Tag archives: MUS

Crane Country Day School Graduation The Crane Country Day School 2024 Eight Grade Graduation – “Go Coyotes!” – was held on Wednesday, June 12, at 10:30 am. The walkway to the graduation setting on the sports lawn showcased pencil drawing portraits of the graduates on easels. Parents and families sat at round tables with formal […]

Bustling laughter and a sense of nostalgia filled Lower Manning Park on May 30th, as Montecito Union School alumni and their families reunited after six years, amidst an array of parent-provided sweet treats. The class of 2018 MUS graduates, now the class of 2024 high school graduates, woke up bright and early on a school […]

The Montecito Union School Foundation (MUSF) annual gala fundraiser was held on Friday, April 12 at the Rosewood Miramar Beach Montecito. This year’s formal affair – Côte d’Azur: A night in the French Riviera. The important fundraising gala assures that the resources of MUS will continue and be added to. It awards grants towards the […]

This week I met up with Emily Stone, an MUS alumna and current graduate student at the University of Oxford. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College, Columbia University studying Environment Sustainability and Human Rights, Emily made the move to the U.K. to pursue her passion for conservation science. In our conversation, Emily introduced […]

As MUS superintendent Anthony Ranii mentioned to the Montecito Association earlier this month, AHA!, a local nonprofit serving teens, families, and educators in Santa Barbara County, is now utilizing MUS’s Nature Lab for its Littlest Little Farm.  The Littlest Little Farm, launched in fall 2019, is one of the nonprofit’s afterschool programs, teaching participants about […]

This graduation issue has, in order of occurrence: the YMCA Preschool, Cold Spring School, Laguna Blanca Lower School, Montecito Union School, the El Montecito Early School, and Crane Country Day School. The Montecito Journal wishes much success and congratulations to our graduates, school faculty, staff, and parents! YMCA Preschool 2023 Graduation The YMCA Preschool 2023 […]

During community reports at this week’s MA meeting, Montecito Union School’s Anthony Ranii said the school’s largest fundraiser, the MUS Carnival, is slated for October 22. The fundraiser for the MUS Foundation raises funds to enhance the school’s academic, athletic, and arts programs; enrich the student experience with technology, curriculum, and improved classroom resources; and […]

Just days before school goes back in session following summer break, Montecito Union School is busy getting classrooms rearranged in order to accommodate what will ultimately be two years of construction in order to modernize campus infrastructure.  The project, which is 15 years in the making, includes improving infrastructure and accessibility in Building D (over […]

At last week’s Montecito Association (MA) meeting, the Board discussed what has become a hot topic in many communities across the country: fractional home ownership via Pacaso, a Bay Area-based company that buys homes and then sells fractional interests in them to second-home buyers. After the sale – in which the company makes a profit […]

At a quiet Montecito Association meeting earlier this week, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Lieutenant Butch Arnoldi reported on crime in Montecito over the last month.  There have been several residential burglaries including near the Polo Fields, on Romero Canyon, Tiburon Bay Lane, School House Lane, East Mountain Drive, and on Ortega Ridge. Lt. Arnoldi said […]

Last summer, just a couple of months before Montecito Journal’s 2nd annual The Giving List book was published, Clean Coalition’s work to stage a Community Microgrid in Montecito – a first step toward establishing renewables-driven energy resilience for the vulnerable area – was still largely in the planning stage. The goal to establish individual Solar […]

‘Tis the season to celebrate the plethora of annual holiday concerts at schools around Montecito, with many restricted in-person events held outside due to ongoing concerns over COVID-19. Here is Part I of our roundup from Santa and me: Cate School Cate School’s motto is “Servons” (we serve), which is noted in its holiday tradition […]

Last Wednesday evening, hundreds of Montecito Union School parents, kids, teachers, staff, and members of the Montecito community came out to celebrate the grand opening of its Nature Lab, a project which has been in the works for nearly 15 years. “I want to thank the Montecito Union School board members, past and present, for […]

Montecito Union School will host a ribbon-cutting event this week, to showcase its unique 2.5-acre Nature Lab, a facility that allows its students to grow their own crops, learn outside, and even interact with a tortoise and some chickens. The students at the enviable elementary school were a big part of the process about how […]

Montecito Union School is moving forward with some much-needed – and long anticipated – improvements to campus next summer, which will take over a year to complete. “This project has been fifteen years in the making, and has gone through a huge number of changes,” said Superintendent Anthony Ranii, who sat down with us earlier […]

When I arrived at the Montecito Journal, I received some push back for writing about affairs outside of Montecito. But I felt strongly then, and still do, that many aspects of life in greater Santa Barbara are integral to the lives of Montecitans. That goes for healthcare, social impact work, the development of downtown, the […]

I entered my 20s in the pandemic. Ten years prior, you would’ve found me in Mr. D’Alfonso’s fourth-grade classroom at Montecito Union School. It was a good year. It was a big year. We started algebra and my friends taught me how to change the background image on a computer, so we could all have […]

Saturday, May 22 will be a very exciting evening for Montecito Union kids, parents, and the greater community, as Montecito Union School hosts a virtual gala featuring professionally produced musical performances from MUS students. Dubbed “Montecito Star,” the event is in lieu of the Montecito Union School Foundation’s annual gala, which raises money for various […]

I was in Ms. Balch’s first grade class when Anika Wilson was my Older. Anyone who attended MUS remembers the Olders-Youngers system. This program paired up students from different years, introducing younger students to a new upperclassman friend every year and eventually becoming a mentor to the next generation. I loved this program and remember […]

In an effort to provide a special experience to their 5th grade class, teachers at Montecito Union School brought Colonial Williamsburg to MUS. “Most years, fifth graders are able to attend the D.C./Colonial Williamsburg trip as a culmination of their studies of the early history of our country. Clearly, that wasn’t in the cards this year, but our […]