Living History
Wine and Viticulture Senior Courtney Gillespie Introduced Viticulture Curriculum to Grade Schoolers.
As the deep toll of the bronze bell ringing from the belfry echoes through the valley, a group of schoolchildren make their way up a dirt road headed toward a pristine, white one-room schoolhouse.
The girls dressed in long, bonneted dresses and the boys in denim pants and plaid shirts, bring to life the Living History Day that the third-grade class from the nearby Santa Ynez Valley Charter School is about to experience.
The Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse, dating back to 1869, was built using shiplap redwood siding and a shingled roof by two neighbors in just three days. It closed in 1936 and went through several reiterations and before ultimately falling into disrepair. The McEnroe’s moved it to their sprawling 1,008-acre cattle ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley in 2006 with the sole intent of restoring as a gift to the community. Today, it is recognized as a Santa Barbara County Building of Historic Merit.
The couple has strong ties to the community – including Cal Poly. In June, Cal Poly awarded honorary doctorate degrees to them in recognition of their accomplishments and community dedication. Paul McEnroe, who directed the IBM team that developed the barcode, has served as a member of the Cal Poly President’s Advisory Council for 30 years.
Tina McEnroe is a state and national award-winning education specialist, holding a reading specialist teaching credential from UC Santa Barbara and a special education teaching credentials from Cal Poly. In 2008 she was awarded the Cal Poly School of Education Alumna.
The McEnroe’s dedication to preservation also pertains to their Rancho La Purisima, which is protected by a conservation easement in a partnership with the Santa Barbara Land Trust for Santa Barbara County— protecting the agricultural nature of the lands and its wildlife habitat. Tina has also placed conservation easements on her ranches in Monterey County, assuring the preservation of the agricultural lands into perpetuity.
Tina McEnroe plans to continue her relationship with Cal Poly and is working with officials to partner with the Cal Poly Strawberry Center on her farmland in Salinas. She is also seeking to develop a reading lab at Cal Poly similar to one she launched at UC Santa Barbara called the McEnroe Reading & Language Arts Clinic to serve the community’s challenged learners.
“I’ve known Tina for many years, and her energy and enthusiasm are contagious” said College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences Dean Andy Thulin. “She has a true passion for both agriculture and education, and we are so fortunate to partner with both Paul and her on these wonderful projects.”