By John R. Moses
Editor
TALKEETNA – Talkeetna and Trapper Creek Elementary Schools Principal
John Brown was a happy man early on April 23 when he convened the first
staff meeting for Talkeetna’s reborn Community Enrichment Program, now
known as the Community Schools Program.
The program’s seven months worth of unspent grant money allowed Brown
to hire two program employees instead of the usual single staffer and break up
their duties to cover separate adult and children’s programs.
The schedule, which will be released April 31, can be found online after that
date at akpioneerpress.com and will likely be on bulletin boards and at the Post
Office.
Programs will end on June 23.
Brown has wanted to revive the program since he began this school year as
the new principal of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District’s most
remote campuses.
Getting it in gear required shoving through a thicket of paperwork and also
required many public hearings as the school district and Borough government
worked together to funnel grant money legally through the Borough to the
district.
“It was the perfect bureaucratic storm,” Brown said.
In some offices only one person had the authority to sign a needed
document, and that person sometimes would be on vacation or changing jobs.
Although the School Board was informed earlier this month that
Talkeetna’s program likely wouldn’t start this year, Brown proved them
wrong.
Longtime former Community Enrichment Program organizer Kathleen
Fleming is working on the adult programs while the school’s playground
supervisor, Jodi Salmon, is organizing on the youth programs.
Fleming and Salmon jumped right in. Fleming is helping with the upcoming
Contra Dance at Talkeetna Elementary on Saturday, April 26, to raise cash for
the new community playground.
Salmon is helping with the pre-school gym program.
As soon as the schedule is released, Brown said, the next challenge is “just
getting the word out.
Editor
TALKEETNA – Talkeetna and Trapper Creek Elementary Schools Principal
John Brown was a happy man early on April 23 when he convened the first
staff meeting for Talkeetna’s reborn Community Enrichment Program, now
known as the Community Schools Program.
The program’s seven months worth of unspent grant money allowed Brown
to hire two program employees instead of the usual single staffer and break up
their duties to cover separate adult and children’s programs.
The schedule, which will be released April 31, can be found online after that
date at akpioneerpress.com and will likely be on bulletin boards and at the Post
Office.
Programs will end on June 23.
Brown has wanted to revive the program since he began this school year as
the new principal of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District’s most
remote campuses.
Getting it in gear required shoving through a thicket of paperwork and also
required many public hearings as the school district and Borough government
worked together to funnel grant money legally through the Borough to the
district.
“It was the perfect bureaucratic storm,” Brown said.
In some offices only one person had the authority to sign a needed
document, and that person sometimes would be on vacation or changing jobs.
Although the School Board was informed earlier this month that
Talkeetna’s program likely wouldn’t start this year, Brown proved them
wrong.
Longtime former Community Enrichment Program organizer Kathleen
Fleming is working on the adult programs while the school’s playground
supervisor, Jodi Salmon, is organizing on the youth programs.
Fleming and Salmon jumped right in. Fleming is helping with the upcoming
Contra Dance at Talkeetna Elementary on Saturday, April 26, to raise cash for
the new community playground.
Salmon is helping with the pre-school gym program.
As soon as the schedule is released, Brown said, the next challenge is “just
getting the word out.
Please support our
advertisers
advertisers
. . . And tell then you saw it in the
The home base for your Alaskan Adventure in the heart of Talkeetna. 907-733-8500 E-mail us here P.O Box 353, Talkeetna, AK 99676 |
Community Enrichment is back