Somis, California

Somis
—  Unincorporated area  —
Somis Location within the state of California
Coordinates: 34°15′26″N 118°59′43″W
Country	United States
State	California
County	Ventura
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP codes	93066
Area code(s)	805
FIPS code
GNIS feature ID

Somis is an unincorporated area of Ventura County, California, just north of the Camarillo city limits. Its generally recognized boundaries are the areas around the intersection of Somis Road (State Route 34) and Los Angeles Avenue (State Route 118), the latter being the dividing line between uptown and downtown. Its official boundaries are any residences in the 93066 ZIP Code. It is in the area code 805.

As of 2000, the total population was 2,946 It is primarily an agricultural area, but is home to a fire station, a hardware store, a market known as the Somis Market which is also a Mexican cafe, a post office, an elementary school, several shops including the Somis Nut House, one main residential tract and numerous estates and ranches. It has no formal local government, but it is serviced by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and the Ventura County Fire Department.

Education

Somis School Grades K-8 http://somisschoolreunion.myevent.com/3/miscellaneous2.htm

SOMIS TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BUILT IN 1895

Beginning as two separate school districts with seventeen students in each, what is now Somis Union School District presently has 50 staff members and serves approximately 500 students.

The Las Posas School District actually predates Somis, opening its first one room school at the corner of Bradley and Highway 118 in 1888. It was moved further up Bradley Road the next year and served all area students until 1895 when the first Somis School opened on the site of the present Somis Thursday Club building. Before relocating to the present site in 1924, the building (a twin to the building at the corner of Highway 118 and Center School Road) contained five classrooms rooms.

Research at the county school offices archives gave the names of the teachers in 1895 - Estelle Wolf at Los Posas and Anna L. Tillotson at Somis. By 1899 the records included names of the three trustees in each district and by 1905 salaries for the teachers, $60.00 per month for Las Posas' Olive Phelps and $65.00 for Phoebe Eaton in Somis. The research shows that Somis continued to pay more and by 1917 Marjorie McKee made $900 a year while Lula France only made $630 at Las Posas.

By 1919 two teachers were working at Somis; by 1921 the first teaching principal was named after having been supervised previously by the county superintendent. Mildred Wright made $1575 a year, and her staff member Elizabeth Murley earned $1215 a year. 1925 saw a third teacher added and in 1929 the first male principal Glenn Roper had a staff of four others.

The trustees that year were Irene Kitchen (mother of Jack), Ralph Harris (whose daughter Nita would become principal in 1946) and U.D. Underwood. By 1931 the staff of five included Theodora Mahan as 3rd and 4th grade teacher and who would become principal in 1936.

She was still principal in 1940 when the two districts merged and Somis Union was now governed by five trustees. Perusal of trustees' names reveals five families where two generations took turns on the board (Snyder, Kitchen, Underwood, Hawley, and Bean) and the Fulkerson family has three generations, beginning with J.F. in 1909, Jack in 1942 (WWII interrupted his service-he was back on in 1960) and Bob in 1988.

Somis School has always been a magnet for community activities from 4-H club and scout meetings, athletic events (the ball field lights attracted teams from all over the county in the 1920's) square dancing and cotillion, classes and meetings of every kind.

The community was so rural and housing so short following WWII that it became necessary to furnish on site housing to the custodian/bus driver. Mr. Thompson and his family first lived in a converted bungalow. His wife, Cecil, managed the cafeteria and helped clean the school. The cafeteria was started right after WWII by a mother's group wanting hot lunches for the students. Busing was a service by 1937 and probably earlier. The school library was begun by the Mother's club in the '60's and its current home was built in 1992. Instrumental music instruction began in the late '40's. Kindergarten was added in '49 during Helen Doolin's years as principal, with Ailene Mahan as the teacher for kindergarten during the mornings. In the late afternoon Mrs. Mahan taught grades 7 & 8 to relieve Mrs. Doolin's half day for administrative duties.

The old auditorium became the Discovery Room in the late '60's while Charles Jones was superintendent/principal and housed classes in photography, cooking using the old cafeteria stove, pottery, plant propagation, wood working, and science under the direction of teacher Gary Scofield. The Discovery Room was active housing teachers Tom Buhring, Ruth Toops and Debbie Keever until new science portable buildings were built in 1997 under Superintendent Richard J. Malfatti. The discovery room became the home of the Somis Independent Study program and the new Somis Academy, run by Pam Owens and Carol Andersen.

Mr. Jones served the district as superintendent for 27 years followed by Dale Forgey serving the district as superintendent for 12 years, followed by Thelma Edmundson serving the position for 4 years and currently serving the position is Mary H McKee. Long time school secretary Jean Tillotson retired in December 1994, after 31 years with district.