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Donations speed elementary school rise from the ashes

Shannon Barry
San Jose Mercury News

Merritt Trace Elementary School is rising from the ashes after an early morning six-alarm fire gutted the main building a month ago. The fire burned a 25,000-square-foot building at Trace, destroying 16 classrooms, the library and several offices with an estimated value of more than $10 million.

Readying for the start of the upcoming school year, on Tuesday San Jose Unified School District made a $112,000 deposit to cover the Trace Elementary insurance deductible. These funds will cover basics like books, supplies and student desks. Despite the devastating blaze in which arson was the cause (no one has been arrested), Trace school will be open Aug. 16 through the use of 20 portable classrooms.

Donations and assistance began pouring in just hours after the fire occurred from neighbors, teachers and businesses. And they continue fund-raising for the cause.

"For people to see a school go up in flames like this and know there are no dollars going toward education... I think people really felt like, I could do something about our neighborhood schools," said Karen Fuqua, spokeswoman for the San Jose Unified School District. "It's been just absolutely amazing. It is a series of the unbound spirit of Trace. It has gone across the nation. It has warmed our hearts."

For the first two weeks following the incident, Fuqua said she received at least 300 e-mails a day and phone calls making her voice mail reach capacity all inquiries of how to help. Some came from as far as Ohio, Hawaii and Minnesota.

Fuqua said the first pledge came in from Wells Fargo the day of the fire in the amount of $25,000. Since then there has been a steady stream of monies, materials and volunteers from places like Silicon Valley Education Foundation, Intel, RAFT, neighborhood garage sales and individuals wanting to help.

Fuqua added people have driven from afar, places like Oakland and Los Angeles, to contribute. She recalls one of the first individual donors was a Trace alumnus, now 91 years old, who drove from Santa Cruz to write a check for $1,000. He brought a copy of his certificate of promotion from the school dating back to 1932 with him to share his school pride.

"It was truly unreal," Fuqua said. "It was phenomenal and fantastic. We got to the point where we were so overwhelmed by donations we had to stop taking the materials. ... We had over three offices full of materials."

Trace Elementary School is no longer taking in materials due to the high volume received already but "cash donations will continue to carry us," Fuqua said.

Division 6 of the California Retired Teachers' Association, which includes San Jose Unified School District, is one such organization that has and continues reaching out.

DeEtte Starr, communications chair and project manager of the division, did so by sending an e-mail to Stephen McMahon, president of the San Jose Teachers' Association, Trace Principal Anacelia Rocha and San Jose Unified Superintendent Vincent Mathews late last month.

"Our members, some of whom have personal ties to Trace, know how devastating the fire was to the teachers," the letter states. "Realizing that retired teachers offer a unique perspective, our members want to assist the Trace teachers any way they can."

They offered help by volunteering time to set up new classrooms for the school opening; donating cold water and snacks for teachers as they work on setting up their classrooms; polling the teachers for a wish list of specific items they want; working with teachers' supply retail stores to set up a way for teachers in the Bay Area who are buying back-to-school items for their own classroom to choose and donate an item from the Trace teachers' wish list; and sending lesson plans.

Starr, division President Milly Powell and board members Jack Edwards and Blanche Stimpson shared why helping the Trace community was a natural reaction for them.

"I read that one of the teachers had been teaching just as long as I had," said Stimpson, who taught at Pomeroy Elementary School in Santa Clara Unified for 38 years. "And I know how long it took me to put together my classroom, your own money that you put into things... I used to spend $2,000 to $3,000 a year on books that I used in my classroom of my own money."

Starr said there are also materials you accrue throughout the years you don't think about as valuable but need once it is gone.

"So I thought maybe one or two months into the school year it would be nice to then ask the teachers now what do you need that in the overwhelming immensity of the situation they didn't think about it but always had it," she said. "So the principal was very receptive to that."

Starr plans to create an apple tree poster with individual apples, each one listing the teachers' different room numbers and a list of what supplies they want. During two consecutive general meetings (held once a month) members will "pick" an apple off of the tree and be responsible for supplying that item.

Although Starr and Stimpson had never worked at Trace until volunteering for the cause recently, it was different for the other two members.

Powell was a consultant there under program improvement for part of a year and Edwards' wife and daughter attended Trace.

He said the day after the fire broke out, his daughter, now 34 and a teacher at Bracher Elementary School in Santa Clara Unified, came to visit the school and stood looking at the remains, crying.

Many of the strong emotional reactions have transformed into support, helping the school move forward to a better future.

"I think what's really happened is people have just forged together. I think it's a sense of purpose in this time that is such a downtrodden time," Fuqua said. "It's just been these wonderful stories that have come out of this devastation."

For more information about efforts or how to help, visit sjusd.org/school/trace.

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