Editorial 2.5, May 2000, by Deirdre Helfferich A School for Ester? Gary Wilken came to the Golden Eagle Saloon on March 25th for his annual talk with the local constituents, and there was indeed much talk, a lot of it on education. One woman asked about the possibility of starting a local elementary school, to which Gary replied that it wasn’t something he could do anything about--but he did suggest taking the local school board out to lunch. The idea struck a chord with me. I can just see a bunch of the local parents chatting up the current school board at some nearby diner, discussing options and possibilities and providing the usual healthy quotient of opinions on everything from architecture to curriculum to staffing to lunch menus. A school is a good idea: there are lots of local kids, from kindergarten age through high school, and the other schools in the district are a mite big. A new school for this end would be pretty fun, would avoid the commute, and would be guaranteed to have lots of parental involvement, not to mention the two cents from all the other sorts out here who suspect that a good education makes for a thoughtful and politically active citizenry. The idea isn’t new. Back in 1910 we had a little one-room schoolhouse (still in existence in West Ester, in much modified form) and a schoolteacher to boot. But it wasn’t much more than glorified daycare and didn’t last more than a year or two, according to local historian Matt Reckard. And there have been a few people over the years who have suggested reviving it, some offering their services as potential teachers. I asked a few parents and some nonparents what they thought of the idea of having a school out here, and people seemed receptive to it. Most seemed to think that starting with an elementary school rather than a full kindergarten through high school was best. Everybody seemed to think that any local school should not be like the regular schools in the district. I can’t imagine that any school out here would be run in the ordinary way--not without running into quite a few vociferous parents wanting more than the system would be capable of giving them (lack of funding nips a lot of cool ideas in the bud). Perhaps a charter school or an alternative school would fit in better with the varied tastes of the eclectic mix of folks out here. So I called up the school district and ended up talking to a friendly lady named Phyllis, who told me that the state allows a certain number of charter schools per district. There are two charter schools in the Fairbanks North Star Borough so far, and another one or two would be possible. All one has to do is get the application, fill it out, and then get the proposal with the curriculum approved by the school board. Hence, I suspect, Gary’s suggestion about lunch. A good lunch would probably do nice things for everybody’s analytical powers. So I asked for the application, and it should be on its way to the Ester Republic in a few days, where interested parties are welcome to take a look at it. | ||
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