Celebrating 30 Years Supporting Excellence in Education

This year, Dublin Partners in Education (DPIE) is proud to celebrate 30 years of supporting public education in the city of Dublin. In that time, there has been tremendous growth in Dublin which has seen the number of citizens living here grow from 25,000 to almost 60,000 and the school district grew from 5,000 to almost 13,000 students in 2022.

This growth has presented the Dublin Unified School District (DUSD) leaders and our City Managers with their fair share of challenges over the years, however, the fundamental goal of DPIE as an organization has remained the same; to provide financial support to the school district and help create better schools for Dublin students and families.

With that goal in mind, DPIE has raised more than $2,000,000 in support of public education in Dublin over the last 30 years.

DPIE Founded as a Grass Roots Effort

Former Dublin Mayor, Guy Houston, was one of the founding fathers of DPIE and was part of the committee of business, school district, civic and community leaders that filed non-profit 501C3 incorporation papers on March 7th, 1992, that founded DPIE as a grass roots effort to support and grow education in the city of Dublin.

Guy Houston

“Good Schools = Good Business”

Asked to explain why DPIE was founded, Guy said, “in 1992, Dublin was new as a city and we were struggling to create and establish ourselves as a community. Everyone understands that good schools equal good business. 

When I became Mayor and we were trying to attract new businesses and create jobs in our community, the first thing businesses asked about was the quality of our schools.” 

“Good schools make a difference and DPIE was founded to help our school district compete in the Tri-Valley and to help educate students to eventually fill the jobs we were creating in the City of Dublin.

DPIE’s articles of incorporation state that DPIE’s purpose is “to foster and coordinate community-based partnerships to assist Dublin Schools to provide a progressive, coordinated and structured program for all students which enables them to prepare for future careers.”  

A History of Community Support

Don Biddle

Over the years, many well-known community and business leaders have served on the DPIE Board of Directors or as champions of DPIE activities. Board Members included - former Dublin Mayors - Janet Lockhart and Tim Sbranti, former City Council Member - Don Biddle, Chevron Executive - Roz Perazzo, Sybase Vice President - Alcina Zebrzydowka, Timpson & Garcia LLC Partner - Bill Moy (who still serves as Treasurer on the Board today), Dublin Bowling Center Proprietor - Ted Hoffman, as well as current Dublin City Manager - Linda Smith just to name a few.

Former Alameda County Supervisor - Scott Haggerty, was an avid champions of DPIE programs over the years and have played active roles in helping raise thousands of dollars to support DPIE fundraising efforts like Celebrity Waiter and the Art Auction.

DPIE Changed With the Times

As a Dublin parent and business-woman, Chris Bennett, served on the DPIE Board for 17 years. Explaining her long-time involvement on the board Chris said, “DPIE began by focusing its effort on fundraising to support programs in the School District. Our goal was to meet the un-met needs of students in the schools.”

She remembers with fondness the Annual Art Exhibition and Auction, which was a year-long fundraising effort “which perfectly captured DPIE’s sweet spot by supporting art education with supplies and volunteers in the schools, bringing recognition to our students for their work and raising needed funds to continue doing good work in our schools,” explained Chris.

DPIE Student Art Displayed at Stoneridge Mail in 2010.

DPIE activities changed as the needs of the district and our community continued to grow and evolve. Over the years, DPIE introduced and funded many different programs as requested by the DUSD.

2005 - Created a Teacher Grant Program - For nearly 20 years, DPIE focused its fundraising efforts on raising money to support teacher initiatives at all schools in the district. Dublin teachers were asked to submit grant proposals to support projects in their classrooms or at their school.  Great effort was put into collecting those grant requests and a committee of community leaders reviewed them and it was not unusual for DPIE to fund up to $50,000 annually to help teachers.

2010 - Funded Career Education – Working in partnership with DUSD leadership, DPIE funded annual career education programs at all Dublin middle schools and Valley High School. These program still exist to this day.

2012 - Established the DPIE Summer Academy – At the request of then Dublin Superintendent of Schools, Steve Hanke, DPIE established a summer academic academy to help students accelerate their academic programs and better prepare them to compete for college admissions. At it’s peak, more than 550 Dublin students enrolled in the program and the Summer Academy is still running today.

2015 - Introduced the After School Enrichment Program – As a result of a series of meetings with elementary PFC's and parent leaders in the district, DPIE piloted an After School Enrichment Program at Dougherty Elementary School in the Fall of the 2015-2016 school year with 6 course offerings and 86 students enrolled.  In just two years, the program grew to all eight elementary schools in the DUSD and this Spring we had 1,166 students enrolled in 74 courses on campuses.

In the last 6 years, DPIE has donated more than $106,000 back to Dublin elementary schools and their PFC’s for their support of the Enrichment Program.

2017 – Funded PSAT & SAT Testing at the Dublin High School – At school district request, DPIE provided the needed funds so all students at Dublin High School could take PSAT and SAT tests in their home school at no expense to parents.

2020 – Donated $150,00 Technology Grant – The funds were used to help DUSD meet their goal of one chromebook for every child.  A total of 540 chromebooks and 15 chromebook carts. One cart and 36 chromebooks were allocated to each school in the district and 4 carts and 144 chromebooks were provided to Dublin High School in support of student learning.

2021 – Established $100,000 Scholarship Foundation – The DPIE Board, with the help of a $50,000 grant from former Alameda County Supervisor, Scott Haggerty, a gift of $2,500 from Chevron USA and $47,000 raised by DPIE in fundraising activities, established a foundation to support the annual awards of four scholarships to graduating seniors from Dublin and Valley High Schools totaling $7,000.

“10 Years is an Achievement, 30 Years is a Testament to Leadership, Vision & Community”

Former Dublin Mayor, Guy Houston