{"id":18205,"date":"2017-06-25T22:49:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T04:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=18205"},"modified":"2017-06-25T22:52:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-26T04:52:46","slug":"in-wyola-a-little-school-is-making-big-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/06\/in-wyola-a-little-school-is-making-big-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"In Wyola, a little school is making big plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-18205\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"18205-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-Hiwalker.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-Hiwalker-771x487.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Eighth-grader Garious Hiwalker gets enthusiastic about the xylophone in Heidi Scharr's music class.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-buses.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-buses-771x304.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>School buses make the morning rounds in tiny Wyola.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-Backbgones-771x529.jpg*771*529\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-Backbgones.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Pamela Backbone teaches preschool in Wyola. Her husband, Bill Backbone, is on the school board. Pamela's great-grandparents donated the land the schools sits on.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide4\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-copier-771x621.jpg*771*621\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-copier.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>In the main office at Wyola School, space is at a premium.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide5\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-hallway-771x546.jpg*771*546\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-hallway.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Between classes, students crowd the hallway of the main building at Wyola School.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-overview-771x415.jpg*771*415\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-overview.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The school dominates the town of Wyola, which sits in a valley not far from the Wyoming state line.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-gym-771x520.jpg*771*520\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-gym.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Students get some exercise in the Wyola School gym.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide8\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-paint-771x576.jpg*771*576\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-paint.jpg\" \/><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Art teacher Maggie Carlson displays some of her students' watercolors in the school library, which sometimes doubles as an art room.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"18205-slide9\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-lab.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-lab-771x656.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>John Warner <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>In Dorcella Plain Bull's fourth-grade class work at a computer station. When kids are doing web-based testing, every other computer on campus has to go off-line or the internet connection will fail.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 18205, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/06\/in-wyola-a-little-school-is-making-big-plans\/', 9 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>WYOLA \u2014 It\u2019s 9 a.m., the start of the day in Dorcella Plain Bull\u2019s fourth-grade classroom at Wyola School. A drumbeat is playing over the PA and all of Plain Bull\u2019s students are standing up and singing the Wyola district song, singing in the Apsaalooke language of the Crow Indians. They sing it every morning before reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n<p>Each of the six districts of the Crow Nation has its own song. The Wyola district song was written in the early 1960s by the father of Levi Yellowmule, the school\u2019s athletic director. The song references \u201cthe Narrows,\u201d a place north of the school, said to be the narrowest part of the Little Bighorn Valley.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people who live above the Narrows are good people,\u201d the song says. \u201cGo and visit them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost schools don\u2019t sing their district song,\u201d said Linda Pease, the Wyola superintendent, principal and substitute teacher. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky. Our cultural program is stellar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That they sing it in Apsaalooke reflects the school\u2019s commitment to preserving and promoting Crow culture. The people of Wyola, in turn, take great pride in their school, for good reason. The Wyola School is about all Wyola has left.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, one by one, little Wyola, population 215 as of the 2010 census, lost its bank, its train depot, its stores and its gas station. A new gas station and convenience store, owned by the Crow Tribe, burned to the ground in November, a month before it was expected to open. All there is in Wyola these days, besides a scattering of houses or the deteriorating remains of houses, is the post office and the school. The only public bathroom in town is inside the school.<\/p>\n<p>The main school building is 60 years old this year, with four outbuildings\u2014three modular and one stick-built\u2014that have accumulated as the school has grown. Pamela Backbone, who teaches preschool there, said her great-grandparents, Richard and Ida Day Light, donated the land, 60 to 70 acres, for the school grounds.