OJAI : Elementary School’s Founder Dies at 90

Educator Monica Ros, founder of a private elementary school that has been educating Ojai Valley children since 1942, died Wednesday at an Ojai hospital. She was 90.

Ros opened Monica Ros School along an Ojai country road in 1942 at the urging of parents who were impressed with the children’s music and dance classes that she gave in her home in the 1930s, said school director Alice Meyer.

Begun as a preschool, the Monica Ros School now extends to third grade. The school has 146 students and 32 full- and part-time staff members, Meyer said.

Ros was headmistress at the school and taught Spanish and music until 1968 when she retired, Meyer said. She continued to help at the school until recently, Meyer said.

Ros’ teaching style was “very loving and very firm,” Meyer said. Ros’ written evaluations of students--sent to parents and kept on file at the school--were filled with keen observations delivered with charm and diplomacy, Meyer said.

“She believed in developing the whole child and developing their sense of self,” Meyer said. “She didn’t see any two children as the same, as you can see from the evaluations.”

“She was a charming, ladylike and formal person,” Meyer recalled, adding that friends and staff always called her Mrs. Ros.

Meyer said Ros has no known survivors. Funeral arrangements have not been made yet, she said.