Sustainability

Campus Wildlife at Night

Posted on September 29, 2017 //

By Caroline Morrow (L15)

A bobcat prowls the soccer field at the Upper Campus, shifting its gaze late at night at any slight crunch of the brush. A fully grown black bear plops into a water trough at the nearby baseball field to cool off after an active, hot summer day. A young deer casually strolls up to a gate on a dirt road that doubles as the high school cross country course, sniffing the flowers sprouting up alongside the road.

With the large number of noteworthy animals that call the 195-acre Upper Campus home, you’d think the high school students who live and go to school here were tending a zoo. However, all of these animals roaming what is affectionately known as “The Hill” are part of a different kind of exhibit.

Instead of being live in front of smiling faces, they’ve been captured by game cameras set up in recent years by Advanced Placement Environmental Science students. The game cameras add an innovative aspect to the AP curriculum while pioneering a new way to see wildlife on campus. Most who study and work at the Upper Campus will never see half of the creatures captured on the cameras, so these photos provide a taste of what happens in the outdoors when nobody is around and nobody is watching.

Last year, the game cameras were a supplementary assignment to the curriculum, but this year they are serving a more vital and science-centered purpose, allowing students to record yearlong changes in the animals that roam campus.

“Before we were just looking for cute animals, but we’re now making it more scientific,” Wickenhaeuser said. “We can get an idea of what animals are out at what time, what they’re doing, and what their seasonal variations might be.”

Read the complete article on the OVS student journalism website, On The Hill.

Hands on the Land

Posted on August 28, 2016 //

By Natasha Freudmann, Class of 2017

On a rocky plateau overlooking miles and miles of the Pacific Ocean, Ojai Valley School students crouched over hardened soil, shovels in hand. With quiet focus, they overturned clumps of earth, creating new homes for plants native to the Channel Islands chain, just off the Ventura County coastline.

It was a long way to go to till some soil. But this was not your run-of-the-mill gardening project.

The students, members of OVS’ Advanced Placement Environmental Science class, sailed in February to Anacapa Island in the first of what will be a series of excursions to Channel Islands National Park for environmental education and restoration projects. Fifth graders made the trip in March. This week, middle school students will depart for Santa Cruz Island to continue this field work and the senior class will anchor these projects with a trip in late May.

In partnership with the national park, OVS earlier this school year was awarded a $4,000 Hands on the Land grant, part of a national effort to connect students, teachers and volunteers with public lands and waterways. OVS was one of 22 institutions nationwide to receive the grant, which came about through a collaborative process between parents, the park service and the high school and middle school staffs.

Funded by the the National Environmental Education Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, the grant in coming months will be used by students and teachers on both campuses to access the islands and use them as living laboratories, tackling projects including working on-site in nurseries, removing invasive vegetation, and gathering and compiling plant restoration data.

“This grant rapidly advances our goal to partner with Channel Islands National Park on long-term restoration and research projects,” said AP Environmental Science teacher John Wickenhaeuser, who as the school’s director of technology and sustainability spearheaded the grant-writing effort.

“With this funding nearly 100 students in grades 5 through 12 will travel to the islands this school year, to remove invasive species, plant natives and learn from expert field biologists,” Wickenhaeuser added. “It is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and our school to learn, participate, and make a huge difference on the truly special Channel Islands.”

On the school’s first visit to the islands as part of the grant, students embarked on a mission to learn about Dudleya, a plant native to Anacapa Island, one of the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park. The plant, like many others native to the island, has been crowded out by invasive ice plant, which was brought to the island in the mid-20th century for landscaping and erosion control.

After hours of education and labor to transplant the Dudleya, more than 100 new plants were in the ground. Despite the hard work, students were enthusiastic about the project – especially with the added benefit of working and learning outdoors.
“It’s awesome to be out of the classroom and having fun out here,” said senior Jack Gentry, who joined eight other Advanced Placement students on the inaugural service project. “I’m super glad I had this opportunity.”

