West Fest a Hit for Upper Ojai School
Ojai, California is a small town, but not compared to Upper Ojai, which today has no churches, no bars, no gas stations, and but a single store, restaurant, and elementary school.
Summit, a school founded almost a hundred years ago, has almost exactly fifty students, down from well over a hundred in the mid-1990's, when my kids attended. But although it can afford only three full-time teachers and a half-time principal, it's still a unique and lovely grammar school for the information age, a "throw-back" to another era, a little reminiscent of the one-room schoolhouse of American schooling in the West a century ago.
The classes are small, every student is known by name by the entire staff, and a lot of the kids grow up playing outdoors, the way kids used to do in the "olden days."
One of the charms of the school, and of Upper Ojai, is getting to know people who grew up in the area, who will tell you stories about the way it used to be. My wife and I have heard stories from Red Titus, who built our house back in the l950's, and told us about how some kids used to riide horses to the school. Dan Beasley, who grew up in Upper Ojai, told us a funny story about how he and a friend tried to hitchhike to Santa Paula from Upper Ojai when they were kids, but had to give up -- not enough cars!
For parents and fund-raisers, the charm of such a small school also means the challenge of raising money from a small community. It's not easy, and hasn't always succeeded. To pay for an afterschool program and to buy about ten new computers, this year the Summit School PTO hoped to raise $5,000-$8,000. They themed their fund-raiser as "West-Fest," and for a $25 ticket this past Saturday evening offered home-made food, a band, a casino night (with a trip to Las Vegas as the grand prize), a mechanical bull, and some terrific deserts.
Judging from the 200+ attendees, many of them standing around the mechanical bull, their chances looked good.
The much-loved school librarian, Pam Schubert, a long-time volunteer, came to the gathering, along with the entire teaching staff, including enthusiastic young Heather Ramsey, who teaches a combination of first, second and third graders. Because Summit is so small, the school has had some difficulty finding teachers willing to do the extra work it takes to teach combination classes (from different grades). Lauren Coyne, a parent, told me that the Summit School PTO has been asking School Superintendent Dan Baird for teachers who would stay, and is happy to report that the current set have volunteered to come to Summit from other schools.
"Where else can you find a place like Summit in the public schools?" said Mrs. Dalton, a teacher, said to me.
From all appearances, a fine time was had by all, even the willing victims who volunteered for the mechanical bull. Here's a picture of Camille Sage, who herself attended Summit about ten years ago, enjoying the ride.
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Comments (7)
I can't help being inspired by this reporting on the quaint little town of Upper Ojai with its' small elementary school and idyllic life style of yesteryear. This is the type of life we must not only preserve in our country but rebuild everywhere. Toward that end I feel compelled to urge local candidates everywhere in the future coming elections to ENACT CONCEALED CARRY GUN LAWS so teachers, public officials and concerned citizens will be armed to protect our children and communities. I wish to further urge candidates for office, city mayor and council in particular, to wage their campaigns on simple patriotic principles of Constitutional Americanism such as drastically cutting the physical SIZE of government and eliminating the big bucks bureaucrats now impeding progress and harassing citizens through endless licenses, permits, fees, delays, etc., etc., etc.. I would like to see campaign platforms pursuing real solutions to our serious problems of eroding freedoms, property rights, and crime being made worse by our existing leaders and bureaucrats who ignore their oath to uphold and defend our Constitution and instead seek to destroy life, liberty, property and any pursuit of happiness we may attempt to achieve. Of paramount importance as a campaign plank is to support and enact a local Vermont style (see: vermont gun law(on internet) no fee concealed carry permit law enabling all citizens to carry guns, no ifs, ands, or buts, to protect themselves and families on the streets and everywhere else and crime will drop rapidly to near zero, as it has in other states with this kind of law, providing a much safer America for us and our children. The tragic school shootings in recent years could have been prevented or greatly reduced had the teachers been armed (they‘re still not armed). 9-11 could have been prevented had the air crews been armed (they’re still not armed). Crime in this country would be a small fraction of what it is today had the victims only been allowed their constitutional 2nd Amendment rights! We’ve been disarmed like so many sheeple being herded to the slaughter house by our own leaders and we need candidates to restore our rights before we lose our country, our children, and our lives. - Ed Nemechek -760-246-8059.
Comment #1 Posted by: Ed Nemechek | October 16, 2007 01:24 PM
Wow, Ed, I see that you have passion for your subject and are looking for a place to share it with the community.
I'm disappointed that you chose to post it here. This piece is such a positive piece, about a place where children are safe and loved. Your piece was jarring coming right after it and, frankly, turned me off before I could even read your argument completely.
Fear and anger just don't sell me on beliefs.
Comment #2 Posted by: heather | October 16, 2007 01:38 PM
Ed, I can't help being disgusted that you would hijack this post with a completely off-topic and self-serving comment, which you cut and pasted on Tyler's open thread. Go away.
Kit, thank you for your lesson on Summit School. I, too, attended a small school with combo grades (in So. Cal. believe it or not)! I hope the event helped them with their fundraising goals.
Comment #3 Posted by: Lisa S | October 16, 2007 01:47 PM
We are packing up some art supplies to donate to Summit School, so that they will be packing paintbrushes and nothing more. To suggest that the teachers and staff of any school, let alone Summit, an "elementary school" that evokes an "idyllic life style of yesteryear" should be carrying concealed weapons is disgusting.
And Ed, I couldn't agree more with the other commenters that it was totally inappropriate to bring this up on this thread.
Again, you are not a member of the Ojai community, so please have some respect for the people that are, and allow us to have our positive local stories without interjecting your values and your views on what we as a community should be prioritizing.
Do you know why your best site in the whole wide world www.jbs.org (search: tiresome) has bloggers but no comments allowed? Because they get tired of hearing the same crap over and over.
Here are some other blogs to go play on:
http://wordpress.com/tag/john-birch-society/
Comment #4 Posted by: Tyler | October 16, 2007 03:46 PM
Tyler: OK: but I feel strongly that our children should be protected everywhere, but obviously they have not been, and still are not being protected.- Ed.
Comment #5 Posted by: Ed Nemechek | October 16, 2007 06:08 PM
Yeah they should be protected from lunatics like you.
Comment #6 Posted by: Anonymous | October 16, 2007 06:15 PM
Thanks for that piece, Kit. I lived in the Upper Ojai for many years and grew to appreciate the spirit of neighborliness that I found there. Through fire and road closures, and through participating in the Summit School, the residents of UO have learned to depend on each other. That little school, along with what old timers know as Fay’s Place, seem to provide a focus for bringing the community together.
Summit is a gem of a school community and I tip my hat to those teachers and staff, present and past, who have done double duty to keep it thriving.
On a side note, how many places does one live where, if needed, more than one of your neighbors would show up with a backhoe at 2AM if called?
Comment #7 Posted by: Dennis Rice | February 22, 2008 07:37 AM