At the July 17th meeting of the Bear Valley Unified School District, the Governing Board unanimously agreed to approve a resolution to donate 213 acres of real property to the Bear Valley Unified School District Education Foundation, an independent, non-profit 501c3 organization. The plot of land, which runs adjacent to Big Bear High School, was donated to the school district in September 2018 by property developers RCK Properties, Inc. This donation to the Education Foundation will allow for more effective development of the property for outdoor educational and recreational use. The School District Governing Board action is pending approval of IRS form 1023 for tax exempt status for the Education Foundation. The Education Foundation Board accepted this donation at their July 24th meeting, again, pending the tax exemption status. According to Foundation President, Steve Foulkes, there is a three step process involving the IRS tax exemption, California State certification and County verification before the process will be complete. Plans to develop the property will not begin until the tax exempt process is completed pushing out the timeline for the first step of building trails to Spring 2020. Foulkes added, “We are excited about the collaborative effort between the Foundation and the community for improvement of the property for community and student use. We appreciate the efforts of the Big Bear Valley Trails Foundation in recognizing the new trails opportunities this land provides to the community.”
