POINT ROBERTS — On one side of the room, teacher and principal Jessie Hettinga works quietly with a kindergartener. She watches as he practices counting, encouraging and challenging him through the lesson.
In the other room, two first graders slide Tetris-like blocks into a puzzle after finishing math worksheets. One table over, paraeducator Tammy McDonald helps a second grader slather a pine cone with sticky peanut butter before dipping it into bird seed to make a bird feeder. She keeps one eye on the three kindergarteners as they partake in purposeful play — playtime “to build student interest and motivation.” One student walks around making sucking noises, pretending to vacuum the classroom with his tube contraption.
It’s a careful, and sometimes chaotic, dance between Hettinga (“Mrs. H” to the kids) and McDonald. They work to balance the necessary one-on-one instruction and group activities for the seven kindergarten to second-grade students of one of the smallest schools in the country — Point Roberts Primary.
“There’s never a dull moment. Every day is different. No monotony,” McDonald said.
Everything on Point Roberts has to be done differently, including education, due to its remote location protruding from Canada, cut off by the 49th parallel. Getting to “the other side,” as the locals call it, requires a drive across two international borders, a boat ride or a plane ride.
For many years, Point Roberts operated without a school. Schools existed from when the Point was settled until the 1960s. For the three following decades, students had to travel to Blaine to access U.S. public education. The primary school was established in 1993 after a group of parents advocated to Washington state for a school for their youngest students.
The result today is the small classroom Hettinga has operated for seven years with the support of McDonald, where they’ve instructed anywhere between seven and 17 kids since 2017, according to the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Until last year, they taught through third grade, but decided to move them to Blaine Elementary School, which serves all third- to fifth-grade students in the district.
Hettinga and McDonald have created a system, supported by structure and routine, that is reminiscent of a historic one-room schoolhouse, but set in a modern classroom, following state-approved curriculum. Students of different ages intermingle and learn together. The expectations for older students are higher and there’s more work to do, while the kindergarteners have a little more opportunity to play.
“Everything is done in our classroom,” Hettinga said. “We have small groups, whole-group and individualized instruction.”
And, if something cannot be done in the classroom, they rely on the district for support. Students will slip away to chat with a specialist over video or rely on online lessons.
Back in the classroom before lunch, McDonald helps the students busy themselves with a craft where they color different pictures of the same landscape, identifying the changes of the seasons.
Throughout the craft, kids rotate through the “Listening Station” where they secure large headphones over their small ears to follow along with a level-appropriate book. At another table, Hettinga works with each one on reading out loud. The kindergarteners read from picture books and the second grader from a chapter book.
Hettinga carves out time for each student throughout the day, allowing her to assess exactly where each student is at and what type of instruction they need. The benefits are palpable. She can correct mistakes as they happen and provide immediate feedback to them.
“I’m a very strong believer in making sure education fits for our kids,” Hettinga said. “That’s why I love our school because we can really make sure the education fits them.”
“The quality of education for my son — he’s reading at a second-grade level,” said David Mallet, father of first-grader Dakari TwoFeathers. “I give Jessie a great deal of credit for what she’s done. We have an outstanding educator who has the time to spend individual time with each child.”
Community is key for Point Roberts
Hettinga and McDonald know their students well. They see them almost every day for three years and live in the same community, spread out over just 6 square miles. Bonds between students, parents and staff form quickly.
“One of the things we really emphasize districtwide is building a school family. In this model it’s perfect,” Hettinga said. “It’s a gift that you know your kids, and nobody falls through the cracks.”
While no one falls through the cracks, everyone knows everything that goes on, like in any small community. Where bonds can form, spats can also erupt, requiring Hettinga to don her “principal hat.” She mitigates any discord (par for the course in any elementary school classroom) by limiting the amount of “unstructured time” where students are free to roam and invade one another’s personal bubbles.
With limited amenities in the small school, Point Roberts Primary is connected with many other public institutions, spreading the fingers of the primary school’s community even further. Each year on the last day of school, the local fire department (Whatcom County Fire District 5) drives their trucks from next door to spray hoses for kids to run through as a celebration. They spend afternoons at the Point Roberts Library, browsing books and bonding with Rose Momsen, the public services assistant for youth services.
“They come to the library as a library field trip twice a month. I know all their reading levels, and I try to put books out for them,” Momsen said. She’s worked at the library for 14 years and said she loves to bond with kids of the community.
The field the school sits on belongs to the Point Roberts Park and Recreation District and the playground is regularly frequented by all the kids — permanent or non-permanent, Canadian or American — who roam Point Roberts. The Blaine School District recently tried and failed to pass a bond that would update their playground and other parts of the aging school, which Hettinga sees as a benefit to the whole community.
‘Remote and necessary’ school serves small group of students
School budgets are built “per pupil,” meaning schools receive a certain amount of funding per student. Point Roberts’ minimal enrollment does not cover the cost of keeping the lights on and teachers employed, however.
When the school was created, it received a “remote and necessary” designation from the state due to its remote location, distance from the closest U.S. public school, low enrollment and other factors. Each year, the state allots additional funding for staff and MSOC (materials, supplies and operating costs), said Katy Payne, the executive director of communication for OSPI.
It is one of eight schools in Washington state with this designation, including Ferndale School District’s Beach Elementary on Lummi Island.
Nearly 2,000 people were counted in the 2020 Census. Of those, the census estimates around 60 to be between the ages of 5 and 9, but so few of that cohort attend Point Roberts Primary.
Hettinga said many families are already “independent” and opt to homeschool their kids, while taking advantage of the beauty, simplicity and safety that Point Roberts has to offer.
Other families, including her own, send their children across the border to attend Canadian schools. Hettinga and her family chose to move to the Point to send her son to a hockey academy and her daughter to a gymnastics academy just across the border.
Her eldest son, on the other hand, was one of many to attend Blaine schools, making the daily 50 mile round trip commute across four international borders, daily.
Hailey Hoffman is a CDN visual journalist; reach her at haileyhoffman@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 103.
