Foxtail to open new school downtown

The co-founders of an alternative learning school are working to open a friskola for children in grades one through three this fall on the second floor of the building that houses Loula’s Cafe.

City Council approved the conditional use permit for the school at last week’s meeting after several citizens spoke about the virtues of the Scandinavian school model.

After the unanimous vote, Mayor John Muhlfeld said, “I think this is a great proposal. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor and it’s going to be great to see kids downtown.”

The friskola model has been practiced in Scandinavia since the 1950s but is relatively new to the United States. A key feature of the friskola is to allow a child’s environment to serve as the curriculum.

Foxtail Forskola for children aged 3 to 6 has been operating in Whitefish since 2018. Located at Haskill Basin and EarthStar Farms, the school provides a kindergarten-level supplemental program. Most of the time, the children are outdoors and there is a mix of structured classes and free play time.

The new school located at 300 East Second Street will be a friskola and serve 7 to 9 year-old children in first through third grades on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays from 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The school boasts a 10 to one student-to-teacher ratio and the maximum number of students in all three grades is 30.

According to Foxtail’s website, the active learning processes cultivated through self-directed play and language-rich relationships support a broad range of school-readiness goals and nurture the inborn curiosity to be compassionate, creative and generative, and most importantly, independent.

“The Flathead Valley is lacking in alternative programs for children transitioning from preschool into primary school,” said Kayla Nickells, co-founder of the school. “Many of our current families are in search of alternatives for their school-aged children and we are an established program with an earned reputation that allows us to begin our proposed program this fall.”

Brook Ober is a co-founder and explained that the downtown location will allow the students to have experiences with nearby businesses which is central to compassion-based learning.

“To be able to have them learn in the context of a community, so that they can go into a business, and actually see how it works and bring that back,” she said. “That is what creates empathy and understanding.”

Experiences in their community also build reading and writing skills, says Patricia Johnson, co-founder of Foxtail.

“Background experience is crucial for reading comprehension and writing,” Johnson explained. “We are committed to the most evidence-based literacy initiatives.”

Pick-up and drop-off posed a problem at the planning board stage because there is no parking available near the new location but the school brainstormed some options. The Whitefish Thrift Haus offered their parking lot for the drop-off time and Black Tie Rental offered space, too. The school looked into a couple other options including the City Hall parking garage but the school and the city’s preferred potential solution is to use the Depot Park or O’Shaughnessy public parking areas.

This possible solution entails school staff wearing high visibility clothing when they meet the children in the morning to have a group walk to the school using the new viaduct pedestrian tunnel. Likewise, they would walk with the students .3 miles to the parking area at the end of the day and the school says this time each day would actually be part of the curriculum. They would use that time to notice their environment and learn new songs to sing along the way.

During public comment, Dr. Courtney Lyle lent some perspective to the issue by comparing it to the east side of town where about 1,500 students are going to and from school each day at the same time.

“I know there’s angst about pick-up and drop-off. This is 30 students,” she said. “I certainly think we can come up with a reasonable solution but I don't think we need to put it in the same box and pick-up and drop-off on the east side of town.”

The school shifted the time of the school day to 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. so arrival and dismissal times would be at slightly less busy times of day. That schedule change made a big difference to Councilor Steve Qunell who had voted against the school during the planning board meeting.

“I appreciate all the passion for education in this room,” Qunell said. “I was one of the dissenting voices at the planning board meeting and it was never about the school or the curriculum itself. I appreciate that you changed the time. That is what’s going to change the metric there.”

The permit for the school was approved unanimously and the school plans to open in the fall of 2022.