Category Archives: Schools

Local private schools expand enrollment and facilities

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While the public schools continue to struggle with declining enrollment and budgetary crises, some local private schools — like San Roque and El Montecito — are expanding, adding more grades and additional real estate to their offerings.

San Roque School expands to high school

San Roque School will offer a full course of classes for 9th and 10th grade students at its new campus at 2300 Garden St. beginning in the fall. Dubbed as one of the first progressive high schools in the area, San Roque plans to expand its offerings at the new campus through 12th grade by the time the 10th grade class gets there, said Headmaster Mike Hagan.

“There are a lot of educators out there that are very frustrated by a confining system that is based on politics and adult agendas and not necessarily on research and solid theory about how children or people engage with learning,” said Hagen, emphasizing the child-originated, teacher-framed curriculum philosophy which drives all of the programs at San Roque,

“This … is a really unique opportunity to have to only be accountable to what is best for children,” he said. “When we leave here, every decision we make is how does this benefit children? How does this help facilitate their emotional, their intellectual development? … And behind every decision, whether it’s the height of a sink that has water that is going to be filtered in it, so it’s safe, to the choice of personnel and materials that will help children stay excited about learning.”

At San Roque, rigorous academics are incorporated into real life experiences. For example, in a recent production of Into the Woods, students trained for the performance with theatrical actors and vocal coaches and had a small professional orchestra accompany the performance.

“If we give that idea to children that we’ll always give them the best help that we can, then they feel real important and they do their really best work,” said music director Donna Massello-Chiacos.

“They feel like professionals, they are actors. They’re not learning, about drama. They are actually participating so that they learn about the work of professionals and how professionals go about it and then they engage in that work,” said Hagen.

El Montecito School begins offering junior high

Building one grade at time, El Montecito School is adding a 7th grade to its upper school campus at 632 E. Canon Perdido St. in the fall. The plan is to go up to 8th grade, said Headmaster Jeannine Morgan.

Parents and students don’t want to leave, said Morgan. “We feel like we’re a big family. … Because we’re a Christian school we can build character and we can do things other people can’t do. … Our little motto is, ‘Where Character Meets Wisdom,’ and we have the privilege of really being able to do it in a unique way because we can really respond to absolutes, you know, what’s right and what’s wrong.”

The preschool program, which began in 1958, is critical to the whole school’s success, Morgan said. “Our key is not only that character meets wisdom but we also want to teach kids how to love learning and the younger you get them the easier that is to do. It’s a fantastic foundation for whenever they leave, wherever they go.”

The older kids love to interact with the young ones, and Morgan said they facilitate that whenever possible. For example, “last year the 6th graders … earned a reward from their teacher and they asked if they could come spend time in the preschool. … They played games with them and they read stories with them … they just love being with them. … This year’s 6th graders are writing creative stories and when they are done with their stories they’re going to bring them and they are going to share them in the preschool classrooms.”

Ideally, she would like to combine the lower school (now housed at 1455 East Valley Road in Montecito) and the upper school into one campus. They’ve been actively looking for a site, but real estate is expensive and hard to come by and Morgan wants to make sure that any expansion is done with sensitivity.

“We’re carefully taken steps of growth to make sure that its not going to jeopardize any other part of the program that we have. What the key for us is that we don’t lose what we have in any growth step. We want to continue with who we are and what we have, with anything that we do.”

For more information about El Montecito School, call 969.1482 or visit www.elmontecito.org. For more information about San Roque School, call 697.3717 ext. 128.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on April 7, 2005.

Co-ops keep costs low, but you’ll have to work for it

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U.S. Air National Guard photo by SMSgt. David H. Lipp/Released, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

U.S. Air National Guard photo by SMSgt. David H. Lipp/Released, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

“There’s nothing like the parent co-ops to really educate parents and to support parents,” said Diane Gonzalez, assistant director of San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop, one of four cooperative preschools on the South Coast.

All four parent-child workshop programs — Lou Grant, Starr King, the Oaks and San Marcos — are part of Santa Barbara City College’s continuing education program. Each serves as a parent education program with a preschool program for 2- to-5 year-olds as a laboratory.

