Donations from the Pechanga Development Corp. will help purchase varsity uniforms for players at Murrieta Mesa High School, buy music and scripts for Lakeside High School's band, dance and drama programs and support ninth-grade orientation at Chaparral High School in Temecula.

Southwest Riverside County high schools have come to rely on the annual donations from Pechanga, which date to the 1998-99 school year. This year, most schools received $35,000, with Murrieta Mesa receiving $30,000 because it is new and doesn't have a full student body yet.

The money has helped schools provide academic, athletic and extracurricular services that schools otherwise couldn't afford with the state's budget crisis, school leaders said.
"It absolutely is saving programs," Lake Elsinore Unified Superintendent Frank Passarella said.

Most years, tribal leaders have written checks to the high schools in Lake Elsinore, Temecula and Murrieta, giving school officials free rein to spend the money as they saw fit.

But after more than a decade of donations, Pechanga took a different tack this year: Tribal leaders asked the schools to apply for funding and include in their applications more details about how money has been used in the past and would be used this year.

 
Murrieta Valley High School junior Ben McLellan, left, and sophomore Cliff Moss work on a robotics project. The robotics program is aided by Pechanga Development Corp. donations.

The move was prompted, in part, by concerns that some schools had moved away from the tribe's goals for the money and were spending on things it wasn't intended for, such as food for staff meetings, said Jacob Mejia, a Pechanga spokesman. Information from the applications will help tribal leaders better understand how the money benefits students.

"With the downturn (of the economy) it makes you do a little step back and look at how things are going," Mejia said.

NEED IS EVIDENT
For the most part, the applications and site visits demonstrated how much the schools need Pechanga's help and appreciate the relationship, he said.
"That was the loud message we heard," he added.

Murrieta Valley Principal Renate Jefferson said her school would use some of the money to buy computers, some to help send the school's choir go to a major competition in Chicago and some to provide support for programs such as robotics and Model United Nations.

"Lots of different areas are going to be touched by this," Jefferson said in thanking Pechanga during a school board meeting last week, "and we are really grateful for the donation."

At Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore, the aid from Pechanga is helping students take band trips and travel to student leadership conferences they might not otherwise be able to afford, Principal Jason Moscowitz said in an e-mail.
"Some of the activities and competitions our students gain access to through this partnership are instrumental in giving our students the confidence needed to succeed," he said. "On more than one occasion I have had students ... come back to share that it was the first time they had left Elsinore."

Tribal leaders also were able to identify some additional, non-monetary ways they could support schools, such as a donation of $3,700 worth of pots and pans to Murrieta Mesa's new culinary arts program and used printers to another school's electronic waste recycling fundraiser, Mejia said.

School officials also indicated they would like to have Pechanga leaders share more about the tribe's history with students and tap into the expertise of employees at the resort and casino by having them speak about working in the hospitality industry. Some of that has begun to happen now, Mejia said.

Reach Michelle L. Klampe at 951-375-3740 or mklampe@PE.com
Cash for local schools Since the 1998-1999 school year, the Pechanga Development Corp. has made annual donations to high schools in Lake Elsinore, Murrieta and Temecula. Here are the total donations to each school:

Temecula Valley High: $420,000
Great Oak High: $270,000
Chaparral High: $380,000
Murrieta Valley High: $400,000
Vista Murrieta High: $270,000
Murrieta Mesa High: $30,000
Elsinore High: $400,000
Temescal Canyon High: $380,000
Lakeside High: $220,000
Source: Pechanga development Corp.