Lower Campus parent Annie Little, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, accompanied the AP class to the island. Little spoke earlier this year as part of the school’s Guest Lecture series about her work restoring sea birds, including the bald eagle, to the Channel Islands, and she was instrumental in connecting OVS to the current service project.

“With the Fish and Wildlife Service we try and encourage kids to come out and get involved with restoration projects,” Little said. “We have a whole program of connecting kids to nature. This is part of that mission and a great opportunity for the OVS kids to get out and do some hands-on work.”

Not only will the grant provide great opportunities for students to learn about the islands and their ecosystems, its objectives dovetail nicely with the AP Environmental Science curriculum and advance the school’s long-standing commitment to hands-on learning.

“I think it’s all about experiential learning,” Little said. “You guys aren’t just sitting in a classroom learning about restoration, you’re actually doing it yourselves. You’ve experienced [restoration] so it provides you with a great learning opportunity. It brings more of the textbook into real life and you get to really experience it.”

Monique Navarro, education coordinator for Channel Islands National Park, couldn’t agree more. Moreover, she thinks the visits could help ignite in some students a passion to pursue environmental education and activism in the future.

“I think [this] can inspire students to think of different opportunities for what to study at university and beyond, and what different job opportunities are out there,” Navarro said. “[It can] also get students to appreciate and to protect these resources, so it’s our responsibility to preserve and protect them.”

The grant funds will be available through the end this school year. Future activities include a fifth-grade trip to Anacapa Island, a middle school backpacking trip to Santa Cruz Island, and a senior trip to Santa Cruz Island.

While school officials ponder future uses, the focus will remain the same.

On the windswept plateau at Anacapa Island late last month, senior Ally Feiss worked with several partners to scoop out the stubborn earth and plug in Dudleya, creating in about an hour a field of light-green succulents, the color of green beans, that had not been there previously.

Afterward, students worked in pairs to lug bulky water jugs from plant to plant, giving each of the new island natives a long drink.

“It was really surprising looking back that we as a group had done so much in such a little amount of time,” Ally said. “Aside from the fact that we are doing island education and restoration, it was nice to see how a little work goes a long way.”

Indeed, on this little island, the OVS students made a big difference – strengthening the habitat for native species and paving the way for future restoration work.

“The purpose of the grant is to provide an opportunity for kids to get experience out in nature and have a positive impact on the environment,” Little said. “This restoration project is important for trying to recover the island and the island habitat, and it provides the OVS kids a great opportunity for real, hands-on restoration.”

Click here to see photos from the 5th grade trip to Anacapa Island in March.

Middle School Students Venture to Costa Rica

Posted on April 25, 2016 //

By the time Ojai Valley School students hit middle school, most of them have hiked through the Piedra Blanca formations near Rose Valley. This Spring Break, 14 Spuds got to hike a similarly named, but vastly different, Piedras Blancas about 2,900 miles away. It was one of many adventures the OVS middle schoolers experienced during their 9-day stay in the heart of Costa Rica. Between April 8-16, they lived almost entirely off the grid and became white-water rafting, sugar-cane making, jungle-trekking eco-tourists. OVS kicked off the trip with an overnight stay in San Isidro General, then woke up early the next morning for a 4×4 off-road expedition to the community of Brujo. From there, the students, their chaperones and guides worked up an appetite with a 4-hour hike through the rainforest.

“The hike to our first homestay to the Lopez farm was incredibly challenging,” said 5th grade teacher and trip chaperone Michele Floyd. “I was very proud of the students for their ability to persevere and have a good attitude about it. They were mindful of hydrating, eating properly, and were patient and encouraging of each other.”

Their reward was a hearty, authentic Costa Rican meal prepared by Doña Flor in the Lopez family home. As they digested their gallo pinto, they got to know the Lopez family and explore the river that runs through the village. The next day, the Spuds helped their homestay family collect and prepare sugar cane. It’s hard work, the kids discovered, creating sweet treats — but so worth it in the end when they got a chance to taste their own sugar. They even made their own snacks by combining it with peanut butter.

