School Board Trustee Gets Glimpse of Shumla School

By Bill Sontag
bill.sontag@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published September 7, 2004

Stan Blackstone, recently elected trustee to the San Felipe Del Rio Independent School District board, sat with Dr. Carolyn Boyd Thursday, as both mused over student comments about their Shumla experiences.  

"'This has been the best day of my life,'" Blackstone read aloud.   "Sorta makes you wonder what their lives have been like until then, doesn't it?" he muttered.   Boyd divulged, "I sit there at the end of a program like that, and just cry, because they don't come home from school feeling that way."

Until Thursday, when he was able to slip away for a few hours, Blackstone had only heard and read about Shumla School, situated on the bluffs above the Pecos River, north of Comstock, Texas.   His interest was piqued when he received word that Boyd, as head of the emerging experiential school, wanted to familiarize SFDRCISD students with her desert classroom campus.   Blackstone decided to visit Boyd and Shumla School to learn more.

So far, 450 students from Del Rio schools have participated in all-day workshops at Shumla School, but to Boyd, while the results are satisfying, the numbers fall short of her dream.   Shumla School is an IRS-registered, 501(c)3 non-profit institution, and that has fostered her success in corporate and foundation boardrooms across the state.   To date, her biggest contributors have been the Brown Foundation and the Houston Endowment, but, while each group has urged her to apply for more, she has big ideas.  

"A woman with vision," Blackstone exclaimed as he toured the campus.   Boyd would like to offer the Shumla School workshops to all SFDRCISD sixth-graders, every school year, free of tuition or other costs.   And, she added, kids "at risk" and those who are "gifted and talented" would be invited to return in succeeding years to reinforce the initial experience.   Boyd will supply workshop teachers and facilitators, curriculum guides, and materials and supplies.   The key support Boyd hopes will be forthcoming from Del Rio schools is getting the kids on-site, with transportation, parental permissions, insurance, box lunches, etc.

Collectively, sixth-graders are a key target to Boyd:   "By the time they arrive in seventh- and eighth-grade, those hormones are raging, and the eventual dropout rate starts then. Kids are looking for some kind of validation for what they've been through."   Boyd is disturbed by the high dropout rate in Del Rio, and believes that opportunities for intellectual fulfillment, beyond repression of inappropriate behavior, may help staunch the flow.   Blackstone concurred:  "'Just say no!' is fine, but you have to replace it with something constructive."

Reflecting on Boyd's, and her husband Phil Dering's, departures from professorships at Texas A&M University, Blackstone inquired, "What started you all down this road?"   She explained that her anthropology doctoral research on the rock art of the Lower Pecos brought her here frequently, while Dering's research on the botany of ancient times tugged him to the area, as well.   "On a 1997 visit here, Jack and Missy Harrington said to us, 'We want to make our land available to you for a school,'" Boyd explained.

"But, there are a lot of places you could be," Blackstone exclaimed.   "Why are you here?"   Boyd replied, "Have you ever stopped your car out here on this desert, gotten out and really looked at it?   I know it sounds a little hokey, but all these children are just like little desert plants, waiting for someone to water them.   And, when that happens, they just blossom."

Boyd explained that her motivation, as with most adults, goes back to a personal childhood experience.   School environmental education and water sampling exercises in Dry Creek and Caleto Creek near Victoria, Texas, revealed staphylococcus, typhoid fever bacteria and many other living organisms.   "I learned so much, because it wasn't just reading it in a textbook.   It was going out and doing it!"  

Blackstone asked Boyd for examples of memorable experiences Shumla School could provide that would make such an indelible impression on Del Rio students.   Referring to tribal lecturers and demonstrators that have already frequented Boyd's workshops, she said, "Imagine a Native American on horseback, riding full bore in complete regalia into the workshop site, and just keeps going, out of sight.   As part of a creative writing exercise, the teacher says to the kids, 'O.K., write about it!'"   Mescalero Apache Ray Olachia has already spoken and demonstrated his tribe's traditions to many Del Rio students.

Boyd is convinced that her approach and the Shumla School campus and volunteers can offer unique opportunities to Del Rio students.   "Teachers have been amazed, saying 'How are you getting the kids to do all this [eagerly keeping notes, using workbooks, becoming immersed in projects]?   We can't even get them to pick up a pencil sometimes.'"

While Boyd waits for stronger bonds to mature between SFDRCISD and Shumla School, she puts together workshops for many other organizations.   Her excitement was evident Thursday about a recent commitment from the Smithsonian Institution to bring "Smithsonian Journeys" study tours and seminars to a "Pecos Experience" workshop.   Coordinators agreed to schedule in spring 2006 when Boyd will complete construction of bungalow cottages to sleep 28 on the Shumla School campus.

Still, Boyd's focus remains on children and local collaboration:   "The kids in Val Verde County often times get the short end of the stick, while kids in San Antonio and near other cities have access to lots of other out-of-classroom opportunities.   Kids here don't.   We're trying to fill that niche — something exciting for the kids, and within reach of Del Rio.  

Our biggest need right now is community involvement.   We need volunteers willing to do a wide range of important tasks, everything from cleaning out restrooms, to making copies of workshop materials, and developing new curriculum guides."