Eagleview in the News

The Deer River based Western Itasca Review featured our summer projects in a page 4 spread in the September 28th issue.

"With controversy over their school name change, and rumors of closing, behind them volunteers at Eagleview School in Squaw Lake are moving forward with plans and activities to update the school for the 21st century. Formed in July, the non-profit Eagleview Community Foundation draws members fom the local area, as well as distant alumnae, with a goal of not only keeping the school open but making it a community resource for all ages.

As its first major project the foundation took on replacement of the cocrete at the school's front entrance, complete with a watchful eagle embedded at the front door. From there attention turned to painting the hallways, bathrooms, and lockers. Next up for the board of directors is completing Minnesota's application process to convert Eagleview to a charte school with a focus on technology.

'We have asked the ISD 318 school board to sponsor our charter application.' says Foundation President Toni Wilcox. 'This would really be a winning situation for everyone,' she adds. 'The district will lose all of the Eagleview students to open enrollment if the school closes, so we draw nothing away from them as a charter,' She ocntinues, "Working in partnership we can adopt innovations in technology, community involvement, and most importantly in research based teaching, that would serve as a model for the district and beyond.'"

If you'd like to see the pictures featured with the story come to the October 12th Foundation meeting and take a look.

Charter School Budget Workshop

Chuck Speiker, finance expert from the Charter School Resource Center at the U of M's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs will be at Eagleview on Thursday, November 2nd to help develop a budget for Eagleview as a charter school. This will be a major step in the application process and if you are reading this post you are invited to attend the 6-10 PM workshop. More information to follow as the date nears. For an overview of the steps we'll be going through click here.

Nerstrand Elementary Video

Students ring the Nerstrand bell on the first day of kindergarten and again when they complete 5th grade.
A diehard group of Eagleview supporters stayed after dinner Saturday at Riverhaven Lodge to watch the Nerstrand DVD. Nerstrand was the first public school charter conversion in Minnesota and their experience is similar in many ways to Eagleview. The school district headquarters is located some distance away in a much larger community (Faribault), the school was going to be closed because of low enrollment, and the community saw that something significant would have to change about the school to attract and keep students. Ironically the feature they chose is one of the things people criticize about Eagleview-multigrade classes. Though Nerstrand has enough students to separate students by grade level from K-5, they have deliberately chosen to teach students in self contained kindergarten, 1-3, and 4-5 classrooms.

If you would like to see the video please contact Toni at (218) 659-4271.

Community Needs Survey Update

ISD 318 paid the postage for the Eagleview Community Needs Survey and we are happy to report people are responding. Professionals in the direct mail business are very happy if they get a 3-5% response rate. We have received 31 completed surveys from our initial printing of 250 for a 12.4% response rate!

We'll be analyzing the responses and will use them to help prioritize Foundation efforts. As of today the top needs include day care, high school completion opportunities, a community clinic and computer related items (training, access, online courses).

Digital Connectors-A Model for Youth Volunteers in Community Technology

Digital Connectors is a program which uses young people aged 14-21 to train their communities in the use of computers and the Internet.

The Foundation has contacted the Digital Connectors' director for more information about their training program as well as how they recruit and retain youth volunteers. Want to learn more? Check out the link above, and attend the Eagleview Community Foundation annual general membership meeting on September 19th at 7:00PM at Eagleview School.

First Grant Applications Submitted

Applying for a grant is a time consuming process with no guarantee of success, but keep a good thought. The Foundation submitted two very worthy grant applications this week.

First we requested $270 from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation mini-grant program for public or school libraries. If funded, this grant will allow us to add some computer instruction to the Eagleview 2007 Summer Reading Program for K-6th graders. The proposal calls for students to be able to publish book reviews, complete with audio and illustrations, on the worldwide web. The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation announces grant winners in early December.

The second proposal is a pre-application to the Northland Foundation to pilot the Community Technology Center. If successful we'll receive $8,300 to combine with funds already committed by the city of Squaw Lake. The money will be used to extend the school library hours for community use of the school computer lab, train employees, buy some computer hardware and software that the center will share with Eagleview, and maintain the equipment. We'll find out if Northland is interested enough to ask for a full grant proposal in late October.

September 19th Meeting Approaches!

Our first annual general membership meeting will be held at Eagleview School on Tuesday, September 19th at 7:00 PM. Come out to elect board members and officers, see the Nerstrand Elementary Charter School DVD, and visit with ISD 318 School Superintendent Joe Silko. We also hope to have the District 1 County Commission candidates who make it through Tuesday's primary.

First Day of School!

I was a little too tired of being in the building, and far too tired of handling a paint brush, to really enjoy a sense of accomplishment as we put finishing touches on our work yesterday. With a good night's sleep, a couple cups of coffee, and absolutely no reason to be at Eagleview today I find myself wishing I'd been there this morning to see and hear the students' reactions to the new look at school.

Many, many thanks to Brian, Celeste and Tristan Williams, Becky and Tom Kallio, Mike Hoeschen, Brian Schaar, Glen Heitland, and Pat Rowan. Without their willingness to share their talents, time, and equipment we would still be moaning about how terrible the school looked.

We will have a volunteer appreciation dinner on Saturday, September 23rd at Riverhaven.

More Members!

New memberships received this week include Debbie and Andy Michalek and Pat Kraft. If you see them around town be sure to thank them for their contributions to the Eagleview Community Foundation!

Before and After, Eagleview Style

Old concrete and worn signs used to welcome students each day. When school opens on Tuesday they'll now be greeted by brand new concrete and signs and a watchful eagle.

Eagleview in the News

Grand Rapids Herald Review reporter Marie Nitke was at the school board meeting on Monday and wrote a long front page piece about the Foundation presentation to the school board. If you missed the article in the paper you can read it here Eagleview Elementary seeks charter school status.

Concrete Work and Lockers Complete

Mike Hoeschen avoids the camera yet again.
It's the last weekend before school starts so the push was on yesterday to finish our major projects before children return to Eagleview. Mike finished up the concrete around the eagle, which will be unveiled some time today.

Tom Kallio painted lockers all day Friday. We'll be putting the hardware back on today if anyone wants to stop by to help.