But before they saw the finished product, they grabbed their gear and rappelled down a 120-foot waterfall surrounded by lush greenery. The Spuds also made time for community service. Back in Brujo, the students grabbed paintbrushes and helped paint a local church.

“For many, painting was a first-time experience (other than art class),” said Floyd. “They loved it and were very excited to know that this was a surprise for the priest who was arriving later in the week.”

The next day brought a visit to a local school, where the kids proudly presented a large donation of supplies for the teachers and student alike. On day 5, the Spuds got back on the water. A lack of rain this year gave the kids the opportunity to raft on Rio Savegre, dubbed the cleanest river in the Americas.

“Normally the Rio Savegre has class 4 rapids throughout,” said Floyd. But this spring, they were at a much safer class 2 or class 3. “The kids were attentive during the safety lesson and did outstanding during the adventure. Lots of laughs and smiling faces. We had many opportunities to jump out along the way and swim in calm pools along the river,” Floyd added. The group camped along the river, then got back in their rafts and headed toward the coast and lounged on a beach. There, they battled adorable — and crafty — monkeys. “While they were super cute, we quickly learned they are quite clever and persistent in their pursuit of human goodies,” Floyd said.

Ziplining, surfing and team-building activities — along with sightings of sloth, coati, raccoons, leaf-cutter ants, birds, bats, giant cockroaches and countless other creatures — rounded out an adventure that won’t soon be forgotten by the OVS crew.

OVS Takes Bold Water Saving Measures

Posted on August 26, 2015 //

As the mercury hit 90-plus degrees this summer, a thick layer of fluffy white material blanketed the equestrian arena at Ojai Valley School and left the distinct impression that it had just snowed.

In fact, the material layered across the riding arena at the Lower Campus was part of a significant water-savings project launched by the school to replace fine sand with a state-of-the-art irrigation system and new geotextile footing material that is expected to dramatically cut the school’s water use, saving about 500,000 gallons of water a year.

The move is directly in response to the ongoing California drought and continues the school’s commitment to environmental sustainability. It is also a significant improvement for the school’s renowned equestrian program, as few schools or boarding stables have embraced such conservation measures.

“OVS has emerged as a leader in the independent school community with its pursuit of environmental sustainability,” said OVS President/CEO Michael J. Hall-Mounsey. “These include dramatically reducing our water usage, incorporating green-building practices in new building projects, and embracing solar technology.”

Three years ago, OVS installed a 1,001-panel 274-kilowatt solar array that produces more than 95% of the electricity at the Upper Campus. For more than a year, food waste from the dining hall at the Lower Campus has been composted through a partnership with Harrison and Sons.

More recently, the school has begun the process of converting lighting fixtures to LED and installing high efficiency HVAC systems. It has also taken dramatic steps to reduce its water use on both campuses, replacing grassy areas with mulch and drought-tolerant plants, installing weather-based controllers, and optimizing irrigation.

“We installed network-connected irrigation controllers that respond to local weather conditions at the Upper and Lower Campus athletic fields at both campuses,” said John Wickenhaeuser, Director of Technology and Sustainability. “Additionally we have reduced watering rates on the fields to achieve a 40% overall reduction in water use, exceeding the current state requirements.”

Perhaps the most visible project for the greater Ojai community is what the school has done at the Lower Campus equestrian arena – removing fine dusty sand and replacing it with the new footing made from a mixture of quartz sand and polyester and synthetic materials.

Historically, water reduction has presented a challenge for the equestrian program due to the need to mitigate dust created when elementary and middle school students ride in the arena. In accordance with an Ojai city ordinance, the dust must be kept to a minimum for safety and that has traditionally been accomplished by watering the arena.

Several months ago, Equestrian Director Stephanie Gustafson began researching alternatives to further minimize water use while maintaining a safe and healthy environment for students, horses, staff, and the broader community.

“The best option for equine safety and environmental sustainability is to add a geotextile footing material,” Gustafson said. “This is the top-of-the line in terms of material used at premier equestrian venues, and further distinguishes OVS as a blue-ribbon equestrian program.”

