Star Elementary School

Star Elementary is one of the smaller schools in Idaho’s largest district, but it’s making a big impact this year as home to a technology pilot project that’s among the first of its kind in Idaho. Shared iPads are being used in the upper elementary classes, and iPod Touch devices are coming soon to the kindergarten through third grade rooms.

The programs have nothing to do with the recent state mandates and everything to do with local vision. Carla Karnes, in her 14th year as principal, says Star Elementary has spent close to a decade getting ready to implement educational technology innovations as they’ve emerged. Every classroom has an LCD projector and a document camera – two tools that help teachers use tablet computers to their fullest potential. “Eight years ago, we decided to put our money into durable technology hardware,” not consumables, says Karnes.

Meridian got a grant last spring to buy 41 iPads to be shared among the fourth- and fifth-grade classes, and the Star Booster Club bought another 17 iPads for the school’s teachers. Meridian Superintendent Dr. Linda Clark, Karnes, and several members of the school’s technology team traveled to Canby, Oregon, last spring to learn about a iPad project that’s been in place there for several years.

But Star Elementary is a great place to teach in lots of old-fashioned ways, too. As the hub for a community of about 5,800 people that’s a blend of rural small town and bedroom community for Boise, the school is the scene for family movie nights, a Great Pumpkin Race, and many other events.

Several times a year, the second-graders sponsor a "Snack Shack" during recess, with all proceeds going to the Idaho Education Association Children’s Fund. In addition to the many booster fundraisers for technology, a “Jog R Walk” held annually in September helps raise money for the physical education and music programs.

IEA involvement is strong at the school. About half of the school’s certificated staff are members, and several of them are highly involved in the organization. Physical education teacher Lennette Meyer serves on the IEA Board of Directors, and fifth-grade teacher Chris Hiroto won the IEA’s Sam Cikaitoga Minority Service Award.

“You can just tell by walking through the halls that this is a really good school with a dynamic principal and a close-knit, highly professional staff,” says former IEA Executive Director Jim Shackelford, whose daughter, Sarah Blackaller, teaches kindergarten at Star Elementary.   

“It’s very friendly. It’s like family here,” says Meyer, who is in her 20th year at the school. “Everyone mixes easily, and we’ve had several staff who’ve moved away and have come back” as their life circumstances allowed.

“It’s about everyone being a professional and how you can count on other people to be part of that team,” says second-grade teacher Michelle Axtell, in her 11th year at the school. “Carla is good at hiring people who you would have hired yourself, if you’d had the opportunity.”

“I like the accountability of knowing that if I’m doing something wrong, someone can correct me,” adds fourth-grade teacher Jill Trumble. “It’s because they care about you and they want to keep us all on the same playing field.”

“I like the kids. I’ve taught in different areas in the past and this is a nice bunch of kids,” says Jay Curtright, who taught in the Cleveland, Ohio, area and was a parent volunteer and substitute in Star before he joined the faculty as a fourth-grade teacher last year.

Star Elementary will be in a brighter spotlight than usual this year as the technology pilot proceeds. But tech is definitely nothing new in this innovative school.

“We’ve had technology in the building for a long time, and with the support of the boosters, we were able to put in the projectors and doc cameras in every room,” says Meyer. “I like technology and I’ve always tried to figure out how I can use it in PE, but for the classroom, it’s the natural fit of where we’ve been going with society for a long time.”

“We have a leader advocating for our school, talking about the infrastructure we have and the professionals we have willing to do the work,” notes Trumble. Adds Andrea Jakious, a third-grader in her second year at Star, “(Carla) was willing to talk with Dr. Clark and do whatever it took. She had been chirping in Dr. Clark’s ear for quite a while.”

Star Elementary is introducing mobile computing devices into its classrooms in a program developed on the grassroots level. Faculty members have had extensive input, which brings buy-in that’s more difficult to attain when a program is mandated by the state.

“I think it’s good and bad,” says Trumble, who is among the fourth-grade teachers piloting the project. “Sometimes it’s nice to have it from top down because they tell you, ‘OK, here are the regulations, here are the technology standards,’ and now we’re kind of creating that all. So there are a lot of bumps in the road.”

Meyer adds that when a program is top-down, who’s to say that the people mandating it have the answers? “Sometimes you have to be in the (classroom) environment to get all those kinks worked out,” she says.

The Star faculty members say their colleagues on the iPad project rollout have spent countless volunteer hours since last spring working out the details and bugs. It has been rewarding and challenging at the same time – but then again, teaching is always like that!

Do you know of - or do you teach at - a school that deserves wider recognition for its caring, innovative, and successful staff? Nominate it as an IEA Featured School by emailing jfanselow@idahoea.org.