\u00a0<\/p>\n
by Mark McDermott<\/p>\n
\u00a0The 32nd Annual Manhattan Wine Auction on June 6 raised a record $2 million for Manhattan Beach public schools, a 43 percent increase over last year\u2019s event and the largest single-night total in the auction\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The dramatic jump was driven in part by the public launch of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation\u2019s Grow $5 Million in Five Years campaign, an effort to expand the MBEF Endowment as a long-term funding source for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The campaign\u2019s launch Paddle Raise generated $800,000 in pledges, banking 16 percent of the five-year target in a single night.<\/p>\n
\u00a0A second $800,000 came from the silent and live auctions, which featured more than 700 bottles of wine, luxury travel experiences, dining packages, and entertainment lots. More than 2,500 guests filled the Manhattan Country Club for the sold-out event.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cFrom the moment guests arrived, there was a palpable sense of excitement, optimism, and shared purpose,\u201d said Hilary Mahan, MBEF Executive Director. \u201cOur community didn\u2019t just show up \u2014 they engaged, connected, celebrated, and invested in the future of our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Mahan said the energy throughout the night was higher than at any previous Wine Auction she has witnessed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really stemmed from a community that needed to see good done,\u201d she said. \u201cThey needed to witness what change can mean and what impact can mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evening\u2019s signature moment was the presentation of the 2026 MBEF Legacy Award to Rich Weiss, who has served on the MBEF and MBEF Endowment boards for 22 years and has been the volunteer Chief Investment Officer of the Endowment for most of that time. Weiss, a 43-year veteran of the investment management industry and Chief Investment Officer of the Multi-Asset Strategies division at American Century Investments, drafted the Endowment\u2019s original Investment Policy Statement, led the $20 Million by 2020 campaign that grew the fund past that milestone, and was the architect of the structural decision to dedicate Wine Auction proceeds specifically to the Endowment.<\/p>\n
In introducing Weiss, MBEF Endowment President Roger Spencer noted that Weiss\u2019s commitment extends well beyond board service and financial stewardship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether donating wine to the Wine Auction, leading volunteer efforts, hanging signs at every table at the Wine Auction every year for 20-plus years, or just stepping in quietly whenever help is needed, Rich embodies the spirit that we honor tonight,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cRich Weiss represents the very best of Manhattan Beach. For more than two decades, he has combined vision, expertise, and an unwavering dedication to public education. His legacy will be measured by the opportunities he created and the generations of students whose lives will be enriched because of his foresight and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weiss accepted the honor in characteristic form.<\/p>\n
\u201cRich Weiss \u2014 holy shit, I would love to meet that guy,\u201d he opened, to laughter. \u201cI\u2019m obviously honored, but more than honored, grateful. My wife Ginny is here, and two of my three daughters. We\u2019ve been living here 40 years. We got married here, our kids went through the school system, and we just feel very lucky for all that the Ed Foundation and the Wine Auction has done for us as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weiss then redirected the room\u2019s attention toward two people he said the audience should know.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a village to put this together,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about dozens, hundreds, thousands of people over literally decades. But allow me to call out two people who I think you need to know. If you\u2019re wondering how all this started, there are obviously a group of people, but if you want to point to the big bang of the Wine Auction \u2014 who literally started it 31 years ago \u2014 he\u2019s right there. Brad Jones. The father of the Wine Auction. Joan is right next to him. You would be hard put to find two people who\u2019ve done more for this community than those two.\u201d [He was referring to Joan Jones, who, along with her former husband Brad Jones, is a past MBEF legacy honoree.]\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second person Weiss singled out was Manhattan Beach City Attorney Quinn Barrow, who recruited him to MBEF two decades ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gentleman who invited me to volunteer to this cause is my good friend Quinn Barrow,\u201d Weiss said. \u201cQuinn, by the way, is also the city attorney for Manhattan Beach. So anybody who has an unpaid parking ticket \u2014 he\u2019s like the Nucky Thompson of Manhattan Beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weiss\u2019s deflection of credit echoed throughout the night, but it did not stop the community from giving in his name. Mahan said the \u201cFriends of Rich\u201d effect generated more than $150,000 in gifts during the Paddle Raise from supporters honoring Weiss, plus a $50,000 personal contribution from Weiss himself.<\/p>\n
