'Wonderful schools here,’ Rotary told
The local school board is a member of CSBA and Del Norte was just one of Campbell’s stops on a Northern California tour. She had positive things to say about the schools she saw, and told members of Crescent City’s Noon Rotary Club to take care of their schools because the state won’t always do it.
“This has been a tumultuous year,” Campbell told the Crescent City Rotary Club on Thursday, referring to the state budget crisis that has the Del Norte County Unified School District facing a $1.4 million cut in funding.
The most recent budget agreement cuts $8 billion from California schools, she said, adding “it’s going to be horrendous.”
CSBA is made up of school board members, superintendents and senior administrative staff all over California. Local School Board member Bob Berkowitz is on the CSBA Board of Directors.
The organization, along with the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, has formed a task force to try to reform the state budgeting system.
“It’s difficult treading into waters we don’t know,” she said about fiscal reform. “We have great hopes for the task force, even though it’s scary.”
She told the Rotary Club that there are “wonderful schools here,” but it’s important to remember that it takes families and teachers who know how important education is to children.
“Sometimes it’s hard to see,” she said. “But they (children) notice everything. What you do in schools makes all the difference.”
Campbell got the chance to see some of the diversity of Del Norte schools, including the tiny group of students at the school in Gasquet, one of the continuation school for high-schoolers and the elementary school in Smith River that has a large Hispanic population.
Trekking up Highway 199
Campbell’s first stop with Del Norte School Superintendent Jan Moorehouse on Thursday was Mountain Elementary School in the hills of Gasquet.
There has been some talk about closing Mountain School as a cost-saving measure and busing those students into town. The school has about 26 K-5 students and two teachers.
Moorehouse said she and the School Board do not want to close the school because it’s an important asset to the community. In addition, the district could lose the school building if it were closed.
She explained to Campbell that the school burned in 2001 and was rebuilt two years later with the help of multiple donations — 95 percent of the new school was paid for by outside resources — including land donated by the California Department of Fish and Game. If the school were to close, Moorehouse said, the district would lose the facilities.
The kids at Mountain School are placed into classes with children in three different grade. There are obvious challenges with teaching the material for three grade levels in one class, said Principal Deborah Reynolds, but students receive a lot of individualized attention so they understand exactly what they’re expected to know for their age.
In one of the classrooms Campbell visited, a handful of kids were sitting quietly, reading along with their teacher who had a book about tropical rainforest open on her SMART Board screen.
After seeing the campus in its own temperate rainforest, tucked away beneath the evergreen trees with the rushing Smith River nearby, Campbell said she couldn’t imagine closing the school.
“You have really found a constructive way to meet needs,” Campbell told Reynolds, referring to the multi-grade level classrooms after visiting the classrooms.
An alternative high school
The principal of Sunset Continuation High School, Suzie Dooley, said there has been a bit of a reformation at the school.
She explained to Campbell how the students at the school on Elk Valley Cross Road used to come to school and were given packets of homework to do on their own time with limited classroom instruction. Starting this school year, Sunset began instructional class periods with time for individual study.
The students at Sunset are typically those who were struggling at Del Norte High School or are young parents. They can come to the continuation school and catch up on credits and go back to DNHS or stay and graduate from Sunset.
“There’s direct instruction and active participation,” Dooley said about the atmosphere in the classrooms. “It’s not just sit here and listen to a lecture.”
There is a nursery for the 13 babies and toddlers of students, and parenting classes are held.
The burgeoning vocational classes at Sunset include workshop, culinary arts and a “ropes course” at the nearby Florence Keller Park.
These classes give students some “diversion” before they go back to their regular classes, Dooley said.
The classrooms at Sunset High are similar to a typical high school. Some students listened to a lecture and some gazed off into space. But there were also kids using computers in a classroom or sitting at tables to work on their own. In the nursery, young moms took a few minutes between classes to see their children.
After viewing these classrooms, Campbell asked Dooley if the school’s new approach to learning was working.
“We’ve found direct instruction to be very successful,” Dooley said.
A community-built school
Like Mountain School in Gasquet, Smith River Elementary School is a school treasured by its community. The children of Smith River have a school near their home and local residents have a place to gather.
Campbell got to take a look at the the new Smith River Open Door Clinic housed at the school, which will serve the whole community when it opens Monday.
The school has Internet bandwidth capabilities for telemedicine, Moorehouse explained. Children and adults can see a nurse at the clinic who converses with a doctor via TV and Webcam about the patient’s symptoms and what medication might be needed.
It’s the first school in Del Norte with telemedicine, said Principal Paige Swan.
“This is terrific,” Campbell said checking out the animal-themed clinic, “a great thing to try.”
The K-8 school has just under 300 students. One of its unique qualities is the large Hispanic population.
“One or two kids come to us with no English,” Swan said. “It’s amazing what we can do in 10 months.”
Those students who are English-learners take a class to develop their English skills, but are also imbedded with other kids their age in regular classes, such as the fourth-grade class that was learning about animals Thursday.
About half the room was filled with hands shooting up into the air, desperate to answer the question of what type of animal eats plants
“Ahhhh!” was the sound of disappointment as only one student was given the chance to give the correct answer of herbivore.
A moment of reality hit as Moorehouse explained that the fourth-grade teacher will probably receive a lay-off notice.
“I hate that March 15 deadline” (for issuing layoff notices) Campbell said to Moorehouse. “It’s so discouraging.”
