It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to write. My free days have been dedicated to People’s Press. I’m not sure how I fell back into administrative work, why I agreed to take on that kind of responsibility again. Not that it doesn’t have meaning – it does at times, but that it takes me away from what I know I love the most. I wonder if there was a conscious decision on George’s part to distance me from his inner self, but it’s most probable his immediacy to get his visual work out there. The first project, “It’s Not All Fishing to Fish” is not going so well. At each turn there seems to be some kind of mishap or mismanagement. The second project, “Visions of Blue Valley” of Mongolian childrens’ drawings and translated stories about their home is progressing at a more productive rate and could be ready before the “Fishing” Book, in time for the Dalai Lama’s visit to Aspen. We are hoping that the Dalai Lama’s presence will increase attention to that general region and its children, and as a result increase our sales.

Someplace during the second year of the educator’s roundtable the RFP from the New American Schools Development Corporation appeared. President Bush was going to ask corporate America to donate $200,000,000 to a project that would fund “Break the Mold” School projects for a three year grant cycle. Bruce Thomas wanted to write a proposal. Jim Bader came to the next meeting with the core idea; a Valley Wide School, 12 grades, 180 students, totally run by teachers on 12 month contracts, who would be responsible for everything, kids and teachers from throughout the valley would flow through this Valley Wide School and find energy there. I liked the idea because I could see the Community School becoming that Valley Wide School. Bruce and Brooke Newman, an old time Mom, holed up for several days and produced a proposal “Federated on one keel” which we submitted as signed by the Aspen School District, the Roaring Fork School District, Aspen Country Day, Aspen Community School, and Colorado Rocky Mountain School. We liked it, we liked one another. The diversity of the signers was probably more remarkable than the proposal itself.

George and I are in the process of compiling his book of phlogs (photo + blog) while several other books, including the local story of the art gallery Toklat and its founders the Maces, are taking form. George also single-handedly adopted the operations of Who Press which distributes and produces books and notecards of regional interest, in order to secure distribution channels for People’s Press. So there’s a lot going on and not one person committed to the organization full-time.

The proposal was not funded, no proposal between Indianapolis and Los Angeles was funded. At a meeting after the rejection the roundtable said something like, “We’ll do it anyway.”

Kathy Irwin jumped ship, yet another story. The school looked leaderless and I, as Board Chairman, designed a plan, along with Suzy Sterling, of how to have the teachers themselves run the school. It was a reincarnation of the NASDC proposal, the teacher run school. We ran several months along this path until Brooke Newman, who has spent even years not talking to me, called to say that this would not do, a leader, a spokesperson, a figurehead, would be necessary. She had talked to Floyd, he agreed, and she asked me to do this, and I agreed. Rightly or wrongly I don’t know.  Program Director or Head of School is a lot different than Chairman of the Board; one is inside the tent and one is outside.

However, I am learning in real-time how George functions in an organization and how he makes decisions. His behavior is consistent with observations I have made in the past and with his own self-analyses, but again I am left questioning how thoroughly he thinks through problems vs. his passion to make things happen. He also holds steadfast to his identity as an outlaw and tries to reinvent well-trod rules whenever he gets the chance. He recruits people who he hopes – often completely aware of their related limitations – can help get the job done, but really just pulls in people he likes. I find my attention to detail is much weaker than when I was younger and my determination and compulsion to make things happen diminish daily. Partly because my mind and heart are tightly wrapped around my ever-curious and loquacious toddler, but also dreams of getting my own work out there.

In 1989 Ed Bastian Moto Guzzied into the valley after nearly 20 years hiatus and was looking for a job; his current work at the Smithsonian was coming to an end. In my view, the AERF was ready to go beyond “merely running a school, at a deficit” and becoming a power in the educational world. I told the board I would give $400,000 for each of 5 years, not to be used as endowment, but to be used to build new programs, new sources of income, that would support the school and move the AERF into the arena of educational renewal. At that time it made sense to the board to hire Ed as Executive Director to implement the efficient utilization of these funds. Ed as Executive Director of the AERF, myself as Chairman of the Board of the School and member of the Board of the AERF, and Kathy as Director of the School, along with Bertha Campbell as Director of the Early Learning Center, and parent Karen McGill as book keeper was a stew that wouldn’t, couldn’t, find meaning. I was the only survivor. Sometime during that year of failures we were looking at a model of centers interspersed throughout a reforested mesa, and sometime during these discussions Harry Teague came up with the words “Main Street,” an entirely different image for the same thing. It resonated, and there is literature hanging around about developing that concept.

