New playground equipment enhances Madrone experience
From our weekly issue dated May 19, 2010
A volunteer crew of parents and church members, led by certified installer Dennis Blesser, piece together new playground equipment during a workday on Saturday, May 15. (Photo by M. Binker, IVN)
Sunday, May 16 marked a long-awaited occasion at the Illinois Valley-based Madrone Adventist Elementary School on Holland Loop.
For more than three years, the school has been raising money to purchase new playground equipment. A generous donation from a couple, combined with a discount fom Krauss Kraft, finally gave the school what it needed to begin constructing the playground on Sunday.
That work is set to be completed on Wednesday, May 19.
Madrone originally was founded at a location inside Cave Junction city limits. But around 1980, members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cave Junction donated property at 4300 Holland Loop to the school, and it“s been housed there since.
Classes at the school are taught by Kim Bowlby and Amy Whitchurch, who are sisters-in-law. Both have children at the school, which teaches kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
“For the most part, we teach the love of Jesus,“ Bowlby said.
She added that enrollment at the school has stayed steady, at between 16 and 19 students per year. That figure has been as high as 22, she said, and as low as eight. Approximately 16 students currently attend Madrone classes.
Curriculum at Madrone follows state guidelines, Bowlby said, as well as standards set up by the North American Division (NAD). Those guidelines are for all Adventist schools in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Bowlby said.
Many siblings and cousins attend Madrone together, she noted, and many students go to the same church.
But despite that, the school is open to persons of all faiths, with the single caveat being that they must believe in God.
“We definitely don“t push our religion at all,“ Bowlby said.
She related that Madrone began offering kindergarten classes to ensure that students would be able to read by the time they started first-grade.
The two-year kindergarten program now is in its third year, with enrollment dropping from seven to four. As such, Bowlby said that it might be eliminated.
Students in kindergarten and first-grade use a children’s Bible as part of their lessons, Bowlby said, and spend plenty of time reading stories and singing songs.
“They really get full knowledge of Bible stories,“ she stated.
Madrone is run by a board of directors, and Bowlby said that a regional superintendent frequently “drops in unexpectedly and observes.“ She added that students often are placed in small groups for various activities.
“They learn to work together in teams and think on their own,“ she said.
Recent field trips include visits to Oregon Caves National Monument, and students soon will visit the Siskiyou Field Institute“s Deer Creek Center in Selma.
Bowlby said that tuition at Madrone is lower than at any Adventist school in the state. Students can be enrolled in the kindergarten program for $160 per month. Tuition for first- through eighth-grades is $1,950 per year, plus a one-time $175 entry fee, which covers the cost of school supplies, a yearbook and insurance.
For more information, phone 541-592-3330.
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