Monica LaSalle, Nederland. “An end of an era,” Karen Campbell says as we sit down in the tiny kitchen of The Little Bear, her home away from home since 1992. In the other rooms, most of the children are still “sleeping” on their nap mats while those few who just can’t seem to be nappers are quietly playing outside. One little girl silently slides up behind Lisa McCoy, long-time teacher at the school who chuckles as she pulls the child into an embrace. Curiosity lingers in the rooms with a sense of wide-open spaces to explore, create and experience the world we live in.
A tea set and other toys are finishing in the wash cycle of the dishwasher in preparation for the trip to a new home. In the final days of the school, all rules are slowly being tossed out the window in preference to popsicles for snack in lieu of healthy snacks dwindling and the weather warming up enough to make footwear optional to most mountain children.
Looking around, I can see that the building that has been home to The Little Bear School is worn threadbare as mainstays Karen Campbell and Lisa McCoy, as well as other teachers that have come and gone over the years, worked tirelessly to keep it together.
Tape holds down old tiles in the kitchen, ensuring tiny feet do not stub on them. A testament to their dedication to keeping the school alive all these years, I look at these two women with tears welling in my eyes expecting to see the same. With a clear steady gaze, however, they begin to tell me the history of how it all began for them.
Karen mentions names of teachers such as Patti Kayler, Jill Mahon, Betsy Phillips, Jill Dreves and Irene Pritsak, who have long been absolute pillars of not only the Nederland community but to the world at large with their solid, consistent yet tender efforts to shape young minds. Names of children such as Jordan and Shea Woods come up as they proudly list achievements of graduates.
Jordan graduated Little Bear in 1999 and West Point in 2016. He is an Army 1st Lieutenant currently serving in Kuwait with the 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment. He is a Platoon Leader of a Paladin Unit.
Shea graduated Little Bear in 2005 and is currently a Midshipman at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. Upon completion of his degree, Shea will commission as an officer in any branch of service he chooses and will have earned his Coast Guard License.
Wesley Varsos still has gloves because he used to wash dishes during nap time when he couldn’t settle for naps, and later graduated from Regis University in Nursing.
Natalie Cohen attended Little Bear and started out playing soccer with Karen’s son Trig Campbell. She has gone on to receive a full scholarship to play soccer while attending Fort Lewis.
Dana and Dustin Larson are both engineers now and used to go to their mom’s hospital center on Mapleton as one of the many diverse, hands-on field trips the Little Bear’s would do. Lots of families would host the school for field trips to places like NCAR, Ball Aerospace, a goat dairy, Caribou Studio, and the Gilpin Recreation Center, which gave them an edge above the rest as years went by.
In the 1980s, the only preschool operating in Nederland was in the Presbyterian Church until later, when there was a Montessori school briefly in the building that Little Bear moved into during the 1995/1996 school year. Jennifer Bayer owned the building and rented to them so they could set up camp. Patti Kayler and Jill Mahon stepped in to help get the program started.
For 12 to 15 years it was run as just a preschool with a skeleton crew until the CCAP program stepped in and helped families afford childcare. Little Bear and Wild Bear teamed up to do an after-school program, sharing a van and caring for a garden together. In 2008, the recession hit, and they started the toddler program. Thus began a waiting list that has been consistent till today and they have been completely full since. Last summer they thought the place was sold and for the first time, enrollment faltered. It’s hard to sell a preschool, however and the sale fell through so the program carried on.
“Each year has been new and enjoyable fun with children from the community that made it like one big family,” says Karen, “and we are friends with the families to this day.” This is abundantly clear on their last day celebration, when many of the guests were older children returning to bid a fond farewell to the school that was such a large part of their early childhood, and to the teachers who loved them.
Lisa says, “It’s a thrill to be with a child and explore the magic in their world with wonder and excitement, witnessing the changes of seasons while hiking outdoors and exploring the natural world.” Lots of parents value that hugely, for they moved to a small mountain community with just such an experience in mind for their families, despite often having to commute to the city for work.
Lucien holds his 5-month-old daughter, Selene, while watching his 2-year-old son, Jove, run around one last time with his friends. He tells me how crushed he and his wife were to hear of the school closing, describing that the energy and philosophy of the school resonated deeply with their family plan after relocating to the area within the last year. “We enjoy the remoteness of living on Magnolia, however we really enjoy the sense of community we have here at Little Bear due to the children,” he says. He and his wife were looking forward to sending their daughter to the school as well, and now have no idea what they will be doing for childcare.
Looking around, I can imagine there are lots of families in the same boat. Once it was decided, Karen did major outreach to the community in an effort to find places for all the current kids. Hoping to continue helping raise the community in a different way, she cryptically says there are irons in the fire.
“Change is good,” Lisa chimes in with a smile, “I’m looking forward to it, there are lots of different ideas and there is definitely a need for a different preschool.” Lots of children are having to attend in home schools for lack of a facility. For the children, it’s important to have a group and make a field trip and sit in group developing social skills.
Karen tells me that she created her job way back when, and for her the most important thing is that she got to bring what she learned from studying early childhood education, as well as The Bixby School in Boulder where she first taught, to Little Bear. She is proud because it wasn’t Montessori or any one philosophy but a mesh of the best of them all. She has seen it all go in a big circle of what is important and what is not and expresses relief that finally society is beginning to understand the importance of preschool years and that if kids don’t get it, they are really going to struggle later on. Describing a past student who had a disability, she and the students duck taped paint brushes to hats to paint with no hands in their honor, as well as them all having a school day where they had to use feet only and not hands. It was a blessing to have him, she says because he gave them magic that way.
For over two thousand children, they have been part of raising the children of the community, which will be what Karen says she will miss the most.
Lisa adds, “The wonderful thing about the preschool is not only do you get to spend time with the children, but you also get to connect closely with the parents, which is something you don’t get to do as much in public school.” One thing is for certain, The Little Bear School will be sorely missed in the Nederland Community as we hold hands and walk into the future together.
(Originally published in the May 30, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)
