts Endowment Fund, in memory of Lenore Bergmann and John Elmer Bergmann.

$2.4 million has been designated as current-use dollars to address SMMEF’s critical needs within the District. During the coming months, Superintendent Sandra Lyon will be working with the newly-formed Superintendent’s Advisory Council, made up of District, Foundation, and community leaders, to assess the District’s most critical needs in determining “the best and most impactful use of these dollars.”

Gross said, “This is a truly transformative gift for the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation and our efforts to support every student at every school in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. This gift will help us continue the great work that is already happening in our schools, and it will ensure that programs throughout our District can continue in these difficult economic times.

“This magnificent gift will have an enormous effect on our schools today and in perpetuity. As state funding for public education continues to decline, it’s never been more important that we seek support from our communities to ensure continued excellence in our schools. This gift is a tremendous step in that direction.

“The Bergmann bequest arrives at a time when the District is moving toward a centralized fundraising model in which the Education Foundation broadens its focus from events and annual appeals to major and planned gifts that will create sustainability for important programs at schools throughout the District. Cultivation of long-term relationships, such as the one that resulted in this gift, is now a core focus of the Foundation’s centralized fundraising efforts.”

Bergmann passed away on December 10, 2011. According to Bruce and Sonya Sultan, attorneys for her estate and longtime supporters of the District and of the Education Foundation, Ms. Bergmann had learned of the District’s efforts “to provide equity to all students through a centralized fundraising model, and she wanted to jump start that effort with this bequest.”

The attorneys went on to say that it was her hope that this gift would encourage others to give large and small gifts to the Education Foundation to make program equity a reality for all children in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The fact that Ms. Bergmann’s friend and executor was “familiar with the fine reputation of the Education Foundation helped solidify Ms. Bergmann’s decision to benefit the organization.”

Bergmann, who lived in the Palisades, was not
married and had no children, but she was impressed by what the Sultans, Gross and other parents of current and former SAMO students told her about the new equity program and made the $4.8 million bequest in honor of her parents.

Established in 1982 in response to devastating federal and state education budget cuts, the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation (SMMEF) was organized by a group of parents, community leaders, and local business owners to enhance and supplement the curriculum of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. The Foundation’s mission is to ensure equity and access to a superior educational experience for all students. Dollars raised by the Foundation are distributed equitably throughout the entire District and supports programs in academics, the arts, and athletics throughout the 16-school Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.