Foundation gift to M-A of $440,000 breaks record Foundation gift to M-A of $440,000 breaks record (June 22, 2005)

Menlo-Atherton High School is on track to be given at least $440,000 from the Foundation for the Future, the group that brings together parents, alumni and teachers to raise funds for the school.

The fundraising campaign continues through August, but the current total breaks a record, said Angela McIntire, the foundation's director of development.

M-A's four-year-old robotics program, begun and augmented with foundation funding, won distinction this year in regional contests with a first place in one championship and a design-excellence award in another. The team advanced to the nationals for the first time and made it as far as the semi-finals.

"M-A's robotics team illustrates what we do best," said foundation president Sue Fitch. "The synergy between M-A's faculty and the foundation keeps a lot of campus programs alive and growing, despite the state's educational funding crisis."

Among those programs are intensified English composition assignments, advanced-placement classes in French and biology, an engineering class, a foreign language department chair, music instruction and purchase of instruments for a new guitar course, new technology, academic and college counseling, and community outreach.

For more information on the foundation, call Angela McIntire at 322-5311, extension 5206.

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