The first day of school for students in grades 1-12 was on Thursday and the Montessori Borealis Public Alternative School has a special way of celebrating the new year.
Montessori students brought flowers to their teachers and circled up outside the front of school to sing “Alaska’s Flag” and “The Golden Goats” in their 33rd annual “Wisdom Day.”
“Each flower represents each child and their uniqueness,” Amanda Spickler, the mother of two children at Montessori, said, bouquet in hand.
The celebration of “Wisdom Day” was brought to the United States in 1988 as part of a cultural exchange with Moscow School #31 and Lake Country School in Minneapolis, according to Rick Trostel, a music teacher at Montessori and founder of the school. He and his wife Chris brought the tradition to Juneau in 1992 for the first class of Montessori elementary students.
Montessori’s school song, “The Golden Goats,” was created by students in 2017 in partnership with local singer-songwriter Marian Call. “Alaska’s Flag” is by Marie Drake, Carol Beery Davis and Elinor Dusenbury.
The school year at the building that formerly was Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School began shortly after the transition of its programs’ previous locations, and the “Wisdom Day” ceremony ended with the oldest and youngest student leading the way into their new campus of Dzantik’i Heeni. Those students were Chase Van Linden and Eliana Porter. Porter ran up to take Van Linden’s hand in song after Trostel called out for a brave kindergartner.
Chase Van Linden and Eliana Porter, the oldest and youngest student, start the first day of school for Montessori Borealis Public Alternative School on Thursday morning by being the first two to walk through the doors. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
“We’re military so it’s really nice to come somewhere and be welcomed in for an educational life,” Shane Porter, Eliana’s dad, said. “And we love this community and everything like that. So it was very much a swelling of the heart.”
He said because of his military background, he lives by the phrase, “it’s not where you are, it’s who you bring with you.”
“It doesn’t matter what the building looks like, it’s the same school,” Porter said. “You can feel the love for these kids and the education system.”
Under the Juneau Board of Education’s reorganization and consolidation decision, optional and alternative schools moved to the Dzantik’i Heeni building.
At the campus are Juneau Community Charter School, which moved from Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, and Montessori and Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School, which moved out of Marie Drake. Currently students do not have a playground to enjoy at recess. The Juneau Assembly approved $75,000 for design of a playground at the Dzantik’i Heeni campus.
“When you love kids you’re prepared for anything and everything,” John Paul, principal of Montessori and YDHS said. “The kids won’t know if the building’s not necessarily prepared or not, but I will say that our maintenance and custodial staff for the district literally moved mountains this summer, and to do what they did in the time that was allotted is nothing short of a miracle.”
He said classrooms were ready to go on Thursday because of the maintenance and custodial staff. Paul said the DHMS campus offers more space and new potential with Montessori already growing by 30 students and Yaakoosgé Daakahídi also seeing increased enrollment.
“Yaakoosgé graduated 31 students and we’re going to start with more students than we had at the end of last year,” Paul said. “We already have 93.”
Paul said along with more students, YDHS has new class offerings, such as a pilot program for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank and the potential for future career technical opportunities.
“We’ve partnered with the food bank and we’re going to have a food pantry here for this Lemon Creek area which is going to be spectacular,” Paul said. “We have everything from food dehydrators to smokers and things like that. The food pantry has really helped us out and we’re helping them out, of course, with a pilot program for them. We’re hoping that it’s really successful and we can expand this to other schools in Juneau.”
DHMS has three separate wings for each area — YDHS, Montessori and Juneau Community Charter School. Downstairs consists of the Juneau School District’s IT office and District Food Services.
Chase Van Linden and Eliana Porter sing “The Golden Goats,” the school song of Montessori Borealis, during the 33rd annual “Wisdom Day” on Thursday. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Corey Weiss, principal of the Juneau Community Charter School, said the last time their school moved was six years ago. Like Paul, he’s also excited for more students.
“It will make it easy for us to grow, which that’s our hope,” he said. “We’ve put a lot of resources towards recruiting over the last few months and getting new students. The other thing is having access to art room, culinary room, gym, which we didn’t have at JDHS.”
There are 76 kids enrolled in the charter school as of Thursday and Weiss said he anticipates more.
Weiss said the charter school’s goal is to support children who may not want to sit at a desk all day. The students participate in outdoor activities and Weiss said a key component of their school is families are more involved than in any other school.
“Our parents volunteer,” he said. “Parents run the school. We have our own school board, it’s called the APC. It’s composed of parents who govern the school. They make policy and it’s my job to enact policy. It’s a school run by parents for parents and their kids.”
Adrienne Williams said she attended the charter school open house with her two children on Tuesday and touring the location made her feel confident in the recent move.
“We were at JD last year so it’s no different than sharing a school with somebody else,” she said. “It’s actually nicer because now they are around kids closer to their age. A lot of parent volunteers came and helped.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.
Rick Trostel (right) a music teacher at Montessori Borealis and founder of the school, leads Montessori Borealis through the song “Alaska’s Flag” on Thursday morning before the start of school. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
