New Beginnings

From the Executive Director

January seems to bring out my organizational and planning inclinations for Living Classroom and myself: I purge files and closets, make lists for improvements, and set somewhat achievable goals – along with the usual “read a book a week,” lose 5 (or 10) pounds, and so forth.

Not all of my plans and goals come to fruition – but I try hard to make sure some do. 

Some of my goals for Living Classroom in 2022 include:

• Continue to provide fun, engaging, relevant lessons to students in the 19 schools and programs we serve.

• Encourage our parents and community stakeholders to embrace environmental education. Now more than ever, our students need to know and understand the importance of what we do now to our earth will make a difference forever.

• Assure ongoing, sustainable structure to maintain a strong, professionally staffed and trained organization that our partners are proud to support.

• Remain healthy – now more than ever!

Stay tuned -- I will keep you informed as to how we are doing.

A Living Classroom Hero

Living Classroom is so fortunate to have the support of many generous individuals and community organizations. One of our most loyal and generous grantors has been the El Camino Healthcare District. The Healthcare District (ECHD) has  generously supported our work in Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) year after year since 2015. ECHD has provided more than $510,000 in funding to Living Classroom, almost  from the first year of our MVWSD program.

The ECHD grants have supported Living Clssroom’s Farm to Lunch program from its inception, in addition to underwriting the school district’s Food Truck that makes fun lunch-time tastings possible (pre-COVID). In addition to Farm to Lunch, the ECHD funding allows us to provide hundreds of additional  lessons to MVWSD students each year. During the 2020-21 academic year when Living Classroom  lessons were delivered remotely, the ECHD continued to support Living Classroom even though Farm to Lunch wasn’t possible (Living Classroom’s harvested veggies were donated to the Community Services Agency). Living Classroom is proud to partner with the ECHD and is deeply grateful for their ongoing generosity and confidence in our work!

Several parents at Bubb School (Mountain View Whisman School District) have been busy! A team of hard workers provided much-needed improvements to the Bubb gardens: A bench that students enjoy got a complete new redo, and the compost bin was repaired. Both the new bench and the compost bin received a new coat of paint. Many thanks to these Bubb parents!

More Heroes

Living Classroom is proud to recognize the milestone anniversaries of our talented, resourceful, and hardworking staff members:

• Patti Berryhill, Living Classroom’s first Garden Manager, was hired in July 2015 for Mountain View Whisman’s program and now supports all our garden teams with her encyclopedic knowledge (only a slight exaggeration) in horticulture and landscaping. 
  

• Susan Harder, talented Classroom Educator and Materials Coordinator in Mountain View Whisman, has been with Living Classroom since September 2016. Susan is one of Living Classroom’s two “Mary Poppins” who magically manage to source all the materials needed for each lesson and have the kits ready to go every day for our six educators in the field.
  

• Anne Furlong, Materials Coordinator for our Campbell program and the other “Mary Poppins,” started with Living Classroom’s Mountain View Whisman program in August 2013, took a break for a few years, and returned to support our Campbell program in 2019! Anne’s attention to detail and organizing expertise are legendary. Currently, Anne also works as an aide in the Campbell School District, so she is putting in long days – with a smile and can-do attitude.

A huge bouquet of native flowers to these hardworking, valuable team members for their many years of combined service.

New Faces

Adrienne Mauney has joined our team to support Campbell schools, the new Oster program, and Braly School! Adrienne joins us after teaching English as a Second Language and Outdoor Education for the last five years. Adrienne  has a side hustle working for an innovative farm operation in south Santa Clara County. Adrienne will also provide bilingual instruction at some of our school sites, as well as providing our organization with greater cultural equity by translating into Spanish our lessons and send-home materials.