The Carmel Valley Life team has the opportunity to go to many great events in the community; events like “Packet Pick Up Day” for the Carmel Valley 5K & Fun Run. Going to events like this we get to meet many new people and interact with people living in the same area. With “Packet Pick Up Day” we got to help highlight a community event that is making a huge impact on the schools in Carmel Valley/Del Mar, and the school district as a whole.
The Carmel Valley 5K & Fun Run is one of the events that gets the most donations for the school district. The money raised goes to the Del Mar Schools Education Foundation, which is a non-profit organization with the sole purpose to raise money to pay for the Extended Studies Curriculum (ESC) teacher salaries for the elementary schools in the district. The funds raised by the DMSEF are combined and given to the Del Mar Union School District for the ESC program. They are restricted monies and can only be used by the DMUSD to fund ESC teacher salaries. They are completely separate from the district’s allocation of other funds and cannot be reallocated or used for any other purpose than ESC. The Extended Studies Curriculum program provides instruction in subjects other than the standard reading, writing and arithmetic. These include the 5 main subject areas of Science, Music, Art, Technology, and Physical Education, but can also include subjects such as Foreign Language, Math Enrichment, Integrated Arts and Library. ESC classes in the Del Mar Union School District are taught by credentialed teachers and provide students with focused, hands-on instruction. During ESC classes the homeroom teacher also gets time to prepare lesson plans and tailor classes for students. Being able to be a part of an event that helps our community in such a great way with such a great team is overall fulfilling and it’s great to add that value to the community.