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>The original school in Wyola was small, because so many local kids were going to school elsewhere on the reservation or to boarding schools in other states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe parents were lonely for their kids in the winter months,\u201d said Pamela\u2019s husband, Bill Backbone, who serves on the school board. He said the Day Lights donated the land so local children could attend school close to home, and so their parents could have jobs.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worked. Enrollment this year is 114 in the preschool-to-eighth-grade school. Most of the students are from Wyola or surrounding rural areas, but there is a sizable contingent from Lodge Grass, not quite 15 miles to the north. The school employs 15 teachers and numerous other aides and staff members. Pamela Backbone\u2019s sister has been a school cook for years, her brother drives a school bus and her daughter-in-law works in the kitchen. The Backbones have two grandchildren attending the school this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think they envisioned that their children would go to school here and the families wouldn\u2019t move away,\u201d Bill Backbone said, referring to his wife\u2019s ancestors. \u201cIt\u2019s going on six generations now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parts of the school are in rough shape, particularly the outbuildings, and much about the school has an air of improvisation about it\u2014old bathrooms and janitor\u2019s closets renovated into offices, instructional materials stored in crawl spaces, students crowded into one side of a classroom because the fluorescent lights on the other side don\u2019t work. In one of the modular buildings, which has no storage, an extension chord and vacuum cleaner hang from hooks above the building\u2019s only drinking fountain, with the floor brush resting inside the fountain\u2019s bowl.<\/p>\n<p>In another building, Pease points up at a smear of putty where the top of the wall meets the ceiling. She did the work herself, she says with a touch of pride.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18216\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-18216 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-exterior-771x248.jpg\" alt=\"Exterior\" width=\"771\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-exterior.jpg 771w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-exterior-336x108.jpg 336w, https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-exterior-768x247.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">John Warner<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main school building in Wyola is 60 years old.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The school is fairly well equipped with desktop computers and tablets, but the internet connection in Wyola, which sits about 10 miles north of the Wyoming state line, in the shadow of the Bighorn Mountains, is weak at best. When any class is taking state-mandated testing via the internet, or when web-based English proficiency classes are underway, every other device in the school has to get off the internet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot even the secretaries can get on the internet,\u201d Pease said. \u201cIf anybody gets on, the whole thing just shuts down. We learned that the hard way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Pease leads a winding tour of the campus, though, neither she nor any of the teachers, aides or staff members complain. On the contrary, they all want to tell you how much they manage to accomplish despite all the obstacles and how much the school means to them and to the community.<\/p>\n<p>Above all, they are proud of their role in preserving traditional Crow culture. Janice Wilson, the school\u2019s Crow Studies teacher, has been an educator for more than 30 years. Teaching the Crow language is the core of the program, Wilson said, but she also teaches music, dance and sign language. She teaches the students about Crow clan systems, sacred objects, and about animals and plants and how they were traditionally used. And she teaches them to be reverent and respectful about what they have.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of these gifts that we have, like the tepee and the peace pipe, came by vision,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t something that someone just thought up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As much as she loves what she\u2019s doing, though, she\u2019s also tired of being what she calls \u201citinerant.\u201d Her tiny office is just down the hall from the music room in one of the outbuildings. She teaches some classes in the music room, which is handy, but many days she goes from classroom to classroom, building to building, a different one every hour, toting all her supplies and teaching materials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes I have to send students back to my office to grab this and grab that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Maggie Carlson knows the feeling. She is the school\u2019s art teacher, and the little office she once had was converted into the boys\u2019 bathroom. The office she\u2019s in now used to be part of a kitchen. Jammed full of art supplies, there\u2019s barely room to turn around.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18217\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-18217 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Wyola-Linda.jpg\" alt=\"Pease\" width=\"336\" height=\"437\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">John Warner<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Pease, Wyola School&#8217;s superintendent, principal and substitute teacher, fields a question from a passing student.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Carlson, a native of Corvallis, Ore., had never lived on a reservation when she moved to Wyola in 1979, in a grant-funded position, to teach people to make functional, sellable pottery items. She soon met and married Bill Yellowtail, who went on to become a state senator, a U.S. House candidate and, under President Bill Clinton, regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver.