The Westside Waldorf School’s fundraiser on Sunday fell far short of raising the nearly $100,000 needed to fund the construction of a traffic signal on Sunset Boulevard at Los Liones Drive. The total amount raised from school-sponsored raffles, auctions and donations was “somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000–but probably closer to $10,000–said the K-8’s Development Director Jeffrey Graham on Tuesday. That leaves the school roughly $85,000 short of what it must raise. “We’re still waiting for the final estimate,” Graham said. “We had a lower turnout than we had wished for, but we had a broad range of people participating. The real value [of the event] was raising awareness.” L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl was one of approximately 50 people who attended the event. Graham said that he is speaking to individual philanthropists to close the shortfall. The school plans to auction several items not sold last weekend online and at its Winter Faire this Saturday. If funds are still needed, the school will consider hosting another fundraising event next spring, Graham said. The school agreed to pay for the construction of the Sunset-Los Liones traffic signal as a condition of receiving a permanent Certificate of Occupancy from the city. Castellammare residents using Los Liones Drive complain that school traffic has made the intersection increasingly dangerous. And Castellammare homeowners as well as other community members have urged the city to withhold granting Waldorf permanent occupancy until the school completes funding the light. The school’s temporary occupancy certificate was extended this November until the end of this school year. The L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) began the first phase of the project–design–this summer after the school gave more than $50,000. The design phase is scheduled to be complete by spring, according to Graham. Keeping the signal on track to be completed by September 2008, as planned, will depend on the success of Waldorf fundraising. LADOT estimates total project’s cost will be $350,000. Construction is expected to account for $270,000 of the total cost. The Waldorf School originally estimated that the total cost of the project would be $200,000. That estimate was inaccurate because it did not account for building concrete sidewalks and grading, according to LADOT. Last January, the K-8 school moved from Santa Monica to the site of the former Santa Ynez Inn and Transcendental Meditation Center. Based on Waldorf’s original faulty estimate, it had set aside $50,000 and received a $150,000 commitment from the Getty Villa Community Relations Committee. That committee will still donate $150,000 toward the signal once Waldorf completes fundraising, Graham said. Councilman Bill Rosendahl has said he will use district funds to pay the difference between the final costs of construction and the $300,000 paid by Waldorf and the Getty Committee. That difference is estimated to be around $50,000. —– To contact Staff Writer Max Taves, e-mail reporter@palipost.com or call (310) 454-1321 ext. 28.
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