Major commitments to the Endowment campaign came from Chevron, the Bay Club, the GG Foundation, and numerous individual donors. Founding Sponsor Chevron, along with JP Morgan, Kirkland & Ellis, and OrthoArizona, served as major event sponsors. The Bay Club, which owns the Manhattan Country Club, again hosted the event without charge and underwrote a significant portion of the operating costs.<\/p>\n
Forty-five restaurants and more than 80 wineries, breweries, and distilleries served and poured. Local favorites including The Strand House, Love & Salt, Baleen Kitchen, and Fishing with Dynamite, were joined by newcomers The Butchery, Tiki Kai, and Tipsy Falcon. The exclusive Reserve Room welcomed 500 guests for premium culinary experiences and rare wine tastings from labels including Bevan Cellars, Dakota Shy, and Somnium. Best of Wine Auction honors went to Uncorked for wineries, Stecca Taverna for restaurants \u2014 its second consecutive win \u2014 and Saint Rhum for breweries, distilleries, and other beverages.<\/p>\n
The $2 million raised at this year\u2019s event will flow primarily to the MBEF Endowment, which currently provides $1.4 million annually toward MBEF\u2019s grant to MBUSD \u2014 about 18 percent of the foundation\u2019s overall $8 million commitment for the 2026-27 school year. MBEF has now contributed more than $130 million to Manhattan Beach public schools since its founding in 1983.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s record was set against the most severe budget pressures MBUSD has faced in a generation. In March, the Board of Education preliminarily authorized the reduction of up to 58.85 full-time positions. By May 6, after early retirements, MBEF class size reduction grants, and additional state funding filled gaps, the reductions came down to 32.25 FTE \u2014 with the foundation explicitly credited by the district for pulling that number down. More layoffs are expected to be rescinded in the weeks ahead as the Governor\u2019s May Revise \u2014 which projected as much as $15.6 billion in additional K-12 funding statewide for 2026-27 \u2014 works its way through the Legislature, and as the district moves to lower its Reserve for Economic Uncertainty.<\/p>\n
That MBEF support was anchored in the foundation\u2019s annual appeal, which had already set a record before the year\u2019s deepening budget crisis prompted MBEF to extend the campaign in pursuit of additional funds. The original $7.636 million commitment was itself the largest single-year grant in MBEF\u2019s 43-year history and the direct source of the class size reduction grants the district credited at its May 6 board meeting. The extension is now expected to push the foundation\u2019s total 2026-27 grant to roughly $8 million.<\/p>\n
The MBEF board has voted to hold that additional $400,000 raised through the extension until the state\u2019s final budget for the year is settled, Mahan said. If MBUSD receives additional state funding sufficient to address class size, the foundation will direct its surplus toward enrichment programs rather than gap-filling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to ensure that we\u2019re really impacting student learning in the best way possible,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cClass size certainly is important, and we know how high of a priority it is for everyone \u2014 our stakeholders, our teachers, our families, and students as well. But we also recognize that we can\u2019t always be there to fill the gap, and timing is everything here. So if we\u2019re able to focus this last $400,000 on more enrichment, then we\u2019re going to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Mahan, what the night signified beyond its fundraising total was a community choosing to invest in long-term sustainability at exactly the moment it would have been easiest to retreat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my sense \u2014 that the success of our annual appeal and the success of the Wine Auction is even more impactful than any other year because of the challenges we\u2019ve had and because of the challenges our district is going through,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat this says to me is that people believe in MBEF and understand we are separate from the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, and we are dedicated and committed and successful at doing our job. That belief in our efforts is shining through now in a time when it could have been the exact opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could have been the time period for MBEF and for the Wine Auction that really was more challenged and failed at doing what we\u2019d hoped to do, because people might have felt unempowered or disengaged and disheartened. But I\u2019m really proud of what we were able to do.\u201d ER\u00a0<\/p>\n
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