School donors’ silence worth $20 million

Jeff Benson

Two Newport Beach residents have given at least $20 million to local

schools during the last 10 years. And they did it without any

fanfare.

David and Monica Gelbaum long had asked for anonymity as they gave

gifts of hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or even more -- many

times in the past decade. Former Ensign Intermediate School Principal

Scott Paulsen said he honored the requests, but when he learned their

names would be printed elsewhere, he wanted the Newport-Mesa

community to know first. Paulsen said he was a principal for at least

one of their children before he retired from Ensign in 1994.

The Gelbaums could not be reached for comment, and Paulsen said

the couple still preferred not to be recognized for their generosity.

“They have been remarkably generous to this community,” he said.

“We’re just one of many projects they’re involved in. I’m sure

they’re involved in things everywhere.”

School officials have used their money to create new jobs, to buy

equipment and to establish science programs, extracurricular clubs

and grants districtwide and in Santa Ana, Paulsen said.

The couple’s first donation of $200,000 to Ensign Intermediate

School provided the school with state-of-the-art science labs,

technological capability and an extracurricular science/nature club,

Paulsen said. To this day, they’ve given graciously and anonymously

to other schools on a regular basis.

The unheralded couple later donated a combined $2 million to

Woodland and Kaiser schools for miscellaneous school projects, and

another million to Costa Mesa’s youth centers, Save Our Youth and the

Shalimar Learning Center. The Gelbaums also established “facilitator”

positions at several district schools and created additional English

as a second language classes at Newport Harbor High School, Paulsen

said.

Newport-Mesa Supt. Robert Barbot said anonymous donors commonly

contribute to the district’s schools but usually do it through one of

14 school foundations, not through the schools themselves.

Barbot added that the district probably did collect $20 million or

more in contributions over the 10-year span, though he’s not certain

that the Gelbaums are the only ones namelessly emptying their

pockets.

“Anonymous donors do a very good job for all the right reasons,”

he said. “We’ve definitely had generous donors give to our math and

science programs. But the problem is that I don’t know if it’s one

person or 30.”

Ensign Principal Ed Wong said his school has received $140,000

over the last two years from an unknown source. The money, Wong said,

has paid for the school’s entire science program, its scholarships,

its field trips, its Nature Academy and equipment and supplies.

“The people are saints, whoever it is,” Wong said. “All the stuff

they’ve been doing for the kids in the Newport-Mesa school district

for years and years. I mean, the stuff that’s not consumable should

be around for years to follow, and this has helped education for many

children. More power to them. God bless them.”

Much of the money was split between the district and Santa Ana

schools, Paulsen said. The elementary schools were encouraged to

improve existing science programs, to create after-school science

clubs and to find ways to raise test scores, and some schools paid

the salaries for their first school/community coordinators. The

coordinators were hired to make school life easier for minority and

non-English-speaking students, he said.

* JEFF BENSON is the news assistant and may be reached at (949)

574-4298 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.