Club donates $5,000 to College View

GLENDALE — When James Sloan, captain of the Glendale Salvation Army and president of the Glendale Sunrise Rotary Club, served as principal for a day at College View school last spring, he proved to be a decisive school administrator.

During his one day on the job, Sloan noticed what he called a “glaring need” for appropriate technological equipment to serve College View’s special-needs students.

This month, Sloan presented the school with $5,000 raised by the Rotary Club to address the problem.

“What strikes me about Capt. Sloan is that he was only there for a day and he saw that there was a need that could be filled,” College View Principal Jay Schwartz said.

Schwartz said the funding from Rotary was helpful because College View does not have access to certain federal education money like Title I funds, and the school effectively cannot use funds that are restricted to textbooks since College View students don’t learn from traditional textbooks.

“I personally am overwhelmed with their generosity,” Schwartz said of the gift.

College View serves about 100 students age 3 to 22, Schwartz said. The students have a range of special cognitive, medical and physical needs that cannot be met at a general education school, she said.

The money will be used for computer hardware and software that will allow students to improve their computer skills, Schwartz said. For example, some students at College View do not grasp that a computer mouse can control a computer cursor, Schwartz said.

However, the school can purchase specialized software that demonstrates this cause-effect relationship more simply by allowing students to experience how pushing a colored button will cause a song to be played. The school can also buy hardware that will allow students to manipulate the computer with other body parts if they do not have good control of their hands, Schwartz said.

“The issue is that while they do have a great number of resources, they have individualized issues with children,” Sloan said. “The school district provides much, but they don’t provide everything.”

The donation money was raised by the 50-odd members of the club through “fines,” a kind of strongly suggested donation imposed on Rotary Club members by other club members.

The $5,000 gift is a significant amount of money for Glendale Sunrise Rotary to give to one group, Sloan said.

“It’s not typical for us to give a large sum of money, but that was the need of this organization,” said Stephen Ropfogel, a Rotary member and past president of the club. “I think the beauty of Rotary is that we have the opportunity to assess a need and fill it as best as possible.”

For Sloan, the gift was a good implementation of the Rotary motto, “Service Above Self.”

 ANGELA HOKANSON covers education. She may be reached at (818) 637-3238 or by e-mail at angelahokanson@latimes.com.