Falcon Pride Takes Wing

Frazier Mountain High School Principal Anthony Saba announced on January 20 that Tejon Ranch Corporation had provided a gift of $20,000 to FMHS.

Barry Zoeller said in an email, “Tejon Ranch has been a long-time supporter of the schools in the Mountain Communities, including Frazier Mountain High School. We’ve supported a wide variety of activities and programs, from ag and athletics to Robotics and the Com- Tech academy, among many others. We’ve also funded scholarships for graduating seniors. This year, instead of responding to specific requests for support, we decided to provide the school with a block grant of $20,000 and will let school administrators decide the best use of that money. We believe school officials are in a better position to make those decisions than we are.”

“I’d like to publicly thank Mr. Zoeller and the Tejon Ranch for their continued support of Frazier Mountain High School,” Saba said. “Their recent donation will be used primarily for new athletic uniforms for the sports in need as well as classroom supplies such as laptops and projectors, affording teachers the ability to deliver instruction in new, exciting ways.”

A question was asked about whether some of the gift would be invested in reviving the FMHS “SnoBotics” Robotics Team.

“We are not using any of this donation towards robotics…. We have more pressing needs at the moment such as a lack of athletic uniforms and lack of technology in many classrooms. I’m working on securing robotics funding elsewhere,” Principal Anthony Saba said, adding “We’ll have robotics [next year] as long as we can find someone to lead the program (a goal of mine).

On January 24 Saba announced that $2,000 had been donated by Exxon toward a FMHS Robotics Team fund.

“I’ll just keep seeking donations and looking for robotics mentors,” Saba said.

—Reported by Patric Hedlund

This is part of the January 27, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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