River Grove Elementary was originally founded due to three school closures in the district that brought many students in the area to come to the forest for their K-5 education.
Starting in 2017, “River Grove has a strong community and they’ve created such a supportive and loving educational environment for the kids,” Rebecca Bednar, River Grove parent, said.
River Grove has recently been forced to move locations due to complications with their old location Wilder Forest. They now await for their new location, the Zepher Theatre, to complete construction. Until then, students and staff explore “field days” at the Warner Nature Center.
The focus of the school has been to teach kids in a way that leans into the environmental aspect of the school. This includes time spent in the school forest every day.
“It’s all centered around education and the environment. All the mathematics, sciences and even literature centers around the notion of environmental concerns. It’s hard not to do it in some sort of natural setting,” David Macdonald, parent and community member, explained.
Due to River Grove’s new location being in downtown Stillwater, this aspect of learning is going to be much more difficult to achieve.
“In an ideal world, we would like to stay in the woods but that wasn’t meant to be, unfortunately,” MacDonald said.
The Zepher location is only a temporary location for the next few years until they build another forest-focused location at Warner Nature Center. The hardest part of this transition has been the logistics of building into the wilderness, which can prove to be challenging.
MacDonald explained that in order to even start construction, “they have to pass it, they have to find if anything is going on, and make sure it’s good for the land and everything else. It’s going to take a while, but hopefully not two or three years.”
Since the beginning of the school year, this community of students and staff have been learning in yurts scattered throughout Warner Nature Center. This has unfortunately caused some families to transfer schools at the beginning of the year.
“There are people who couldn’t stay here because of the unknown,” counselor Sara Misner said.
Misner goes on to explain that there are also “ones who are staying. They really have the idea that we can do this, resilient. It is just for a short amount of time that it will be like this and soon there’ll be a beautiful spot downtown and eventually, a beautiful spot here at Warner.”
Along with other parents, Bednar explained that there are a lot of uncertainties on the daily, “the parents are more stressed about it than the kids are because it’s just a lot of moving parts. Watching your email to make sure that we’re going to the same place or if it’s a rainy day where are we going to be instead? I haven’t heard a lot of complaining honestly. We’ve just rolled with it.”
Throughout this period of uncertainty, the Manitou Fund has been River Groves’s biggest supporter. They announced on Oct. 2 that they had purchased the land that Grove had previously occupied after the deal with the Catholic youth camp deal fell through. The land will be conserved and protected by the nonprofit foundation for years to come. Their partnership with Grove will allow the school to build a new school and continue teaching in their beloved forest.
Misner explained that the Manitou fund is like a nonprofit. They own the land that the school is currently using and bought the land on which they will eventually build a state-of-the-art school.
People are amazing and resilient. As hard as it’s been for things to be up in the air and this whole tense situation, people’s attitude has been overall really positive.
— Sara Misner
In a year of constant change, the community has played a huge role in keeping this tight-knit school even closer.
“People are amazing and resilient. As hard as it has been for things to be up in the air and this whole tense situation, people’s attitude has been overall really positive,” Misner explained.
The goal of the community is to eventually be in a better place for everyone. Although each location has its beauty and wonders, many are excited about the future of River Grove.
Whether deep in the forest or in the middle of downtown Stillwater, River Grove continues to hold to their role of creating a learning environment where kids are encouraged to explore the world around them. With the help of hardworking community leaders, staff members, parents, and flexible students, there is a long and promising future for River Grove Elementary.
