Feb 26 min read

1982 - 2012: Farm History

Timeline of Ohlone Farm History

By science teacher and Ohlone parent Tanya Buxton

1982 - 1983

Ohlone moved to the Amarillo Campus. The area which is now the Farm area was a weed patch where kids played. The previous school, Van Auken, had a wide open area where the current farm sits where children played and some teachers grew vegetables.

1983 - 1984

Planning for the farm takes place by teachers Bill Overton and Jana Littlefield and principal Jim Mathiott.

1984 - 1985

Bill and Jim write and receive a National Gardening Association Grant. A group of 21 parents and teachers pay a visit to the Green Acres School in Santa Cruz where the LifeLab curriculum was born as a model for the Ohlone Farm. The school district installed fences and Ohlone families and teachers come together to start building the farm. The pond was installed by contractors Don Post and Harlow Williams. A tool shed from Jordan school was moved to the site and painted red.

1985 - 1986

On September 10, 1985, principal Jim Matthiott conducted an opening ceremony on the new farm. Teachers begin starting classroom plots. Families volunteer for the start of semi-annual farm workdays.

1986 - 1987

Noon farm, a program for students to spend the lunch break helping with the animals and working on the farm, is started. Seven different varieties of apple trees are planted, spearheaded by teacher Bill, to commemorate the astronauts who died in the space shuttle Challenger disaster of January 1986. Two rabbits and four hens were added. Teacher Rick Ehrhorn’s class builds a rabbit hutch. Unfortunately, arson in December 1986 destroyed the animal pen and a new roof was replaced on the chicken coop. Decisions for the farm are made by a group of students called the Farm Committee under the direction of teacher Bill Overton.

1987 - 1988

Early on the following teachers were assigned the following tasks:

Jeannette Wei - rabbit care
June Fuji - duck care
Rick Ehrhorn - monitoring locks and preventing vandalism
Pat Robinson - tree care
Win Lora - animal food

1988 - 1989

In October 1988, the first adult farm council meeting was held. The operating budget at this time was $300 for the year. A weekly weekend farm workday is proposed. One class starts a landfill experiment where various materials are buried in October 1988 and dug up again in February 1990 to find rusty cans and decayed cardboard.

In January 1989 the Everything Shop is started by parent Virginia Van….? At that time students sold farm products such as eggs and craft projects from 2:40 to 3:15pm on Thursdays afterschool. The “E-shop” as it became to be known sold a bit of “everything”. The first sale garnered $30. In March 1989 the E-Shop had reached $137 in profits as reported in a school paper called the Farm Alarm which was introduced to give updates about the farm.

1989 - 1990

New chicks were born on Nov. 6, 1989 after a hatching project. In the Spring of 1990 four ducklings were born from eight eggs. Parent Mary Lowe, who later became an Ohlone teacher, helped run the E-Shop with the students. In March 1990 a group of Russian gardeners who had come on a trip for a conference at Stanford came to visit the Ohlone Farm. Students wrote a song called “Young Ohlone’s Farm” and sang it for their visit.

This school year was the first year to have formal Farm Aides. Classroom aides Bonny Parke and Linda Skeff were paid extra hours to help care for the farm. They continued for the next four years.

1990 - 1991

A man named Drex Partridge offered to give a baby sheep to the farm. He was going to lend the mother to the farm until the lamb could live on her own. Sadly, he died before the project could take place.

1993 - 1994

A greenhouse was built.

1994 - 1995

Farm Aide Laura Schickli started and stayed for three years. Laura acquired angora rabbits for the Farm. She wrote a proposal and received small spinning wheels and carding equipment to process the sheep wool. Teacher Jeannette Wei became sick and was undergoing chemotherapy. Children took wool from the sheep and hair from the rabbits and spun them into yarn. They used the yearn to knit a scarf from the wool and a cap from the angora to send to Jeannette who fully recovered.