Solar Sunsets

Posted on March 25, 2015 //

Two years ago OVS launched an ambitious solar project that has significantly advanced the school’s sustainability goals. The project includes 1,001 photovoltaic panels that cover 19,016 square feet of hillsides and rooftops at the Upper Campus. Launched in 2013 with HelioPower and Southern California Edison, the project was designed to supply 85% of the electrical demand for the Upper Campus, saving more than $64,000 a year in energy costs and reducing the school’s annual carbon footprint by an estimated 299,000 pounds. With planned additional energy efficiency measures and greater conservation awareness, the school hopes to move close to 100% renewable energy in coming years.

In addition to solar, here are additional ways OVS teaches and demonstrates its commitment to environmental sustainability:

•   PK-12 environmental education in classes and activities
•   Comprehensive recycling programs
•   Retrofitted lights with energy-efficient bulbs and fixtures
•   Water-efficient irrigation systems and plumbing
•   Drought-tolerant and native plantings
•   Non-chemical fertilizers, pesticides and cleaning products
•   State-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant at Upper Campus
•   Partnering with local farmers in our dining halls to provide local produce and growing vegetables in the school’s own gardens

Photo by Peter Chang, Class of 2015

Seeing the Forest with New Trees

Posted on March 16, 2015 //

By Lauren Rothman, Class of 2017

“Trees need people. People need trees. Welcome, Carl,” the 12 students chanted while trying not to slip down a precarious, dry slope under the beaming Ojai sun. They were gathered around a tiny, freshly planted oak tree that they named in honor of Carl Cooper, headmaster of Ojai Valley School’s Upper Campus.

This past Saturday, Ojai Valley School became home to 34 new coast live oaks, each named and welcomed as they were planted on a long, steep slope beneath the main classroom building at the Upper Campus.

The planting, on the heels of Arbor Day, was done in collaboration with Ojai Trees, a non-profit association founded in 2008 to maintain the health and beauty of the environment in Ojai, specifically the topiary.

“It was hard work, but it was worth it,” said senior Nakita Moler, one of the OVS Student Council members who helped with the tree planting. “I named my tree Jake, and if it grows to be really big and tall one day, and I come to visit OVS some time, I’ll think, ‘Hey, I planted that tree!’ ”

Ojai Trees co-founder Garrett Clifford, the father of three OVS alums, tirelessly works to maintain the health and inventory of the valley’s community forest.

“We realized that the urban forest in Ojai was predominately aging oaks and other natives, and that it was in less than good health,” said Clifford, who joined a handful of Ojai Trees volunteers at OVS on Saturday to help with the planting. “We needed to start planting if we want to continue having the trees we currently have in the Ojai Valley 50 years from now. If we plant trees today, 50 years from today we should still have the canopy.”

To that end, OVS has launched a significant forestation plan for the Upper Campus that will meet several goals.

In addition to further beautifying the campus, the newly planted trees will help stabilize the hillside on the north slope below Burr Hall, keeping the classrooms and the library on top of the hill, instead of possibly sliding down on to the soccer field below.

The forestation effort is part of a larger, environmentally proactive plan at the Upper Campus designed to replace existing grass areas with a drought-tolerant landscaping that will reduce water use for years to come, said Mac Lojowsky, the school’s director of facilities and grounds.

Over the next few months, Lojowski and his crew plan to remove 12,946 square feet of turf near the girls’ dorm. That area will be retrofitted with a new irrigation system, and will be beautified with decomposed granite walkways and 120 various types of drought-tolerant plants.

The project will hopefully be completed in about six weeks, Lojowsky said.

“This is a major project,” he said. “It’s going to immediately look nice, and it’s going to really look nice in about two years, and then incredible in about 20 years.”

Ultimately, the school hopes to advance its sustainability goals by becoming a net zero emissions campus, and the drought-tolerant plants, which will lower water use, will help move it toward that goal more quickly.

