Problems Crop Up at Famed Farm School

On a dusty, rustic patch at the edge of the UC Irvine campus, the spirit of the ‘60s is clashing with the reality of the ‘90s.

And the ‘90s seem to be winning.

The famed Farm School, an alternative elementary campus founded 25 years ago that has won plaudits from around the world for its innovative approaches to teaching, faces an uncertain future at this site, where wandering coyotes and the dance of ravens and hawks in the sky become lessons of the day.

Just 80 feet from where the youngest of the school’s 52 pupils gather for instruction in an early 20th century wood-frame house that was once part of the historic Irvine Ranch, the university by the start of next year plans to begin building a 100,000-square-foot student recreation center.

Long-range plans call for a possible expansion of the recreation center and nearby roads. Housing for up to 8,000 students eventually would go up around the recreation center to help cope with the fastest-growing enrollment of any UC campus.

The administration has not included the Farm School in its long-range plan for the area, and officials say they do not know if the school will have to move from the site in the future.

Although the university says the Farm School can remain on the east campus spot for now, and a top administrator recently suggested that a new site for the school ultimately can be found, the school’s advocates contend the character of the Farm School is forever changed already.

Bulldozers and backhoes, which may begin arriving in the midst of next school year, are incompatible with hummingbirds and coyotes.

“A lot of what happens there happens outdoors,” said Susan V. Bryant, interim dean of biological sciences and mother of a pupil at the Farm School. “The kids spend a lot time learning about animals, geology, weather, plants. During construction they will have to spend most of their time indoors.”

What’s more, the new $15.3-million building will eliminate the pastoral view of horse stables and a grassy meadow that help make this hilly rural corner an oasis of sorts on a campus undergoing a building boom unprecedented since its founding 31 years ago.

There just is no other spot on campus like it, says Michael J. Butler, a retired UCI social science professor and former dean of undergraduate studies who is the school’s director and co-founded it as an experimental lab in 1969.

“You can’t re-create this anywhere. This is a field trip, it’s like a standing field trip out here,” said Butler, whose school emphasizes individualistic, creative learning and eschews traditional letter grades and learning levels. Pupils, who are taught in three small houses once occupied by ranch hands, are divided into “littles,” “bigs,” and “uppers,” which encompass the traditional kindergarten through sixth grade.

The approach seems to work. Demand for enrollment is heavy and graduates score one or two grade levels higher than their peers on statewide standardized tests, Butler said. The UCI-affiliated school chooses its own students and charges $520 monthly tuition.

Administrators know well the quirky school’s strong reputation, but they face a dilemma. With UCI enrollment expected to grow 25% in the next 10 years, they say they must erect more buildings, even at the expense of diminishing the 1,500-acre campus’ rural flourishes.

UCI students have long complained about the overcrowded and dilapidated recreation facilities at Crawford Hall. Last spring, in what the campus newspaper called the largest turnout in 15 years for a referendum, students overwhelmingly approved an assessment of $88 per quarter to pay for the new recreation center.

Richard G. Demerjian, director of campus planning, said the east campus site was picked because it allowed for the minimal amount of grading and environmental impact while fitting in with the overall campus design, which calls for the central campus to be like an urban core ringed by “suburbs” containing research facilities, housing and recreation.

“The Irvine community and Irvine campus are growing,” said Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney Golub. “A rural character is not a long-term option for any part of the campus.”

Golub suggested University Hills, an on-campus residential area for faculty and staff, might make a suitable new site, but stressed that no decision would be made until the issue is discussed with the school and parents, about 40% of whom have ties to UCI.

That lack of certainty for the future has frustrated and dismayed the school’s backers, many of whom offered testimony at a recent hearing to gather input on the recreation center’s environmental impact.

They point to a historical assessment in the project’s environmental impact report that called the Farm School structures “significant” because they are among only a few buildings remaining anywhere with ties to the old Irvine Ranch, which at its peak occupied a quarter of present-day Orange County and played a primary role in the region’s economic and settlement trends.

But more than anything they fear the loss of a unique school, studied by German social scientists and teachers looking for a model to copy as well as UCI professors who have used the school--and its students--for their education and psychology research.

Christine Lofgren, an advisor and lecturer in UCI’s psychology department whose son attends the school, recalls urging university students she encountered to vote for the recreation center. At the time, she didn’t know where it was to be located, assuming it would go somewhere near Crawford Hall, off Bridge Road.

But now, she said, she is dismayed at the prospect of construction going on so close to the school, where psychology students often drop in on classes to complete assignments on child behavior and learning. She and others are waiting to see if the final environmental impact report, due in advance of a Board of Regents vote on the project this fall, addresses their concerns.

“I hope people are listened to and the regents listen to people and recognize this is a step backward,” Lofgren said.

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Changing Scene

Planned construction of a new 100,000-square-foot recreation center will change the character of the area around UCI’s famed Farm School. Long-range plans for more development may mean the school would be forced from its present site.