“It’s a great environment,” said Gonzalez, who was also a parent at Starr King. “I really found it such a supportive environment and so important to my parenting. … It’s what got me into child care and working with children, but also with parents, I found it such an incredibly supportive experience, and I don’t think I would have been the parent I was if I hadn’t been to co-ops.”

Costs are low — ranging from about $25 to $125 a month, depending on the school and how many days a week a child attends — but parental participation requirements are high. Parents must participate in the workshops at least one day a week and attend a weekly evening class in child growth and development and parenting skills.

“It’s not the kind of program that meets everybody’s needs,” said Bea Hamlin, director of the San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop, and a former co-op parent.

“I don’t think any school exists that 100 percent meets everybody’s needs. No matter how much you like it; it just doesn’t work that way.”

But for the families that can make it work, co-ops provide great parent education, as well as the foundation for many lifelong friendships.

“We’re really a family here,” said Gonzalez. “We work together and then we fund raise and we eat together.

“It really does become a very close-knit group of people, more than you’re going to find at a regular school.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 30, 2005.

Bea Hamlin: Teaching a lifetime of learning

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Courtesy photo.

Picture a career full of hugs, finger paint and playing dress-up. Then imagine the rewards of teaching high school students about the wonders of child development. Finally, visualize the privilege of being able to educate adults to be better parents.

As director of the San Marcos Parent-Child Workshop, Bea Hamlin has had the multiple pleasures of that job since 1969.

Hamlin, who will retire at the end of the school year, recently reflected on her years at the cooperative preschool, the only one of its kind to serve as a working laboratory for high school students studying child development.

“It’s not a job for sissies,” laughed Hamlin, who started with the program in 1967 as a parent, with her daughter, Julia, attending the preschool.

One of the most rewarding things has been watching her students grow up.

“It’s amazing. People end up in all kind of fields and in sports,” she said, citing Dos Pueblos swimmers Rachel Rys and Michael Bowen and coach Danelle Little, all of whom she taught in preschool.

The co-op parents have also stayed active.

“They have been … the yeast for lots of good things in the community,” she said.

“If they’re that involved, then they’re probably going to be involved for a long time.”

Co-op parents — who are enrolled in a Wednesday night adult education class that Hamlin teaches at Santa Barbara City College, and also teach at the preschool one day a week — are known as great volunteers in the community.

“We train them early,” she said.

And she must have trained them well. Former parents, preschoolers and high schoolers alike had nothing but praise for “Teacher Bea,” as she’s known on campus.

“Teacher Bea encourages us all to grow and learn, to spread our wings and dance, fly, wander, stop here, investigate there and thoroughly love this process of life with small butterflies,” was one of the tributes honoring Hamlin at a recent school fund-raiser.

“Bea Hamlin is so delightful personally — a warm and wonderful woman who has dedicated herself to helping parents understand, appreciate and raise their children within a happy family to become self-fulfilled and confident adults,” said Anne Cameron, SBCC director of educational programs, and Hamlin’s supervisor.

“I simply adore her.”

Lea Blackburn, director of SBCC’s Kinko’s Early Learning Center, will become the new San Marcos director in the fall, Cameron said.

Q&A with Bea Hamlin

What was the hardest lesson YOU’VE HAD TO learn? Trial by fire when I first started. I had just come from being a parent in the group and assumed the directorship, and I think that having people’s impression of me changing from parent to teacher was very difficult.

NAME one crazy moment: The day someone brought a goat for show-and-tell. We had two baby goats, and I didn’t realize they were going to eat everything in sight. … I can still see that — the day the goats visited.

What would the title of your autobiography be? Are We There Yet?

RECALL one treasured memory: The way all the parents supported me after my house burned down in the Painted Cave Fire … It was such an amazing thing.

NAME three of your heroes: Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund, Mr. Rogers … for his gentle ways, and Yo Yo Ma.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 30, 2005.

