An Oak Grove School Update • April 2023

Above: 3rd-5th grade students perform at their Spring Showcase.

April 2023

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From the Head of School

A couple of weeks ago, students, staff, parents, and Oak Grove School Board members had an opportunity to meet with our Artist-in-Residence, Benjamin Mertz. These talks were enlivening, informative, and a poignant reminder of the work still to be done.

Benjamin challenged us to be listeners – to put ourselves in rooms and among groups of people with different stories than our own. The invitation is to then “listen to those stories.”

Listening to the stories of others relates directly to this year’s school theme to listen with great care, attention, and affection. Each year, we choose a theme as a way to frame our ongoing inquiry into the intent of the school as articulated by our founder.

What does it mean to truly listen without judgment or without filtering what we are hearing through the lens of our own conditioning? Can we listen beyond the words that are spoken? How do we listen when there is so much input from the world around us, so much input from our own thinking, from our ideas about how we should act, about how we are supposed to feel?

Imagine a world where this quality of deep listening was commonplace in business, politics, and in our homes with our families.

— Jodi Grass

Theme Video

Enjoy this year's video reflecting on our theme — To listen with great care, attention, and affection.

In Memory of Ellen Hall

Ellen Hall graced all of us with her radiant energy, beautiful heart, and beaming smile. She devoted her life to following her spiritual path and guiding those around her with her ageless wisdom, clear vision, and joyful spirit. A loving mother, grandmother, sister, friend, teacher, and confidante to many, her soulful approach to all she did made a deep and lasting impact on the community of Ojai.

Ellen strived to live a life "in service to humanity," as is evidenced by the many organizations that she helped found or in which she held leadership roles. Since moving to Ojai in 1980, she had a leading role in many organizations that make up the heart of this town: She co-founded the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and served as the Executive Director for nine years. She co-founded Laurel Springs School and authored the Kindergarten-8th grade homeschool curriculum, and was a co-founder, teacher, and administrator of Mountain View High School, which was a small alternative school to Nordhoff from 1986 to the late ‘90s.

She served on the Ojai City Council and was Mayor of Ojai in the late ’90s, as well as Youth Commission Coordinator in the early 2000s. She was Executive Director of the Ojai Valley Museum, she was head of Oak Grove School for five years, and she was also the Executive Director of Meditation Mount.

She was named a Living Treasure of Ojai, selected for her environmental contribution, which in addition to the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy included co-founding the Besant Meadow Preservation Group, and later leading the Ojai Valley Green Coalition as President. Her environmental activism dated back to the 1980s when she traveled to the South Pacific to protest against nuclear weapons testing. She published two books, Listen to Your Inner Voice in 2001 and High Schools in Crisis, What Every Parent Should Know in 2004.

Ellen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 11, 1942, and had four younger brothers. The family moved to South Dakota when she was young, eventually settling in Altadena, California, and later in Woodland Hills. In the ‘60s Ellen began her career at ABC, heading their film library. She later founded and was the Executive Director of Cottage Co-op Nursery School in Pasadena in the ‘70s.

In recent years, her passion for children, nature, and her lifelong spiritual practice led her to focus her work on teacher and parent education around soul-directed learning. She founded the California Teacher’s College and completed the manuscript for a book titled Soul Matters in Education – A Secret to Learning and Teaching Children with Joy.

At the end, she summed up her advice for life, which she lived by, “Enjoy your life, and love everyone.” She was an inspiration to those who knew her and will be held in loving remembrance by her son Mike Rubalcava and daughter-in-law Carrie Rubalcava, daughter Serena Handley and son-in-law Anthony Ellison, grandsons Nick and Quinten Rubalcava, Curren and Michael Ellison, and her four brothers Tim, Tom, Bill, and Patrick Hall.

A Celebration of Ellen’s Life is planned for April 30th from 2 to 4pm at Meditation Mount, 10340 Reeves Road in Ojai.

2023 Tea Fundraiser Speeches

Tap below to watch the presentations from the speakers at the 2023 Fundraising Tea.

Lizard Talks – Amber Deylon

As part of the ongoing Lizard Talk series, Death Midwife Amber Deylon met with high school students to discuss and reflect on death and grief. Amber gave a brief overview of the work of a Death Midwife and discussed how dying has become industrialized in modern society.

Amber offered a reframe that “Grief is Love” and that death is always happening – the greatest teacher of this being nature. She also offered the question, “Can we be comfortable with the notion that all living beings, including ourselves, will die?” The students learned an embodiment exercise to help move through grief, as well as a gratitude meditation to bring thanks for the preciousness of life.

Benjamin Mertz

As described in the Head of School's opening segment of this newsletter, read more about Benjamin Mertz, who was our artist-in-residence earlier this month.