This year we tried something a little different with the Keep Excellent Education Programs (KEEP) campaign, and we're grateful for how the community embraced it. The campaign slogan was Every Family, Every Gift. Instead of anchoring the annual fundraising campaign to a dollar target, participation was the goal. A lot of families giving something is a healthier foundation than relying on any one segment of donors. We also asked families to share their priorities, helping the L

KEEP Campaign Update: Where Your Dollars Are Going Thanks to this community's incredible generosity, LPEF has raised over $255,000, with significant corporate matches still coming in. Here's a look at what that means for our kids, and what's possible if we keep going. Tier 1: Our Foundation The community spoke loud and clear in our priorities survey, and the LPEF Board listened. With donations received to date, LPEF is able to grant funds to support the following for the 202

Published in the March 2026 issue of the Mountain Network News. This fall, 37 families took the time to complete LPEF’s community survey about our annual Keep Excellent Education Programs (KEEP) campaign. Responses were well distributed from kinder through middle school. The feedback was candid, thoughtful, and incredibly helpful. When families were asked which priorities should be protected even in lean years, two stood far above the rest: arts and music & small class sizes

“We wore trash bags a lot of the time,” says 8th grader Peter Ematrudo. The K-8 art teacher, Helen O'Dea, recently challenged C.T. English students to reimagine an aging mural behind the gym. Students designed a new vision, projected their digital image onto the wall, and brought it to life with paint. The project taught valuable lessons in design, symbolism, collaboration, and production—all while creating a stunning piece of art the school will enjoy for years to come. (Nex

Last December, the Holiday Tree Lighting moved to the Community Center near Building Blocks and launched what looks like it's going to stick as a new mountain tradition. Neighbors showed up in droves for hot cocoa, holiday music, and twinkling lights—proof that sometimes all we need is a reason and a place to gather. A Mountain Effort Last year, Scott Green saw an opportunity to improve the tree lighting and took it upon himself to purchase and install the lights (and all the