San Marcos nursing students go on rounds

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San Marcos High student nurses were still beaming from their recent trip to Boston for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Nursing. There they had the chance to meet like-minded students from all over the country, job-shadow nurses at several Boston hospitals, and hear from medical experts about the different aspects of a nursing career.

“It was … a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said senior Katie Coy, who has been accepted to the nursing program at Azusa Pacific University.

“Fun,” “educational,” “awesome” and “even better than expected” were some of the reviews given by the six seniors who attended the conference. All of them are third-year students in the school’s Health Academy, now enrolled in the C.N.A. (Certified Nursing Assistant program) class in cooperation with Santa Barbara City College.

What’s not to be excited about?

Gloria M. Ochoa observed the electrophysiology lab, Brenda Rubio worked in a transplant unit, and Coy and Rachel Myers got to experience the cardiac unit. Courtney Giers learned how to draw blood and Maria Gutierrez even got to see a baby being born.

All of the girls left their experience even more convinced that they want to be nurses.

“I want more,” said Ochoa. “Usually I expect hospitals to be cold places, where you get done what you need to be done and you’re out of there. But that’s not how it is, actually. It’s warm, they’re friendly, and they all work together. It’s like a family.”

The girls will soon get to experience that nursing camaraderie again. After completing internships at Samarkand, in April they will start new internships, at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

“We’re thrilled to have the kids here working,” said Pat Doherty, director of volunteer services. “They have a week or two in a variety of areas within in the hospital for them to observe, learn about the different areas and be mentored by the staff.”

Doherty noted that several students who went through the San Marcos program three years ago are now student nurses at the hospital and studying at SBCC.

In addition to their trip, the students said meeting other teens made them realize how unique the San Marcos program is.

“I didn’t hear of anything like the Health Academy,” Giers said.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 24, 2005.

Raytheon brings science back to school

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CMS Girls Engineering Camp, photo by Texas A&M University, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

CMS Girls Engineering Camp, photo by Texas A&M University, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Washington School hosts “Introduce a girl to Engineering Day”

There’s a guy I know who was so concerned about the disproportionate number of women in math and science that when his daughter was born, he vowed that every time she was complimented on her looks, he would add the postscript, “and she’s good at math and science too.”

The aerospace company Raytheon is also concerned about the number of women going into math and science, but it’s taking another tack than my friend.

“Three Cheers to Engineers!” was the slogan at Washington Elementary School on Feb. 25, where Raytheon hosted an “Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day” for more than 60 upper grade students.

“Math Rocks!” was one of the four learning stations, where students were challenged to build moveable cars out of candy, cookies and frosting (similar to ginger bread houses), where each of the ingredients had a point-value, and the points couldn’t add up to more than 300.

“The best part is eating the cars when you’re done,” said Sarah Strickland, one of several financial analysts who helped plan the project.

Electrical Engineer Lisa Dunn, who just two years ago was the president of UCSB’s Society of Women Engineers, worked with a group of kids constructing boats out of tin foil. They used their engineering skills to make a seaworthy craft and their math skills to figure out the maximum number of pennies their boats would float.

Software Engineer Ben Burleson was the “balloon flinker,” helping the students test gravity, using foam cups filled with packing peanuts and attached to helium balloons.

Helium also played a critical role in the hovercraft experiment, where students like Gwen Archambault and Korrina Harmsen created floating vehicles out of balloons and paper plates.

Materials and Process Engineer Elizabeth Mallon gave the keynote speech, explaining the difference between engineering and science to students, who were eager to find out what the different industries are that use these skills and what kind of education is needed.

“They asked a lot of questions,” said Mallon. It’s not like high school presentations where they’re too cool — or too shy — to ask.

“Women are very smart and clever and we want to get more of them in our workforce,” said Francisco Cabrera, in explaining to the students (including a few boys) why Raytheon had sponsored the event.

Raffle prizes included an autographed book about Sally Ride, junior science kits, fiber optic lead pencils and more, including the grand prize — a home planetarium star theatre, which went to Caitlin Connor.

