This morning I went to the north end of the Dome Campus for the opening ceremony of the Central Sierra Arts Council's program called "KASA," which means "Kids Art Studies Academy." The building which houses it used to be the Sonora Parent Nursery School. Later on, I also visited the Master Gardeners demonstration garden at the south end of the campus. It is a beautiful spot, thanks to the work of the Master Gardeners.
There is something else going on up at the Dome Campus. The new baseball field is under construction. Doesn't all this sound like a community center in the making?
At the KASA opening ceremony, Connie O'Connor and friends were honored for the work they did to bring the Parent Nursery school into the 21st century, re-cast as an arts academy for children. Among the crowd of well-wishers were many former students of the Nursery School, now grown and working in leadership roles around town. The interior of the building has been refurbished and is decorated with art.
When I came by the demonstration garden, a class was being conducted by a Master Gardener. The students were seated before him on folding chairs. Master Gardener Jack Bennett and I sat apart from the class and had a little chat. He didn't know that this garden was another project I was able to get off the ground when I was the principal of nearby Cassina High School. Our students made good use of it for several years before the Master Gardeners came along to help us and then eventually open the garden up for the whole community to work in and enjoy.
My morning at the Dome Campus reminded me that there is a value in longevity. The Parent Nursery, baseball field, and garden were all good ideas many years ago when I experienced them in a different form. Today, they are all changing into even better ideas. Why? For starters, from north to south, I would say there are three reasons: Connie O'Connor and her friends of the arts; Dave Crocker and his friends of the field; and Jack Bennett and his friends of the gardened Earth.
We're lucky that some excellent people have joined forces to bring us such strong and needed quality-of- life improvements on the Dome Campus. Very lucky.
