by Lorine Parks
“Layer by layer, we took baby steps,” said Linda Salomon-Saldana, the founder of Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities. “In this busy world, we asked ourselves, what could we do for our kids?”
Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities (DFEO) is a recently established nonprofit supporter of the Downey Unified School District.
Linda told us how she and other parents have enriched Downey children’s lives. Since the 1980’s, elementary school-level Music Education programs have had to be dropped from the Downey Unified School District budget, so Linda decided to start there.
“We chose music because arts education is one of the Foundation’s objectives, and it will definitely fill a void at the elementary level,” she said. “Right now students are given the option of joining band in sixth grade and for some of them, it is the first time they have ever been exposed to music. We want that experience to start at a younger age.”
“A group of parents got together,” Linda said, “to arrange an after-school program, and we decided to begin with a pilot program for the violin. We paid a teacher to set up a curriculum, and then we borrowed 27 violins and we bought 40 more. We charged the students $50 for a month, one hour and a half each week, and we paid teachers $25 an hour. We figured, if we had four students that would pay one teacher. We got multiples of that the first time out, over 60 students a month, and teachers to go with.” Currently, the DFEO has an after-school violin program for third and fourth grade students that operates at seven elementary campuses within Downey Unified.
“Our strategic plan was to rotate the instruments,” Linda said, “as each level of students came. So one set of instruments is enough.” Lessons are given after school on elementary school campuses and Saturday mornings in the Downey Theater.
“As parents, we wanted to do this for our kids,” Linda said. “After they graduate, our kids have to compete for jobs with kids from neighboring Districts like Burbank, Orange, Santa Monica Irvine, and Culver City, where things like this are offered. Believe it or not, the way they’re funding these opportunities is not with state or federal funding, it’s through foundations.”
The arts supplement the preparation of students for their respective futures. “We organized a Saturday morning Music Appreciation program, for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, teaching rhythm, tone, and inflection, for one and a half hours. We charged $5 per student because that made it affordable, accessible and equally affordable for all.”
In May the Foundation sponsored a concert in the Downey High gym, for 250 people. “I believe there should be no limits on a child’s education,” said Linda. “Why shouldn’t children have SAT College Prep Courses available to them, free, in fifth grade? So we arranged for that to happen.”
Then, we started an after-school dance program, and it is accredited by the state as Physical Education. By now we had students in the program who have become teachers in the program, “retro teachers.” So now we offer classes in the Arts, College Prep, and Health & Fitness.
“Looking for opportunities to be innovative, next we added a soccer program for Middle School and High School, for kids who didn’t make the varsity teams but just love to play. And for elementary school kids who wanted to learn the skills.”
“We have added a guitar and ukulele program, with a family discount, in case multiple members of the family wanted to learn,” Linda said. “We want to make it equal and accessible. And little by little we have added layers. It has been amazing.”
“What is the next layer we can add for our kids? Programming and video gaming. We’ve gotten the chips for computer programming. This is the equivalent of taking typing,” Linda said, “when I was in middle school in the ‘80’s. And Middle School kids are fascinated with acquiring audio visual skills, so we’ve gotten cameras.”
Will Medina, who introduced Linda, is on the Board of the Downey Foundation, who offered an innovative package at the Downey-Warren Football Game, with VIP parking, dinner and special desserts to enhance the enjoyment of the game. Proceeds go to the Foundation. What next?
“We are very excited that this committed group of Downey Unified supporters has coalesced to back the vision set out by our Board of Education,” said Downey Unified Superintendent Dr. John Garcia. “The Downey Foundation for Educational Opportunities will help us continue to withstand the constant fluctuations in state and federal funding for our schools.”