<\/p>\n<p>Except for the time in Denver, Carlson and her husband have lived on the Crow Reservation. Carlson has taught art off and on for many years in Wyola and spent eight years at Lodge Grass High School. She\u2019s been back at Wyola for the past five years, and like Wilson, she often has to migrate from class to class, carrying everything she needs in a big cardboard box.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is quite a school,\u201d she said, slowly shaking her head. \u201cIt\u2019s held together with safety pins, I like to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, a lot of people outside of Wyola are also impressed by the school\u2019s spirit, by its sense of resilience in the face of long odds. As a result, Wilson and Carlson could find themselves in much better offices by the start of the next school year, and teaching their arts and culture classes in spacious, permanent classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Pease started thinking more than a year ago about the possibility of finally having a building devoted to the school\u2019s arts and cultural programs. She approached several members of the Scott family, founders of the First Interstate BancSystem and the Foundation for Community Vitality, about helping to fund the expansion. The Scotts, whose Padlock Ranch straddles the state line south of Wyola, agreed to help.<\/p>\n<p>Based on that commitment, the school launched a $100,000 fund drive\u2014though the total cost is expected to exceed that\u2014to install a two-classroom, 3,000-square-foot modular building on school grounds. The new building would also have bathrooms, storage space, a kitchen and a gathering space for parents and tribal elders who visit the school to help with programs and projects, to share stories of Crow culture or just to visit.<\/p>\n<p>Then, with help from Terry Zee Lee, of Billings, and her husband, Drake Smith, another major funder came on board. Lee and Smith, who had gone to Wyola School to lead a kite-flying program for the students, were distressed by the condition of the school, and when they heard of the fundraising efforts, they jumped in and obtained a commitment from the Denver-based Harry L. Willett Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, supporters of the fund drive have been working with Bill Snell, director of Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council and president of the Pretty Shield Foundation. Supporters are also working with Pierce Homes, of Billings, to obtain the modular building.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the supporters were reluctant to say exactly how large the commitments were, or exactly how much they needed, for fear of jinxing the deal or discouraging other donors. But they are convinced they\u2019ll have enough to open the new building when school starts again in late August.<\/p>\n<p>Pease said the steady expansion of the school is partly a result of changing educational practices, and partly owing to new needs.<\/p>\n<div>The five-room original school was designed to hold two grade levels in each room, she said, but that long ago ceased to be a viable plan. And now, with computers and specialized work stations taking up even more room, still another expansion is underway.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Another factor is that the school&#8217;s strong Crow culture curriculum attracts students from Lodge Grass, some 25 of them this year, and, in past years, from Hardin, 50 miles away. The Hardin students could not continue this year, however, because changes to Crow Tribal Transit made it too difficult for most parents.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The school has other unique attractions, Pease said, including an emphasis on teaching victims of childhood trauma\u2014&#8221;Our teachers never yell,&#8221; she said\u2014and concentrated efforts to tweak each child&#8217;s instructional plan based on the results of statewide testing.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Working parents also like that the school day runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and with after school tutoring, sports and music classes, kids can stay till 6 if they choose.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Wilson, the Crow Studies teacher, can\u2019t wait for the expansion. \u201cThis new building would really be heaven-sent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Bill and Pamela Backbone see the addition as another way of prolonging the life of the school, of keeping it at the heart of their community. Even if they don\u2019t get a gas station or a store, they said, as long as they\u2019ve got their school, Wyola will survive. They don\u2019t see driving to Lodge Grass, or down to Ranchester, Wyo. for supplies as a big problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re used to it,\u201d Bill Backbone said. \u201cIf we go somewhere, we\u2019ll buy what we need. Kids don\u2019t need to be spending money every day. They play basketball and they ride horses. We\u2019re a quiet little town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared in the Summer 2017 issue of the Montana Quarterly. If you\u2019re not already a subscriber, you really should be.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.themontanaquarterly.com\/\">Check it out<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WYOLA \u2014 It\u2019s 9 a.m., the start of the day in Dorcella Plain Bull\u2019s fourth-grade classroom at Wyola School. A drumbeat is playing over the PA and all of Plain Bull\u2019s students are standing up and singing the Wyola district song, singing in the Apsaalooke language of the Crow Indians. They sing it every morning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[4872,5984,5774],"class_list":["post-18205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-crow-nation","tag-linda-pease","tag-wyola","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18205"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18229,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18205\/revisions\/18229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}