1995 - 1996

The pond was restored. It had become a mosquito swamp because the duck’s excrement killed any plants that were put there and fish could not survive. During a class meeting, June’s class decided to take on a project making the ecosystem in the pond healthy and sustainable. They had many math and science problems around the whole project. Students calculated the capacity of the pond. With research and help from a Sunset Magazine field trip, students created a gravity water filter with a 32 gallon garbage can, pump, sand and rocks. They planted tule, water hyacinths and other native plants. They added gambozia and gold fish and the pond became a sustainable environment.

1996 - 1997

Karen Seybold served as Farm Aide for one year.

1998 - 1999

Farm Aide Ann Kaliczak stared and stayed for two years. She made a weekly rotating schedule for all the classes and began teaching the Life Lab curriculum.

1999 - 2000

Parents Mary Klein and Marianna Keller held a curriculum meeting and decided to separate the Farm from the PTA.

2000 - 2001

Parents Alice Collins and Suzanne Ribbe became the new Farm Aides for three years.

2001 - 2002

Three goats were given away.

2002 - 2003

During the “ Building for Excellence” facilities improvement project from a bond, a new barn for the animals was erected. The animals were moved from the pond enclosure area to the new paddock area. Through a grant from the California Consumer Services Agency and spearheaded by parent Lindsay Joy and with parent help, a solar panel was installed on the barn.

2003 - 2004

Parent Alexi Miller became the Farm Aide for two years. The Farm held a conference where Delaine Easton was the keynote speaker.

The goat Jasmine died.

Teachers Frankie Murray and Kim Prescott earned their Environmental Volunteers Certificate and added many projects to the farm including the ABC garnde. Parent Claire Elliot planned and got a grant to put in the Native Habitat, native California plants around the pond area. She created some curriculum for the students to learn about the plants and their uses by Native Ohlones.

2004 - 2005

The Ohlone Native Habitat was one of the featured gardens on the Native Plant Society’s tour.

2005 - 2006

Former parent Marieluise Fries became the Farm Aide. She created a rotating schedule for the classes and began instructing each class. Marieluise and several teachers and parents went to the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley and decided to make major changes. One change included changing from individual classroom garden beds to community all-school beds. The Crichton family secured two goats and raised them at home for a few weeks before bringing them to the Farm.

2006 - 2007

With expertise in Native Americans, after much coursework, Marieluise helped guide and plan for the Ohlone simulation for second and third graders.

2007 - 2008

Science teacher and Ohlone parent Tanya Buxton was hired in a part time position paid by the Partners in Education (PiE) Foundation. She instigated lab notebooks for the older students and lab folders for younger students’ work. A weather station and root view box were added that year, constructed by parent Alex Crichton. A science instruction area was arranged for the bi-weekly science classes.

Marieluise prepared extensively for the historical simulations (Colonial Days for the fourth and fifth grades, School 100 years ago for the second and third graders).

Tanya and Marieluise set up a schedule to accommodate nearly all of the 21 classes on a weekly basis, rotating between science and garden time every other week.

2008 - 2009

A Tuff Shed barn office was installed to house the new science materials. Tanya formally created a two year science curriculum to coincide with the newly adopted District Science Curriculum provided by FOSS (Full Option Science System from Lawrence Hall of Science). As the Mandarin Immersion Program started at Ohlone, the Farm program incorporated a new class each year for the next five years. The successful Harvest Festival sold large play horses built out of wood by parent Ken Shark. Ably guided by local bee enthusiast, Wayne Pitts, two bee hives were installed in the spring, one honey producing hive and one observation hive. In addition, a new flock of chickens was introduced.

2009 - 2010

A few roosters were discovered in the new flock and they were donated to a local farm. Egg production was charted for science classes by the Ohlone Guides.

2010 - 2011

A surveillance camera was installed by parent William Phelps to oversee the animals at anytime from home. In addition, he installed a digital weather station which could be viewed on the Ohlone website. The District donated a solar fountain which was installed and used for lessons on solar energy along with having the students learn how to read the electric meter on the solar panels.

Buttercup the sheep died at the age of 14. Students put on a special ceremony for her.