Two years ago, the OVS Upper Campus installed 1,001 solar panels on the south-facing side of the hill. Those panels now provide about 95% of the electricity needed to operate the school, according to Technology Director John Wickenhaeuser.

The panels allow the school to nearly be net zero with carbon emission.

“These trees early on, in their first 10 to 15 years, won’t do very much in terms of carbon capture,” said Wickenhaeuser, who also teaches AP Environmental Science. “But because they live to be 300 or 400 years old, once they get beyond 15 years, they start taking in carbon really rapidly. This is a long-term, down the road benefit from a carbon standpoint.”

In addition to reducing the carbon footprint, the project will beautify the campus to its students, faculty, and prospective families.

“One of the things about the Upper Campus is that it’s a stunningly beautiful setting for the school, so there’s not much you need to do to really enhance that,” said Tracy Wilson, the school’s director of admissions and marketing. “But some nice landscaping and planting some trees for the future so that kids will continue to see a really beautiful school is important, and this is going to go a long way to accomplishing that.”

The current students at OVS are excited to see these plans develop.

“I am excited because it is saving water that we can use for other things,” said senior Jenna McIntosh, “and because we are in a drought, I think it is appropriate to stop watering the grass.”

Mad Science

Posted on January 31, 2015 //

Next week, OVS will host the much-anticipated annual Science Fair for elementary and middle school students in grades 3-8.

Prepare to be impressed because our students have tackled a diverse range of creative projects, from the science of waves to understanding the flight of prehistoric birds. Some students have even chosen projects to help answer questions involving our own local Ojai community.

Each year, approximately 20 students are chosen to represent OVS at the Ventura County Science Fair and in recent years students have gone on to compete at the state level, notably with projects that reflect our STEAM curriculum and students’ interest in environmental science and related fields. OVS has a long history of top recognition at these events, but the purpose of the Science Fair is truly to celebrate and demonstrate the many ways in which experiential learning is taught, valued, encouraged an embraced by students across the grade levels. Please join us at Lower Campus on February 4, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Solar One Year Later

Posted on August 6, 2014 //

By Tracy Wilson
Director of Admission & Marketing

A year ago, OVS environmental science teacher John Wickenhaeuser looked across the array of deep blue solar panels gleaming in the late morning sun at the Upper Campus and imagined the future cost savings and future lesson plans the new solar array would provide students across the grade levels. A year later the project has exceeded those expectations, generating 96% of the electricity at the high school campus.

It has also served as a learning lab, with third-graders discovering the science behind solar, and high school AP Environmental Science students advancing their understanding of alternative energy sources.

From statistics lessons to physics labs, the solar project was envisioned as just this — a combination of smart business practices as well as an educational tool for OVS students for years to come. Now, classroom studies include real-time monitoring of the energy produced by the 1,001 panels that now cover 19,016 square feet of hillsides and rooftops at the Upper Campus. After the first week of production last spring, Wickenhaeuser’s students had already calculated that the system had saved 11,974 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions, or about the weight of an African elephant. Since then, the system has saved nearly 150 tons of CO2 emissions, or roughly the weight of 30 full grown elephants.

“We’ve always been a progressive school, and we’ve always been about caring for the environment,”
Wickenhaeuser said. “This really demonstrates the school’s commitment to those principles.”

Across the nation, solar power has become a hot topic.

Photovoltaic power systems are proliferating in response to lower installation costs, incentives, and greater awareness. University researchers, most notably at several University of California campuses, are now developing new technologies to improve efficiency and storage of solar power, as well as more futuristic enterprises. UC Berkeley researchers and students, for example, are developing solar cars, while UCLA researchers are building solar cells with near transparency to create a solar panel that looks like a tinted window.

Similarly, Ojai Valley School leaders saw a bright future in solar – from both an educational and a business perspective.

The project was launched in 2013 in partnership with HelioPower and Southern California Edison. It cost $1.5 million, but the school spent much less after taking advantage of grants and rebates. At a time when energy costs are increasing in California – 12% in the last two years – the project also allowed the school to fix a portion of its energy costs.

