The Small School Experience in Northern Door
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
By Gary Jones
The rural school experience is an important part of Americana, the belief that the one-room school in many respects was best. But advocates of a large-school education will point to broader academic curricula, expanded extracurricular choices, better educational facilities, and options for exceptional students to achieve at higher levels.
People living in northern Door County, however, have no local big school alternative. Sevastopol and Gibraltar have K-12 enrollments of about 600 students; Washington Island, only 79.
Door County offers rich vacation opportunities for tourists; does it do as well for its students?
Steve Cromell, completing his second year as administrator of the Sevastopol School District, and Joe Majeski, serving as elementary principal for over 20 years, both take pride in the success of their unique school.
On a recent Wisconsin Knowledge and Concept Exam (WKCE), Sevastopol sophomores ranked 10th in the state among small schools, and first in northeastern Wisconsin. The average ACT score of last year’s seniors was 22 out of 36.
Each year Sevastopol students excel in two academic extracurricular activities. First, the Destination Imagination competition, which requires student teams to present creative dramatic solutions to a challenge. “We are one of the top three or four schools in the state,” Majeski said. “We score in the top 10 and have won 12 world championships.” And second, Sevastopol regularly receives state awards both for the school newspaper and yearbook.
In sports, Sevastopol does well, too. “For a small school in a much larger school conference,” Majeski said, “we are competitive.” And in the small school tournament division the school sends teams to state and has earned championships in softball and cross-country.
While a small size isn’t an advantage in sports, it can be in education. Elementary classes range from 15 to 18 students; in the high school, 13 to 14. “I’ve been in a number of school districts in different states,” said Cromell, “and I have never seen [the level of] parent volunteerism in an elementary school that I’ve seen at Sevastopol.”
“We expect our parents to be involved,” Majeski said. His goal is an extended family environment in the school, an objective more easily realized because K-12 students are housed in one building and ride the same buses.
“Older kids have contact with younger kids,” Majeski said, citing as examples fifth grade bus partners for kindergartners, fourth grade reading buddies with kindergartners, and high school mentoring of elementary at-risk students. “The concepts learned in a family,” he said, “sharing, compromise, understanding from multiple perspectives, caring for each other, can all be learned in a small school.
“If you walk through the elementary school,” he continued, “you’ll see high school students. And if you walk through the high school, you’ll see elementary students in a science lab or a computer room.”
Majeski, also a school psychologist, believes that students need a positive adult influence over an extended period of time to develop values and appropriate behaviors. At Sevastopol, elementary teachers fill those roles, he said, as they know their students well, continue to see them as high school students, and sometimes have them return as classroom aids.
He also believes that the opportunities kids have to participate in athletics and other school activities, regardless of their talent level, nurture positive attitude and self-esteem. While Sevastopol does have student discipline issues, the administrators note that they are minor. “The state is concerned with school expulsions,” Majeski said. “I can’t remember when we last expelled a student.”
Cromell has spent over 30 years working in small schools. “There is a tremendous advantage working in a small district,” he said. “I wanted my children in a small school. Everyone who works in small schools feels that way.”
Further up the peninsula Gibraltar School Administrator Stephen Seyfer, 6-12 Principal Kirk Knutson, and K-5 Principal Judy Munsey also advocate the small school experience.
Academically, Gibraltar excels. Based on state assessments, Advanced Placement (AP) test scores and International Baccalaureate test scores, US News and World Report selected the high school as one of six Silver Medal winners in Wisconsin.
In some respects Gibraltar is a public prep school; last year’s seniors took the ACT with an average score of 24.6. Each year approximately 30 students complete AP coursework that allows them to take 60 to 70 AP exams.
“Strong personal bonds make a small school superior,” said Munsey, “especially for elementary children. Students make strong connections with teachers and peers.”
Smaller class sizes also help nurture relationships. Average class size in the elementary school is 14 to 16 students; in the high school, 16 to 17. Middle school classes are larger to accommodate “flex block” scheduling for team teaching, enrichment, and remediation opportunities.
“One of the greatest advantages of a small school is the feeling of security we can provide for our students,” Knutson said. “We can understand kids as individuals, and help them understand their place in the world.”
