MEET THE TEACHER by Sigrid Toye, Ph.D. Ms Toye is a former L.A. Unified School District teacher and has worked as an educational-behavior therapist in private practice since 1979.
Amy Alzina: Cold Spring School
Fifth graders working on their Ukulele Adventure project
Cold Spring School’s Sara Di’ Saldo (music and drama), Dr. Jean Gradias (steam teacher), and Amber O’Neill (art teacher)
C
ontaining myself from shameless bragging about the outstanding schools in our community is something that is extremely difficult to do! I’ve had the good fortune to visit quite a few of them over the last few years – from preschool to high school – and there’s never been a moment where I haven’t been
14 MONTECITO JOURNAL
impressed, in fact awed, at the excellent educational opportunities the children and young people are offered in the Santa Barbara area. Each school has its own individual approach, character, and philosophy but what they all have in common is excellence in education and teachers that truly care. So far my pride has been appropriate
for an objective columnist but if my pride spills over just a tad this time, I hope you’ll understand. It came to my attention that one of our local schools nestled in the Montecito foothills has been chosen as one of the top elementary schools in the state of California. On January 7, 2020 the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, announced that Cold Spring School was selected for the California Exemplary Arts Education Award. To be recognized as an Exemplary Arts Awardee the school must offer access to the arts and STEAM (ScienceTechnology-Engineering-Art-Math) with instruction to all students in a minimum of three of the five arts disciplines: Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts. The schools recognized this year represent a broad cross-section of educational models that serve a diverse demographic of varying sizes across the State of California. But there’s more to tell! The California Department of Education made its determination based on Cold Spring student scores from the 201819 school year – from September 2018 to June 2019 – an academic year that began just months after the devastating dual disasters that impacted the entire community of Montecito. Think about that! Beginning with the Thomas Fire that inundated the South Coast with unbreathable air, voluntary and mandatory evacuations, the uncontrolled flames approached the hills of Montecito accompanied by 70-mile an hour gusts of wind. The advent of the resulting flames closed Cold Spring School for two weeks ahead of the winter break, a welcome but too short hiatus from Mother Nature’s wrath. Tragedy struck once again however, days after the children returned to school. The great “every 200 years rainstorm” and the massive mud tsunami of January 9, 2018 decimated and isolated the entire area. The Montecito
“Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you’re in.” — Richard Jeni
Amy Alzina, Superintendent of Cold Spring School District
community was devastated as hundreds of homes were lost along with friends and loved ones swept away in the great wall of mud. The debris flow touched Cold Spring School in a deeply personal way. Amy Alzina, Superintendent of Cold Spring School District recalls, “The single worst moment for me was when I discovered that two of our students, a kindergartner and a 6th grader, had been carried away. It was hard for me to get my mind around that.” Little Pasta Sutthithepa, the kindergartner who lost his life during those dark hours, continues to be in the hearts and minds of everyone at the school. The Exemplary Arts Education Award for which Cold Spring School is presently honored is an exemplary achievement considering the challenging school year of 2018-19 in the months following the disaster at a time when Montecito was still recovering. Residents who lived through these tragic days can appreciate how difficult it is to cope after a weather event as monumental as this one: imagine then, the task of not only completing a year marred by evacu-
TEACHER Page 204 13 – 20 February 2020
