Tag archives: Montecito Union School
I have this story I tell people to explain how I became interested in biology. It goes like this: When I was young, I watched Star Trek with my father. I liked to imagine myself zooming around, going to new planets, wearing my space-tech-fabric blue uniform (blue was, of course, my favorite color). There was […]
Signs that a community is in the throes of an historic transformation are rarely overt and almost never seismic. They’re small yet perceptible shifts that, in aggregate, tell a story of where a town or a city is coming from and where it’s most likely headed. In the case of Montecito those signs – at […]
Winter is coming! Santa Barbara Public Library is transitioning our sidewalk service indoors. Montecito Library will be allowing one household at a time to browse a curated selection of materials inside for 15 minutes. Grab-n-Go in Montecito will be on Tuesdays from 2 pm to 5 pm, and Thursdays 10 am to 1 pm, starting […]
If I had to think back, I would say the first time I learned about sustainable agriculture was during one of the Montecito Union School Earth Day events. There were always a number of stations for us students to visit. I remember the bicycle-powered blender, the birdhouse making station, and what I think was probably […]
What Makes Montecito Stand Out for You? Montecito Union School was a great fit for our son during his elementary years, and Coast Village Road and the Upper Village have been quaint yet perfectly suited to our lifestyle and needs. But there was some bad to come before it got better. There were fires, then […]
On a pleasantly balmy Tuesday afternoon, somewhere between the way too cold or searing desert heat of our current weather, I had the opportunity to spend some socially distant, in-person, fully masked time with Montecito Union School’s reading specialist, Lynne Olerich. Our conversation included her tenure at Montecito Union, her journey from Rutherford, New Jersey […]
US. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recognized Montecito Union School (MUS) as one of the 367 National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2020. MUS won the coveted honor in the “Exemplary High Performing Schools” category which honors each state’s highest performing schools. Montecito Union School is a one-school district serving the community of Montecito with transitional […]
At a monthly board meeting last week, the Montecito Association Board of Directors heard from Brett Balint, CEO of Onward & Upward, who presented a very conceptual idea of modifying airspace over Santa Barbara and Montecito. Balint, who was in attendance on the Zoom meeting with Jasenka Rakas, Ph.D., from the University of California at […]
Sometimes life’s big questions come with choices, not right or wrong answers. History is kind or unkind to these choices which are evaluated through the lens and luxury of Retrospect. MUS’s then-newbie superintendent, Anthony Ranii, was acutely aware of this on January 8, 2018 when he made what turned out to be one of the […]
As local students settle into virtual or distance learning, school administrators and teachers are working hard to reopen campuses, working within the guidelines set forth by the State of California and the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department. Last Friday, August 28, both Cold Spring School and Montecito Union School superintendents submitted applications for a […]
At this month’s Montecito Association board meeting, Montecito Union School and Cold Spring School superintendents reported that school will begin next week, on a virtual platform. Dr. Anthony Ranii from MUS reported that enrollment is up to 376 students, and the school is in process of distributing computers to each student. Administrators are also preparing […]
I met Jakob Hammer, son of two of my favorite MUS teachers (Jackie and Kurt Hammer), in second grade. With our diametrically opposed love of Star Wars and Star Trek, Webkinz and Club Penguin, and contradictory opinions about Crocs as footwear, Jakob and I may not have seemed like a natural pairing, but we’ve now […]
What is Your Fondest Memory of Living Here? I normally interview each person for this column, but this letter was so good we had to print as is! Hi MJ, I’ve been loving your articles on favorite memories, and wanted to share a few of my own. I was raised here and have great memories […]
Our community of schools held their 2020 graduation ceremonies through online Zoom graduations, school drive by parades with their teachers, one in-person ceremony with directives from the health department and two schools opted to postpone an in-person ceremony till later this year. The number of graduates are 186: Montecito Union 58, Cold Spring 20, Crane […]
What’s your favorite memory of growing up here? “One of my favorite memories of growing up in Montecito is walking with friends to the Upper Village from Montecito Union School and getting a sandwich from the Village Cheese & Wine Shop. It was just the most incredible sandwich you ever had. Just cheese and meat […]
On Wednesday, April 22, hundreds of Montecito Union School students, Montecito residents, and members of the community came outside their homes and businesses to wave to dozens of MUS teachers and administrators, who drove their cars in a “parade” throughout Montecito. “Our teachers and staff miss seeing the students’ faces on a daily basis, and […]
These days, there’s no shortage of things to get emotional about. Like most of us, other than essential workers for whom I feel deep gratitude, I’ve been home for almost six weeks. Reading and watching the nightly news is painful, but I do it. I worry about my elderly mother. I feel horrible for my […]
The plans for the Montecito Sanitary District Essential Services building and associated project components were discussed by the Montecito Association Board of Directors on Tuesday, as the project will be in front of the Montecito Board of Architectural Review this Thursday, April 16. The County of Santa Barbara has denied the issuance of an emergency […]
On Friday, March 13, it was announced that all 20 school districts within Santa Barbara County would close indefinitely in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving over 67,000 students – and their parents – left to begin a homeschooling program. Administrators and teachers from both of Montecito’s public schools have been working around the clock […]
Kudos to Kriegman The article written by Mitchell Kriegman for your March 5, 2020 issue on a new vision for downtown Santa Barbara was amazing! The in-depth background, pictures of the conceptual drawings, and relevant interviews with stakeholders all combined to well-inform the reader. Thank you for not letting the hard work that was done […]
