Maple Sugaring at Haystack Mountain Farm

Walker School students headed across the street and through the woods to Haystack Mountain Farm in March to see Elise Brown's syrup operation and learn how its done.  Thank you Elise for inviting us!

Approaching the sugar shack.   A wood fired evaporator will boil the sap down.

Collecting sap.  Fran Gonzalez and Walker students gather sap to bring back to the shack.  It takes thirty to forty gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup!

Boiling down the sap in the evaporator.  Most of the sap is water.  The water is removed by boiling it off.  During the process of making one gallon of sap, over thirty gallons of water are separated out by turning it to steam.

Unity Comes to Liberty

Just before April vacation, three students from Unity College came to Walker to spend three afternoons with the third, fourth, and fifth grade students.  The students worked on team building, learned about the environment, and ended the third afternoon by climbing Haystack Mountain.  Through the process, they learned a bit more about themselves, improved their abilities to work together as a team, and discovered some abilities they didn't know they had.

Changes at Walker School as We Move Forward with Proficiency Based Education

At Walker School, we have been working to help students better understand what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they can show that they have learned it.  Classroom teachers are sharing "Measurement Topics" with their students, which outline the progression of learning that happens as students move through their education at Walker School and beyond.  When students show that they have mastered a skill, they keep track of their learning and move on to the next skill in the progression.  Ideally, we are headed for a school where students aren't in certain grades, but are moving fluidly between levels of learning.   A classroom may have multiple levels of learning taking place, or students may be regrouped throughout the day, sometimes changing the teacher they are working with depending on their level of mastery in each subject they are studying.    Teachers at Walker School are at different levels of implementation of the proficiency based program, but all are moving to increase their understanding and comfort with the new approach. 

Walker Vegetables, and students, go to the Common Ground Fair

Walker students worked with Katie Morabito, our FoodCorps service member to determine qualities that make a prize winning vegetable.  The students then compared their qualities with the qualities that MOFGA uses to rate vegetables.  After comparing the two sets of standards, the students chose vegetables from our greenhouse to enter in the fair.  The chosen cucumbers won a blue ribbon, while the tomatoes won a red.  

Prize-winning tomatoes.

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The History of Walker School-  (writings from Liberty Town Reports and the Walker Banner)

On Sunday night, December 30, 1935 the Liberty High School buildings and their contents burned.  The superintending school committee called a meeting to take necessary steps to secure temporary quarters to house the school for the remainder of the year.  High school and primary schools were held in the basement of the Community Hall.  The grammar school moved to the second floor of what is now the Liberty Tool Company.

The Walker family (Donald, Miss Katherine and Miss Madge) came to the town's aid as there was little insurance and money was in short supply.   Construction for the new school began on September 10, 1936.  Donald Walker asked Carol Banks to oversee the school's construction.  Mr. Banks put in many hours.    Many other local people worked on the school as well.

The school was finished and a dedication was held on January 16, 1937.  Six hundred people were in attendance? 

The Town of Liberty felt extremely fortunate.  They had a beautiful new brick building with a slate roof.  The building had steam heat fired by a wood boiler.  There were indoor bathrooms, running water and a drinking fountain in the main hall.  There were fire hoses both up and downstairs.  There were rooms for recreation, science and stenography.  There was a Principal's Office (where it is today) and a boiler room.  Clayborn Stickney was the first janitor. 

The town named the school "Walker High School" and it opened officially on September 13, 1937 with students primary age through high school.  In 1964 the high school students were moved to Mount View, in 1970 grades 7 and 8 were moved to Mount View and in 2009 the 6th grade students were moved to Mount View.  Walker continues as a PreK - 5 school today with approximately 95 students. 

INFORMATION FROM ALLISON DAUAGHTERY, NUTRITION DIRECTOR REGARDING NEW MEAL GUIDELINES