The system was designed to supply 85% of the electrical demand for the OVS Upper Campus, saving more than $64,000 a year in energy costs and reducing the school’s annual carbon footprint by an estimated 299,000 pounds. In it’s first year it produced 18% more power than the design specification. With planned additional energy efficiency measures and greater conservation awareness, the school hopes to move close to 100% renewable energy in coming years.

“The solar project continues the school’s commitment to sustainability and preservation of our natural resources,” OVS President Michael J. Hall-Mounsey said. “The school has taken a bold step to reduce its environmental impact and demonstrate that sustainable practices will be a cornerstone of the school experience as we enter our second century.”

Located on 195 acres at the end of Reeves Road, the Upper Campus provides an ideal location for solar. In addition to its hilltop buildings, the campus has a wide south-facing slope to capture the sun’s rays. The slope must be cleared annually for fire protection so adding panels posed no disruption to native plants or wildlife.

Construction on the project began in October 2012 and finished in March 2013 with the addition of 288 rooftop panels on Burr Hall, the boys’ dormitories and the Head of School’s house, as well as 713 ground-mounted panels on the hillside between the boys’ dorms and the Lucila Arango Science and Technology Center. The system went “live” on May 7, 2013.

“We have the space, we have the land, we have the southern exposure so we could take advantage of that clean source of energy,” said Carl S. Cooper, Head of School at the Upper Campus. “At the same time, we are increasing our consciousness about where our energy comes from when we turn on a switch and turn off a switch.”

Ojai Valley School made a decision on the eve of its centennial, to create and chart a sustainability course for the next 100 years and beyond. Those efforts have received wide recognition, including the prestigious 2011 California Waste Reduction Award Program (WRAP) and the 2009 Ojai Chamber of Commerce “Environmentally Conscious Business of the Year” award.

In April 2013, the County of Ventura recognized OVS with a Climate Change Action Award, an honor given annually to individuals, businesses, schools, and other groups in the county that have made significant contributions to combat climate change.

The award recognized the solar project but also the broader effort by students, faculty and staff to reduce campus-wide electrical use and promote environmental stewardship. Those efforts include adopting comprehensive recycling programs and water-efficient irrigation systems, retrofitting lights with energy-efficient bulbs, and planting drought-tolerant and native plants on both campuses. The school also partners with local farmers, including Friends Ranch, to provide local produce in its dining halls.

“OVS has made sustainable practices a cornerstone of the school experience for students, teachers and staff,” said Mac Lojowsky, OVS Director of Facilities and Grounds. “It affects all aspects of their lives and by definition it will influence how they live their lives beyond the school.”

Most importantly, school leaders say, is the way Ojai Valley School incorporates environmental education into its curriculum – from earth science in pre-kindergarten to AP Environmental Science – so students understand their role in preserving and protecting the planet.

“There is a constant message, going right on through from Pre-K to high school graduation, about how we take care of the planet,” Cooper said.

Raising students’ understanding of alternative energy sources is one aspect of the AP Environmental Science class. Wickenhaeuser’s students examine the economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of environmental science. This year, they will examine solar technology and the role alternative energy plays in communities locally and globally.

The monitoring tools at their fingertips include online monitoring and analysis tools report the production of each segment of the system in 5-minute increments. Students can see how production changes by the orientation of the individual solar arrays, the weather, and they can even see how a passing cloud temporarily decreases the system’s production. They can also compare energy output from various locations on campus.

Over the past year, Wickenhaeuser has checked the site frequently to track the school’s solar production. That is how he noticed one solar array on Tower dorm was producing less than those on the hillside and other rooftops in early July. Why? Morning and afternoon shade from trees near the dorm reduced production on those panels by 4 kilowatts per hour. That is not a significant amount. But it is the kind of real-life problem-solving exercise that he plans to have his students tackle.

For his part, Wickenhaeuser will continue be looking skyward.

“The funny thing is,” he said, “Now I am torn between rooting for much needed rain, and for sunny days!”