The visit to Rancho Cielo Youth Campus on February 7th started with a light rain in the parking lot at Chili’s. Despite that, most of those going had brought their Porsches. We had 17 people and 14 cars. The cars were dispatched in two groups to drive through the back roads of north Monterey County. The rain that seemed light at the parking lot got heavier at 60 mph and even at 40 mph on the back roads. The first group missed the turn for Paradise Road and had to make a U-turn to go back to it. When we got to Echo Valley Road, the group that had managed to stay together got stretched out due to waiting for traffic while making the turn. Then the rain turned into a brief downpour. It lightened up again as we made our way onto Crazy Horse Canyon Road, but persisted while we turned onto San Juan Grade Road, then Hebert Road (which became Old Stage Road), then Natividad Road and Old Natividad Road, which took us to Rancho Cielo.
Once there, we were met by Joe DeRuosi, Senior Education Director, who introduced us to retired Judge John Phillips, the founder of Rancho Cielo, and gave us a brief rundown of the program and its history. The location was originally a county dump, but was acquired by Judge Phillips with the intent of turning it into something that could help young offenders. It has grown into a trade school with five different tracks: Ag Tech, Auto & Diesel Repair (which has a paint booth), Construction & Sustainable Design (which built an ADU that took 1st place at the Orange County Fair), Welding & Fabrication and the Culinary Academy. Only 18% of the nearly 200 students come from the criminal justice system, with the rest from the community. Assistance is provided to the students in all areas needed for them to be successful, including transportation, housing, counseling, completing their education and finding a job. The culinary academy prepares meals for the students and employees. Financing comes from many local businesses as well as government grants. The classroom building and amphitheater were built by volunteers.
We started our tour with the Construction classroom and work area, then the Welding classroom and work area. We visited the lunchroom, which has a view of a recently completed solar panel farm. Then we moved on to the Ag Tech classroom and work area (where the students are working on drones and an apiary). This area also has two beautiful 50’s era cars (a Buick and a Cadillac) that were donated to be auctioned to benefit the school. Judge Phillips showed us before and after photos of his classic MG that was restored by the students. From there we went to the Auto Repair classroom and workroom, which has two lifts for working on cars and an outside tent for additional storage. Then it was time for lunch. We were treated to the hot dog lunch prepared by the Culinary Academy, which we picked up in the lunchroom and carried past the Peace quilt in the lobby to the upstairs conference room. There are also two classrooms upstairs.
After lunch the sun was out and we went outside to the ADU in the parking lot that won 1st place in the 2023 Orange County Sustainability Decathlon. The building is 1,000 sq ft with a 200 sq ft loft. It has a large kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and living room, and a sun room that can be converted to a bedroom. The loft area has two separate spaces that can also be used as bedrooms.
Past the ADU and uphill from the main building are houses for students that need housing. Across the parking lot are the buildings that house the Culinary Academy. There is a dining room, full kitchen, bar and outside dining area with a view of the valley. The Culinary Academy serves a prix fixe dinner every Friday night to anyone who wants to come.
Below the Culinary Academy is a gym. Walking past the Culinary Academy you come to the amphitheater, which hosted a music festival with Los Lobos recently.
To learn more about Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, visit www.ranchocieloyc.org/.
To view the Rancho Cielo Photo Gallery click on one of the images.