But it isn’t just what happens within the school building. Munsey points to community involvement in small schools, “a network of support for kids.”
“One of our greatest benefits,” Knutson said, “is that we get to be the hub of the community.” The athletic facilities, the auditorium, the YMCA across the highway and the adjacent Peninsula State Park offer opportunities for students to participate with members of the community.
As at Sevastopol, more students are involved in the arts, athletics, and other activities. “There aren’t cuts,” Seyfer noted, “[so there’s] the opportunity to be involved, the chance to be a star or to be in the support cast.”
Knutson, also the high school’s athletic director, noted the success students have enjoyed in extracurricular activities. Soccer and baseball teams have been regional champions; track, forensics, and theater compete at the state level.
Perhaps because of the small school environment, as at Sevastopol discipline is not a problem in the school. “Kids can be naughty,” Munsey said, “but there are no significant safety issues.” Knutson agrees. “Sometimes we may have verbal disfunctions,” he said, “grafitti, some verbal harassment, but seldom physical issues.”
And just as discipline is not a problem, neither are dropouts. “It’s difficult to become invisible,” Seyfer added. “Kids are known on a first name basis.”
But with the advantages of a small school come the disadvantages imposed by geographical isolation and a limited curriculum. “These kids have to face a competitive place when they leave here,” Seyfer said. “We try to give them the ability to straddle both worlds.”
Technology has helped rural Gibraltar students become more cosmopolitan in their outlook. “The internet,” Seyfer continued, “has allowed our kids to have the protection of space and the irrelevancy of place.”
Munsey also pointed out that the Friends of Gibraltar, dedicated to providing enriching arts and environmental programs to students, brings artists in residence to students, broadening the world of their experience.
The curriculum at Gibraltar has been expanded by technology. “We had 78 students taking 97 virtual classes last year,” Seyfer said. Perhaps technology, above all else, is the great equalizer in education.
Off the tip of the peninsula is the smallest of the three Northern Door school districts, Washington Island, with a unique approach to education. Adjacent grade level classes are often combined using alternating year curricula. District Administrator Dr. Susan Churchill-Chastan finds Washington Island “a wonderful place to live and work.”
As at the other two Northern Door schools, island students do well, she said. Many years 100 percent of the students score either proficient or advanced on the WKCE and exceed the state average score on the ACT. All of last year’s six seniors plan to continue their education.
“Our students get so much individual attention,” Chastan said. “We know all of our kids and all of their parents. There is a sense of family here, and of family support.”
As might be expected, discipline is not an issue in the school. “We have some of the problems of bigger schools,” Chastan said, “but no where near the level. We have no gangs or weapons.”
Twelve teachers, assisted by parents and volunteers from the community, make up the staff at Washington Island. Local artists, the Island Players community theater group, and the Washington Island Music Festival Committee bring cultural opportunities to students.
The physical boundaries of the school are extended by the proximity of the Trueblood Performing Arts Center, the Community Center, and the Mosling Recreation Center, creating a hub, as at Gibraltar.
But the geographical remoteness of the island offers challenges for the small school district. For example, some seasons an interscholastic sports team can’t be fielded because of low athlete numbers or no available coach. Competitions involve small private schools on the mainland, requiring considerable travel time, and sometimes the ferry schedule necessitates an overnight stay.
Other travel, both educational and social, is scheduled for students, such as an interdisciplinary weeklong trip for 11th and 12th graders traveling to Madison and Chicago. Also, fifth and sixth grade students travel to the Milwaukee Public Museum to view an exhibit on the Titanic as a part of National Geographic Society’s JASON Project, studying extreme environments.
Not all trips off the island are to far places. The high school English teacher takes her upper class students to neighboring Rock Island State Park to enact the classic epic Beowulf. Sevastopol students are invited to attend the performance.
Northern Door administrators agree regarding the advantages of a small school education. In some respects their schools offer the best of both worlds, a technological link with the realm of big school education and an instructional intimacy reminiscent of the one-room schools of our past. If you are in the market for diamonds or bonuses or pieces of pie, size matters. But if you are picking schools for your kids, bigger is not always better.
Visit Northern Door schools at www.sevastopol.k12.wi.us, www.gibraltar.k12.wi.us, and www.island.k12.wi.us.