Raytheon also donated engineering books, videos and bookmarks to the Washington School library and all of the participating students received “Three Cheers to Engineers!” t-shirts, as well as goodie bags, said Isabel Villegas, the Human Resources representative who coordinated the whole event, as part of Raytheon’s observation of National Engineering Week.

Last year the company hosted Kellogg School students at Raytheon, but spokesman Ron Colman said next year they’ll pick another elementary school and bring the program to the students, since they got an even better turnout than expected.

Raytheon also hosted a week of job shadowing with members of UCSB’s National Society of Black Engineers, which included an engineering competition, an ice cream social and a free hot dog lunch.

“We’re hoping to hire some of the students that came in,” said Villegas, adding that last year’s AS president Jamie Fitz-Gerald is now working at Raytheon.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on March 3, 2005.

J.R. Richards, former Santa Barbara High Principal

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Santa Barbara High School’s colors were green, gold and black this week, as the Dons mourned the death of former principal J.R. Richards, who died unexpectedly on Saturday. He was 63 years old.

Affectionately known around town as “J.R.,” Richards was the only graduate of Santa Barbara High to serve as the school’s principal. He was a mathematics teacher in the Santa Barbara High School District for 25 years, becoming assistant principal at Santa Barbara High School in 1993 and serving as principal from 1995 until the summer of 2003.

“He was the most connected person I think I’ve ever met. Everybody he ever dealt with walked away feeling like he totally cares about him. He established a loyalty in people that came from his own loyalty to them. He made you feel like you were really worth something,” said Peter van Duinwyk, a colleague for 30 years, who retired from Santa Barbara High with Richards in 2003. “He got kids — and teachers — to put out that extra five percent that made all the difference in the world. …Whether on the playing field or state test taking, it’s all related.”

“He had a great sense of humor and was a good teacher,” said Santa Barbara High Teacher Bruce Lofthus, who also taught with Richards at Dos Pueblos High School. He was one of the people responsible for getting me back into teaching. “Just one of those very enthusiastic people. You knew that he was interested in young people and it showed,” said Lofthus, noting that Richards also taught math to his two daughters. “They thought he was great.”

“It is hard for me to think about Santa Barbara High School without thinking about J.R. and his dedication to the staff, students, and school community,” said Superintendent Deborah Flores.

“The more said about him, the better,” said van Duinwyk. “He’s such a community jewel, we want to talk about him as much as possible so that others can follow. … As an administrator, I’d go up and ask him questions. His answer always was, ‘if its good for kids, lets start there.’ And it wasn’t necessarily the thing that everybody approved of. That was his standard.”

Richards’ high standards have lived on at Santa Barbara High. “He instilled so much in the kids and the staff,” said Patty Diaz, his longtime secretary. “The staff knows to put the kids first.”

“He had a lot of stuff done to him that was not equitable, not fair. But he never had a bad word to say about anyone. It was a pure joy to have him around for the additional year that we got him. And that he was able to go out on his own terms,” said Diaz.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on February 24, 2005.

Gang-related crime is up

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Gang activity is increasing on Santa Barbara’s streets. Arrests are up 51 percent, from a total of 189 in 2002, to 369 gang-related arrests in 2004, said Sgt. Ralph Molina, who gave a special presentation to the Santa Barbara School Board on Feb. 8.

“The good news is that when it comes to schools, we have seen very few isolated incidents during this past year,” Molina said, attributing this to the strong relationship between the schools and the police.

One of the reasons for the upswing in activity is that there are a lot of older gang members who were incarcerated and are now back on the streets. “They begin to go out and recruit and their numbers begin to increase,” he said.

Molina estimated that there are 3,000 gang members in Santa Barbara County, with approximately 1,000 of them in the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta and the unincorporated area in between. In the city of Santa Barbara he estimated there were about 600 gang members, with 40 percent of them under the age of 18 and about half of that group in junior high.

Board members requested the presentation after a recent expulsion of a student involved with gangs.

“My experience is that about 90 percent of these kids that are gang members, are pretty good kids,” said Molina, who has worked in the gang unit for the past 13 years.

