History

Project H.E.L.P. was founded in 1991 by a classroom teacher, Mike Goltzer,       who had come to believe that while the public school system was working             well for many, it was not working well enough for many others.  He knew his underperforming students needed “something more and something different”       to attain the degree of success they were capable of attaining.

Mike worked with a number of other concerned classroom teachers to brainstorm the question of what kind of educational opportunity would need be to be configured to ensure that all students were empowered to work to their full potential, regardless of their socio-economic circumstances.  It was from the collective experiences and vision of this core group of public school educators that the Project H.E.L.P. program emerged as a compelling model for early academic interventions.

Mr. Goltzer then shared the program concept with his then Congressman,       Tom Campbell, who helped champion Project H.E.L.P. as an innovative pilot program among key Silicon Valley business leaders.  As initial funding, support, and endorsement was attained and then expanded upon, it became clear that a unique community collaboration was forming around Project H.E.L.P. - which led to the launching of the program in the summer of 1991 at Ponderosa Elementary School, a school in the Santa Clara Unified School District, and located in the City of Sunnyvale.  The principal of Ponderosa, Mr. Fran Rodeo, was so impressed with the potential of the program that he stayed on as the first Project H.E.L.P. Summer term principal - even though he had just retired the previous month after having served for over 35 years as a public school educator. 

Since that time, Project H.E.L.P. has served more than 4,000 students in two school districts, continually bringing more than 80% of its program participants to grade level standards and beyond in the core academic areas of reading and mathematics.  And as the program moves into the 2008-9 school year, the agency continues to work successfully toward its operating objective of leveraging systemic change with private resources - with the ultimate goal being full-scale integration of the program into the public schools.