School
A Short History of YIHS
By Jacob Hundt
The Youth Initiative High School was founded in September, 1996 through the collaborated efforts of a dedicated group of students, parents, teachers, and community members. Although the idea of a Waldorf or Waldorf-inspired high school for the Viroqua area had been discussed in the among members of the Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School community for a number of years, the most urgent call that led to the creation of a new school at that time arose from a small group of students attending local public and parochial high schools. Many of these students were former students of Pleasant Ridge or had siblings attending that school, while others had no prior personal experience of Waldorf education. What bound these students together was a pervasive dissatisfaction with the education they were experiencing in the existing high schools. They also shared a desire for a school that would be academically challenging, respectful of individual freedom and dignity, and rooted in a meaningful sense of community and shared responsibility, which, at least for those students who had experienced Pleasant Ridge, meant a school inspired by the Waldorf model.
What began as conversations among friends in school cafeterias, at parties, and over the phone, soon grew to include parents and other members of the adult community. There, the dissatisfied students found a surprisingly supportive and encouraging attitude. Many members of the adult community had been personally involved with starting new independent organizations, including local food coops, the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (CROPP-Organic Valley), Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School, and many private businesses. Thus, the students' proposal for a new school was very favorably received by a community for whom initiative, entrepreneurship, and innovative social organization were all familiar and highly valued.
By midsummer of 1996, the group interested in the project had grown significantly, attracting new students, parents, and potential teachers who were excited about the initiative. This growing group also was successful in identifying a home for the nascent school, located in the former Viroqua Middle School, later renamed the "Landmark Center," which had been purchased by Pleasant Ridge parent and community booster Nancy Rhodes. The first class at the still unnamed Youth Initiative High School began in September, 1996 in one room on the second floor of the Landmark Center.
The first Youth Initiative class was in a sense a throwback to the one-room school. There were eleven students - 10 male and 1 female-from grades nine through twelve, all in one classroom. The Faculty who stepped forward to take part in the creation of the new school were a richly talented and diverse group, bringing to light a surprising well of experience for a small rural community. Academically, much of the focus of that first year was on the creation of a Mission and Vision statement and other founding documents for the school, in which the students and school community were lead by Jerome McGeorge. In May of 1997, YIHS produced its first drama performance - a musical version of the Medieval morality play Everyman-and graduated its first three seniors.
Over the course of the next several years the school grew slowly, engaging in the difficult work of establishing traditions, organizational forms, and a strong culture of cooperation and shared responsibility in the school. Drama was one tradition that took root early at YIHS. The school became well known in the local community for ambitious, intelligent, and engaging performances of serious dramatic works. Another aspect of YIHS which has remained constant has been the central role of students in the governance and funding of the school. In its first year, YIHS students raised over 1/3 of the school's budget through concerts, agricultural work, and the renovation of a stained glass window for St. Joesph's Ridge Catholic Church, which became the emblem of the school. In later years, students operated a landscape mulch business and a main lesson book bindery, grew organic produce, picked stones for local farmers, held elegant dinners, and engaged in numerous other fundraising activities. Meanwhile, students also cleaned the school building and played an active role in the governance of the school on the Board of Directors and on a variety of other school committees.
Another dimension of the school's growth can be seen in the development of its administration. In the second year, math teacher Arthur Bernstein was hired as a full-time coordinator and two part time coordinators were added in subsequent years. This staff was succeeded in 2000 by German teacher Conrad Rehbach and, in 2004, Jacob Hundt, one of the founding YIHS students, was hired as a second full time employee, with a mixture of teaching and administrative responsibilities. Finally, in 2005, Liz Cox became the school's first development officer, first as a parent volunteer and soon after as a part-time employee.
Enrollment at YIHS grew steadily over the first four years. From the initial eleven students in 1996, the school reached of 32 students at the beginning of the 1999 school year. During the 1999-2000 school year, however, the school experienced a significant and multi-faceted crisis of identity which resulted in the loss of a number of students, knocking the school back to an enrolment of 21 students in September of 2000. The issues that led to this crisis involved clashes of personality and educational philosophy among the faculty and parents, the failure of a number of families in the school to pay tuition pledges and fees, and the development of what many felt to be an unhealthy and irresponsible culture among some of the students. Although part of the solution to this crisis was found in the departure of a number of students and teachers, another key result of this period was a thorough revision of the school's "Vision and Purpose Statement," which came to place much greater emphasis on responsibility, self-discipline, and respect for the school community and recommitted the school to working within the Waldorf model. In order to support this vision of the school, a committee of students, parents, and teachers developed the Care Group Process, partly on the basis of the character education curriculum of the Hyde School in Connecticut.
By September of 2002, YIHS had fully recovered from the earlier setback to enrolment and to its reputation in the local community. Enrollment that fall stood at 32 students, including a relatively large class of freshman students directly out of Pleasant Ridge. From that point, the school has grown rapidly, reaching 50 students in the Spring of 2005. For the Fall of 2005, the school projects an enrolment of nearly 60 students and plans to offer separate main lesson blocks for each of the four grades for the first time in its history. In its first nine years the school has produced 47 graduates, of whom over two-thirds have gone on to attend college or university.
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