How to raise $25K per year

According to City of Sunnyvale's Associate Planner Noren Caliva, the city will receive in the order of $25K per year from AT&T for the use of the land on SMS grounds to site the 65 foot tall Cell Phone Tower.

Lets look at the 3 most important questions about the money issue in this case:
1. Isn't $25K a lot of money?
2. Isn't this free money that AT&T is giving SMS?
3. Can we raise $25K on our own if we turn AT&T down? How?


1. Isn't $25K a lot of money?

First of all, $25K can be a lot of money depending how you look at it. Everything is a matter of perspective. What can $25K buy?

1. 15 new iMac computers, or
2. 65% of a teacher with 1-4 years of experience ($38K per year according to payscale.com),
3. infrastructural and technology improvements for the school,
4. PTA sponsored after school programs.

The real questions to ask are:

A. Is this money taxable? How much is left after tax?
B. How much of the money goes to SMS? How much goes to the whole school district?
C. What control SMS has over the money?
D. How much of this money will go to PTA to be spent directly on the students?

I suspect that the Sunnyvale School District will divvy up the money among other schools in the district. Not all schools are in the same financial state. SMS, Cumberland and Cherry Chase are in better shape than other schools in the SSD. These schools have great parent participation and the parents have always found ways to support after school programs with money from walkathons and direct drives. The same unfortunately cannot be said for the other schools in the district.

If you were the Superintendent, what would you do, when your job is to show that your district has great schools and great test scores? Would you let a few schools go way ahead of the others? Sooner or later, the SSD will say SMS is getting this extra $25K compared to other schools, so SMS should get less funding for years to come.

There are precedence that the schools are not getting the whole of the lease money from companies.

If the money does not go directly to the PTA or the school, which in this case will have to go through the city, the school or the PTA will have no say in where the money will go, if the money does come at all. It might even go to the pay increase of the Superintendent and school district office for all we know. It might be upgrading infrastructures that we don't need, etc. (We all know that there are funny businesses in all school districts and organizations which is why the budget and financial reports are so hard to locate.) There will be little control over how the money is spent within SMS. The PTA may even be told to still raise all the money it needs.


2. Isn't this free money that AT&T is giving SMS?

Nothing is free in this world.

By paying $25K a year, AT&T gets 35'x15' area of the school ground to put its tower and equipment plus easement access.

$25K divided by (35'x15') == $48 per square foot.

Wow, what a bargain compared to renting antenna space from Crown Castle's Cell Phone Tower at South Bernardo Drive live Verizon and others!! And AT&T will be able to increase its power at will and charge other carriers who want to have a piece of the tower. Perhaps this is what the AT&T rep means by "anticipating the future". A win-win situation without a doubt.


On the other hand, it is a lose-lose situation for SMS.

A. SMS students and faculty become Lab Rats for the radiofrequency emission from the tower as we all know and have concerns about.
B. Noise and other distractions cause by AT&T constructions and maintenance. There will be more than just the 525 square feet being used while these are underway.
C. Security issues. With the easement, AT&T can come and go as it desires. Now when the teachers and students and even the good neighbors see people loitering around the school campus in that area, they can no longer call the police department to check these people out. What is stopping people from wearing AT&T uniforms (do they even wear uniforms or do they only have badges?) and breaching our school grounds?

Schools are second homes to children. Children must be safe and feel safe when they are at school. The school, school district, city council members and all those making decisions have to be responsible for our children when they are in the school grounds.


3. Can we raise $25K on our own if we turn AT&T down? How?


Forget parcel tax, Cell Phone Towers and all the proposals done by the city. Only a fraction of the money will be seen within the schools.

A. Be self-sufficient and be 100% in control of SMS PTA's money:

$25K divide by 1000 (students in SMS) == $30 per family (assuming some multiple children families).

At the beginning of the school year, collect $30 from each family (or maybe $10 per additional child). What is $30 per family?

i) less than 1 month cell phone service, or
ii) less than 1 dinner out, or
iii) 1 new shirt, 1 pair of new pants, or
iv) 1 pair of new shoes, or
v) 1 DS game

B. Ask for corporate sponsors:

Write to Cisco, Facebook, Google, Intel, etc and explain the situation to them. I bet you they will come running to sponsor the school without asking for anything in return! It is great publicity for them to "save the school from being invaded by Cell Phone Towers". In return SMS can print the corporate logo on a small part of the shirts. Now, this is as close to free money as one can get!


Do we really want to find out that FCC is as wrong as the surgeon generals who had allowed leaded gasoline to be sold for more than 50 years? (About Lead Poisoning)


For the sake of our children's health and safety, don't let $25K per year make you turn a blind eye to AT&T's Cell Phone Tower.

We all want the best for our children. There are other ways to raise the money. Yes, it requires sacrifices. But these sacrifices are small compared to risking our children for our own greed for money and cell phone coverage.

Let us err on the precautionary side. As we always tell our children, "measure twice, cut once".