By Mary O’KEEFE

Tonight, Thursday night, is Rosemont Middle School’s open house and this year the event will have a different twist. In addition to open classrooms, visitors can take part in a fundraiser with some very impressive silent auction items.

“When we met with Principal Scott Anderle at the beginning of the year we asked him to reach out to the [school’s] staff and asked what they needed,” said Rosemont PTA President Jessica Sheen.

What were needed were Google Chromebooks for the classroom.

Students and teachers are expected to keep up with technology, especially in the areas of math and science. Rosemont has 10 to 15 Chromebooks carts that are in various levels of working condition.

“Unfortunately, there is no funding from the district for the Chromebooks,” Sheen said.

The only option for funding will be from parents and that is where the idea was born of the Chromebook fundraiser and silent auction, Sheen added.

Each full Chromebook cart includes 40 Chromebooks and chargers and costs about $15,000. To get all classes covered with Chromebooks would cost about $200,000. The fundraising goal of the Rosemont PTA for the open house is to raise enough money for one cart. Its ultimate goal is to equip all Rosemont core classes with a classroom set of Chromebooks carts. They are about 40% towards reaching that goal.

Rosemont PTA turned to board members Juli Black and Anna Bruck to collect silent auction items for the open house. What the pair came up with is an impressive list of goods to be auctioned off, including two sets of two front row tickets to the Rosemont promotion and two additional tickets to the promotion – each student is limited to two tickets for the event. There are two reserved parking spots in the school’s lot for the promotion as well.

“One of our top sellers has been Bergh Orthodontics. Dr. Bergh has donated a full orthodontic treatment, worth more than $6,000,” Sheen said.

Other popular items include a four-night stay in a room with an ocean view at the Four Seasons in Maui.

“Another big [item] is to drive a Tesla for 24 hours,” Sheen said. “The model will be on display at the open house.”

Sixth grade students from local elementary schools are also invited to learn about the school during the open house and take part in the fundraiser as well.

Rosemont Middle School is located at 4725 Rosemont Ave. in La Crescenta. The open house is tonight from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

  Mary Okeefe