Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste, Dec. 12, 2017. | Photo: Stephen K. Peeples

iLEAD Schools and SCVi, iLEAD’s founding school, will honor Santa Clarita City Councilmember Laurene Weste with its “Vision in Education” award at its annual benefit dinner March 9.

The award recognizes a community leader who has made significant contributions to public education and has demonstrated extraordinary vision and dedication in supporting and expanding educational opportunities.

The event will be held from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. on March 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia.

Weste, a six-term Council member, began serving on the Santa Clarita City Council in 1998 and served as the city’s mayor in 2018. She has served as a Commissioner for the City Parks and Recreation Commission, a role in which she oversaw the creation of numerous parks, the preservation of thousands of acres of open space, and the construction of a cross-town trail system. As a Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Advisory Board Member, she led efforts to save and preserve historic 800-acre Mentryville, the first oil town in California. She also served as Director of the Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging.

“For decades, Laurene Weste has worked to make Santa Clarita a better place to live, and her support of SCVi has been instrumental in helping us grow,” said Kenchy Ragsdale, President of the Scarlet Foundation, which is hosting the event. “Her extraordinary career is rife with examples of how leadership and hard work can change the world around us, and makes her a natural fit for our Vision in Education award.”

iLEAD, a network of free, public charter schools across California, Hawaii and the Midwest, will also honor SCVi facilitators Deja Munn and June Enich with its Founder’s Vision Award, and parent Kelly Mehr and her family will receive the Founder’s Family Vision award.

For more information about iLEAD’s benefit dinner, contact Kenchy Ragsdale at (323) 253-6249 or visit https://visionineducation.org/scvi/.