” They just have a lot of serious problems and they turn to that lifestyle without knowing an alternative. But when we get one on one and we talk to them and establish that relationship…you’ve got to find out what they’re all about if you’re going to deal with them, you can’t just arrest them and put them in jail,” he said.

In addition to the increase in the sheer numbers of known gang members, Molina said he is also seeing a big connection between gangs and drugs. “A huge connection. All the other cities outside of Santa Barbara have had that problem for years, where it’s been gangs and drugs. … The last couple of years we’ve seen a huge increase with gangs and selling of drugs.”

Molina said he is also seeing a lot of large gang fights, especially among the younger members. “The kids between 13 and 17 are keeping us busy. … That seems to be the core of the activity.”

There is also some evidence of increased gang activity among girls, but it’s harder to document, Molina said. “They’ll portray themselves as the girlfriends … we know that they are associating. … We’ve seen an increase on the girls and there’s been a couple rumors that they’re trying to form their own gang, but that we haven’t seen yet.”

As a result of the increased activity, in January of last year Santa Barbara Police brought back the youth services unit and increased the enforcement level, which may explain some of the increase in number of arrests, Molina said. He added that he would like to see the district reinstitute a program in which officers taught classes on gang violence. Funding for the program dried up a few years ago.

When asked by board member Nancy Harter whether there was a correlation between loss of funding for these types of programs and increased gang activity, Molina said he wasn’t sure.

“There’s always more we can do. The schools do a good job. There’s a lot of community-based organizations that really get involved. (We need) everyone working together to deal with this.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on February 17, 2005.

Schools turn to universal preschool

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Preschool playground, Philippines, The Learning Connection Preschool, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Preschool playground, Philippines, The Learning Connection Preschool, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Public officials tout preparedness factor but finding funding is another story

The evidence is clear. Quality preschool education programs:

= Help children enter school ready to succeed.

= Promote positive child development.

= Prevent violence.

= Help parents move from welfare to work.

= Improve employee performance and productivity.

= Aid economic development and growth.

In fact, the most recent data from a 20-year study in Chicago estimates that, ” for every $1 that we spend for preschool they can save $7 down the line, in terms of special ed referrals, in terms of earning power, in terms of better health for children, in terms of youngsters later on not being in the juvenile justice system,” said Julian Crocker, San Luis Obispo County’s school superintendent.

Crocker was in town to address the Tri-County Education Coalition on a subject near and dear to the education community’s heart: universal preschool.

While subsidized programs like Head Start and state-funded preschools are available, those programs are overcrowded, with waiting lists for about 91 percent of the local Head Start programs.

Families living just above the poverty level are the least likely to find a quality program, Crocker said.

“They may not qualify for assistance, they may not qualify for Head Start, and they do not have the resources to pay for a quality private preschool.”

First Five California is one of the major efforts under way to optimize early childhood development.

“The whole idea of closing the achievement gap before they start kindergarten, which makes a lot of sense,” said Crocker.

“What they’re doing is trying to target the lower decile schools and … to prove the value so that, at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, the idea of universal preschool will be state-funded.”

Finding funding for universal preschool is one obstacle, but Crocker sees organization as another big challenge. “There’s a lot of players involved,” he said.

He acknowledged that many people in public education are overwhelmed with responsibilities.

“Many times I have the thought that, my gosh, I can barely handle all the students I have now. What are you talking about trying to add 3 and 4 year olds to the mix, too?” he said.

“We need to change that viewpoint and I would hate it if we look back 10 years from now and have another whole system dealing with Pre-K that’s not part of the public school system. I think the most damaging thing we could end up with is a system of preschools that are separate from the public elementary schools.”

There are two major preschool initiatives in the works right now, Preschool for All, and an initiative sponsored by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.

“One of the major things that’s going to be necessary is some kind of unified approach. … I think that’s our first challenge,” Crocker said.

As to the debate about whether a quality preschool program emphasizes child development or academics, Crocker dismissed it.

“To me it’s not an argument. It’s like should you have water or food,” he said.

“You need both of them. I think sometimes we hurt ourselves within the education community by staking out territory.”

