Tehachapi News

The Art, Science and Technology of volunteering

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For more than five years, the abandoned agriculture facility located at the corner of Dennison Road and Anita Drive has sat vacant, gathering debris and weeds.

The Arts, Science and Technology Committee (AST) of the Tehachapi Unified School District hosted a community clean-up event on May 30, initiating  the transformation of the abandoned facility into an  Agriculture/Life Science laboratory and classroom at no cost to the school district.

Approximately 30 volunteers spent the day removing brush and weeds, hauling trash and scrap,  pressure washing the buildings,  including a large animal enclosure, storage facilities and green house.

“The mission of the Arts, Science and Technology Committee is to enable educators to enhance the classroom experience, supplement the core curriculum, and foster a creative atmosphere during the teaching/learning process,” said committee member Nick Altieri.

According to Altieri and fellow committee member Alisha Loken,  the facility will include a garden, chickens and goats cared for by district students, a kitchen for teaching the culinary arts and a greenhouse.

“This facility will provide all district students with an opportunity for hands-on study in the applied arts, science and technology,” said Loken via e-mail. “Examples of planned projects include solar and wind energy learning programs, the study of micro-climate, and hands-on learning about farming, animal handling, botany, etc. ”
All programs offered at the facility  will be available to all schools, teachers and students in the district.

“The goal is to make the programs sustainable over time,” Altieri said.

An acorn to oaks project and a  pumpkin patch are just a few of the first to become available.

Numerous businesses and groups in the community have already come forward to provide assistance, Loken said.

The next step in the clean-up process will be assessing the supplies needed to complete repairs on the facility.

“Mr. Gividen's math class at Jacobsen Middle School has joined the effort and estimated the amount of roofing materials that will be needed to re-roof the facility,” Loken said.

The committee is looking to the community for donations of roofing materials, including sheets of plywood, paper and shingles. A roofing contractor willing to supervise efforts to re-roof the facility is also needed.

Labor will be provided by community volunteers and the committee members.

“Much of the debris cleaned out of the facility will be recycled with the help of Benz Sanitation and all metal wastes will be sold as scrap to help raise money to fund the programs presented at the site by the committee,” Loken said. “The AST would like to thank Benz Sanitation for donating dumpsters and restrooms, to Tehachapi Albertsons for donating water bottles, to Mary Beth Garrison from and Kern County Second District Supervisor Don Maben for donating work gloves and handling the dumping fees and to Keep California Beautiful for donating T-shirts. The AST committee would also like to thank all the volunteers who spent their Saturday at the clean-up.”

For more information on the Art, Science and Technology Committee you can visit their website. To access the site go to the school district website at www.teh.k12.ca.us/ then use the link on the left side of the page for committees then Art, Science and Technology Committee. Or e-mail the committee directly at ast@hdwireless.net.

Posted June 8, 2009; Volume 110 - No.9, print edition June 10, 2009.