VIDEO: How One Eagle Rock Principal is Handling Budget Cuts

He has been the principal of for only a year and José Posada already knows a thing or two about what it takes to run a school successfully in the face of dwindling resources.

Take the school’s budget for purchasing supplemental items such as instructional materials (paper, pencils, crayons, erasers), which took a $250,000 hit, going from $700,000 last year to $450,000, largely because the federal government’s “stimulus funds,” which began in 2008, have stopped.

Posada has asked parents to contribute anything they can—reams of paper, glue, watercolors—to try to meet a shortfall of $35,000 for such items. “There are parents who can’t afford it—family’s that have lost jobs,” he says, explaining that each grade puts together a list of required instructional materials, which is then given to parents.

“I tell parents I work for you,” says Posada. “We have to meet halfway in order for us to improve.”

This coming Saturday, on May 14, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Eagle Rock Elementary Education Foundation, comprised of parents of currently enrolled children, alumni and community members, will hold a silent auction in what will be the school’s biggest and most concerted effort to raise funds for Eagle Rock Elementary. Titled “Night of Big Dreams,” the auction will be accompanied by music and dining and will be held at the , which has donated the space for the event.