Originally published in South Coast Beacon

For professionals, Career Day a full circle

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US Navy Capt. Ricks Polk, commanding officer of Afloat Training Group Middle Pacific answers questions from students during a Career Day at Iroquois Point Elementary School, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

US Navy Capt. Ricks Polk, commanding officer of Afloat Training Group Middle Pacific answers questions from students during a Career Day at Iroquois Point Elementary School, courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Face to face with the past, adults turn kids’ attention toward their future

I went back to high school last week.

No, it wasn’t for a Fast Times at Ridgemont High investigative article about San Marcos High School. I was there for Career Day, along with more than 240 other local professionals.

I’m not sure how impressed the students were by the movers and shakers moving among them — including Goleta Mayor Jean Blois, Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum, Olympic volleyball star Dax Holdren, sculptor Bud Bottoms (of Dolphin Fountain fame) and Santa Barbara Fire Chief Warner McGrew — but I sure was intimidated, especially when I spotted the sleek race car that NASCAR driver Greg Voight brought along.

Was that what they meant by props? All I brought with me was some copies of that week’s Beacon, which just happened to feature student body president — and Beacon intern — Eric Lauritsen on the cover.

But when I reported to the King’s Page classroom, I immediately felt right at home. While the adviser, Cara Gamberdella, was a few decades younger than my adviser, Virginia Chennell, seemed when I was 15, she had the same efficiency Mrs. Chennell did, as she introduced me to the first group of students and simultaneously recruited new editors for the paper.

I told the students the best way to find out if you’re cut out to be a journalist is to give it a try. There were definitely sparks in the eyes of a few students. They were the ones who asked good questions, like, “What’s your work environment like?” (Answer: Noisy, but fun.) and, “Do you spend a lot of time chained to your desk?” (Answer: No, as little as possible.)

One girl, who I’m sure is destined to be an investigative reporter, even asked me how much money I made. (Answer: Not enough.)

Another favorite question was, “What do you like about being a journalist?” As I told them, “It’s never boring and it’s really fun to do something different every day and be learning all the time.”

Later when I peeked in on Chief McGrew’s presentation, he said something very similar about his career as a firefighter: “I can’t wait to get out of bed and go to work.”

I hope those students get to go back to school and say the same thing someday.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on February 14, 2005.

Principals offer plans to keep kids on track

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Junior high and high school principals were in the spotlight Feb. 1 at a special meeting of the Board of Education highlighting their plans to raise academic achievement.

All three high schools met their adequate yearly progress criteria, which are required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. On the junior high side, however, La Colina was the only school that met all components of its 2004 AYP goals.

To put the presentations in context, interim Superintendent Brian Sarvis said, “this has a lot to do with our accountability climate and especially an accountability climate that comes to us at the federal level in a model that’s a fairly punitive model.”

The bulk of the meeting focused on what the schools are doing to improve their test scores. For example, Santa Barbara Junior High has implemented several new programs, including a “STAR club,” which provides additional instruction and training for 75 students who fall just below the proficient level in English and math, and mandatory tutorials for students who don’t pass their instructional focus tests, said principal Susan Salcido.

At Goleta Valley Junior High, principal Paul Turnbull has instituted a program of midterms and finals to help gauge when students are having trouble with their work, rather than “wait until August to find out what we did and did not do well.” Some of the other interventions include working with community mentors, after-school tutorials and holiday and summer academic camps. Turnbull also said he is working closely with Dos Pueblos High to develop a six-year educational plan for each student.

Following Goleta Valley’s lead, La Colina Junior High has eliminated general math and is enrolling all students in algebra. The philosophy is to put the students in a higher-level class and then “teach them and support them,” explained principal David Ortiz. State standards call for all eighth-graders to take algebra.

Ortiz also noted that the principals are working together on ideas and strategies.

Jo Ann Caines, La Cumbre Junior High’s new principal, attended the meeting but did not make a presentation because she had just started her job the day before.

“Day Two and I’m still smiling,” she said.

Originally published in South Coast Beacon on February 10, 2005.