3 San Rafael schools share part of $2 million grant

Three San Rafael schools are sharing more than $2 million donated to nine Marin County schools to help disadvantaged children keep up with their peers starting in September.

Marin Community Foundation, which secured the funding, announced Monday about $2.2 million goes to Bahia Vista, San Pedro, and Venetia Valley schools in San Rafael and six other schools in Novato, Sausalito, and unincorporated West Marin with predominantly Hispanic and black students.

"You see a Grand Canyon gulf between the high-end European kids and their Hispanic and African-American peers," Thomas Peters, president of Marin Community Foundation said. "We're trying to make sure that gulf is closed."

The money is part of a five-year, $35 million pledge that the foundation made to help low-income or minority children in the area.

Schools can hire teaching assistants and pay teachers to stay after hours and talk with parents about educating children at home.

"These are parents that are often struggling themselves," Peters said.

He said parents will learn how to teach children to read and work with basic numbers.

Eighty percent of each schools' student population are either low-income or minorities, Peters said.

Marin Community Foundation is a nonprofit with a membership of 350 families, mainly in Marin County, who collectively have donated several billion dollars in the past 22 years. The foundation currently has about $1 billion in secured funding, which it plans on donating to various causes.

Historically, the foundation has donated money to biomedical research, education, affordable housing, and immigration, Peters said.

Information from Bay City News Service