Return of the One-Room Schoolhouse

This is the northern tip of Mendocino County, where small white houses and the Pacific Ocean line the only road through town. Oak and elk and rambling gardens beg a second look, but the sharp curves and sheer drops of California 1 won’t allow it.

Those who stop find the general store, the volunteer fire department and the Westport Village School. Set on a hill next to a church and with a stunning view of the sea, the portable classroom is the state’s newest one-room schoolhouse.

“This school has become the physical heart of the community,” said Kathleen Oakes, teacher at the school since September. Her 5-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter are among her pupils. “It’s been a hard start--it took us seven years to get to this place, but it’s become something for people here to rally around.”

Nine children ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade spend their days in the first school in the area since 1965 and one of 33 one-room schools in California.

Elsewhere in the nation such schools are vanishing, but California has seen a 22% growth in one-room schools in the past five years. Flexible work hours and telecommuting have increased the numbers of families with school-age children who can make a go of it in the country, and the number of small country schools continues to grow.

With names like Crazy Horse, Chinese Camp and Bear Valley, the small schools reflect the history of the rural and often remote communities they serve. The oldest, Lincoln Elementary in Petaluma, was founded in 1872. The smallest, Johnsondale Elementary in Kernville, has two students.

At the new Westport school, every inch of the small box that is Kathleen Oakes’ classroom is in use. The letters of the alphabet march along one wall. Handmade kites float down from the ceiling. A trio of rats doze in a cordial pile in a corner of their cage near a couch.

A supply closet jammed with paper, crayons and glue yields the drawings and collages that decorate the place. Work sheets with math problems and spelling tests await review. A bouquet of paper flowers, purple lilacs, golden sunflowers and creamy calla lilies makes a splash of color on the lunch table. A picture window faces the rugged hills and the silver mist rising from the ocean beyond.

On warm days, the children eat lunch outdoors. When the wind blows and the fog rolls in, they sit inside near a salmon tank filled with a shimmering cloud of fingerlings. The tiny fish disperse when approached, but always regroup to face north toward the Eel River, where they were spawned. Next month the class will return the fish to their birthplace, then follow their hoped-for progress on a life cycle chart hung next to the tank.

The Westport Village School solves a major problem for parents of small children in the town of about 200. Students who attend schools in Fort Bragg spend two hours each day riding the bus, a hardship for smaller children. Now, they can walk to school and spend the first few years of their education close to home, among friends and with a familiar teacher.

“Riding the bus was hard,” said Rachel Davis, an 8-year-old with red hair and a quick smile. A gifted reader, she looks forward to drawing and art classes.

“I have my friends here and that’s good,” she said. “But going to a bigger school with more kids will be fun, too.”

There is no sign of the struggle to create the school.

Community members lobbied for seven years to get the Westport Village School started. Various members of the Fort Bragg Unified School District board opposed the idea, as did some administrators.

The tide turned in 1998 when Steve McMahon, newly appointed superintendent, championed the tiny school. The school board secured funding--which roughly equals what it costs, per child, to educate other youngsters across the district--and gave the Westport Village School three years to succeed.

“There were serious concerns about putting a school back here, and those concerns are still there,” said Linda Rosengarten, president of the school district board, referring to its small size, uncertain funding and unproven community support.

“For everything you think will be wonderful about the school, you can find a reason why it’s not so good,” she said. “But good teaching is good teaching, and that’s what’s at the heart of any school.”

Barbara Buell, who serves as principal for Westport as well as nearby Redwood School, said the one-room school is on the right track.

“I think this is a very special place, “ Buell said. “Kathleen is a gifted teacher who is doing a wonderful job, and having a school close to home is important for the children and the community.”

Teacher Trisha Fedderly is in her 14th year at the Bear Valley School in Alpine County, where students range from kindergarten to eighth grade. She attended a one-room school as a child, and understands parents’ worries about isolation.

Fedderly tells parents in her district that children who spend time among a wide age group learn patience and tolerance, which gives them an edge when they leave school. Older students can cement their own knowledge when they help the younger ones, and feel pride in their accomplishments.

Small classes also allow advanced students to study beyond their grade level, while those who struggle can get extra help without stigma, she said.

“I have a first-grader doing third-grade math, and a third-grader working at the first-grade level, and neither realizes it,” Fedderly said. “The challenge for the teacher is making sure you’re reaching all the students and not boring the ones ready to go on, or talking over the heads of the others.”

Rusty Vardy, the teacher, principal and superintendent of the two-room Indian Diggings School and district, is an advisor to the Small School Districts Assn. in Sacramento. Like larger schools, one-room schools rely on the cooperation and the support of their communities to succeed, he said.

“I worked with two schools 50 miles apart, and in one, the community and staff were divided and the school suffered,” he said. “In the other, everyone was on the same page and the school was a success.”

The town of Westport faces something of a final exam. After their prolonged struggle to establish the school, can the townspeople support and nurture the school for the next three years?

“Children in a small-school setting find real-life situations and can have a very rich and rewarding experience,” Vardy said. “Larger schools can learn something from small schools; I hope the Westport school succeeds.”