I owe much of my recent confidence in my writing to George for granting me the opportunity to write for so many months with a fully open range, for thinking me worthy of his personal story and records, but I also acknowledge that his desire to publish his own work overrides any desire to publish my work, as it should be. An artist must be her own greatest advocate, especially these days. Sometimes resentment seeps out in my interactions with George now, but there’s no justification for it. I make my own choices, and I am responsible for them.  And yet, how responsible am I towards People’s Press? What promises did I make towards its success, and what do I owe George? I have mentioned that I intend to retreat from the administrative tasks in the fall in order to write more, which is plausible since we have just contracted out People’s Press’ accounting to a woman familiar with George’s other endeavors. My track record does indicate that I am incapable of prolonging a professional commitment for more than two years, with one year the steady mode. I have committed to the Toklat book and have hinted that after its completion and George’s phlog book, I am ready to write again. George has suggested that I put Ruby in pre-school five days a week when she turns two this September as he has much work for me to do at his new office, a barn at Flying Dog Ranch in Carbondale. He suggested I look into the Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS). He has deep connections there. I really don’t think Ruby, or I, is ready for that kind of separation (I still struggle with weaning her from my breast and bed), and I was surprised to hear him say that all that time in school at her age is a good thing.

As Kathy fled with Bruce, Ed also got pushed out. Along the way Karen and Bertha were disappeared. The show began to feature Mardell and myself as running a school for a Board composed of disaffected parents. Since the school was running a healthy deficit, funded less and less by their fund-raising and more and more by the grant from myself, and since the board had no expertise whatsoever at running a school, let alone running anything, it became obvious that change was necessary.

And, by the way, George is moving to Carbondale. He’s in the process of establishing a charitable trust for his Woody Creek ranch. He then intends to market the property (with easements included) for between $35-50 million dollars, and has already secured a purchase for a 6,000 square foot home and its adjoining lot for his dogs at the far-reaches of River Valley Ranch’s property. River Valley Ranch is a family-friendly mixed development walking distance from Carbondale’s historic downtown.  Most of his friends live in Carbondale now, he says, and the maintenance of his Woody Creek ranch no longer makes financial or operational sense for Patti and him. The ease of owning and living on a development with a golf course, club house, restaurant, pool, tennis courts, and playgrounds appeals to him now: the rebel, the pilgrim, the outlaw living in the equivalent suburbs of the Roaring Fork Valley. So, yes, George Stranahan is leaving Woody Creek and moving to Carbondale. That’s big news. That’s the end of an era there, and the beginning of one here.

Around Christmas time of 1992 I asked Deb Jones and John Katzenberger to come to the house for a quiet talk about the realities. We reached agreement that parent boards were not workable in times of change, and that a powerplay by the AERF to take over control of the School might be best. Michael McVoy was technically the president of the board, in private meeting he agreed with this. The AERF met with the Community School parent board and asked them to resign their powers to the AERF, and they did so.

Suddenly the ultimate decision-making power of the school was concentrated into a few people with considerable history with the school, both in administrating and with children in the school, even children graduated from the school.

Back in April at one of our People’s Press meetings at a cafe in Carbondale (we were on a regular Wednesday 10am schedule by then) George began talking to me about his finances. He brought up the subject this time, without any prompt. He told me that although he doesn’t necessarily recommend this strategy, he gave each of his kids when they turned 18 years old $50,000 to do with whatever they pleased, including college. At 21 years old, each kid begins to receive $50,000/year income from a $3 million investment that they are not allowed to dig into until they are 40, at which point they receive full access to the $3 million. So far, George adds as a kind of results-based measurement of how well this financial strategy has benefited his kids, none of them have gone to jail and only one is an alcoholic who has been dry for 20 years. George has provided for his grandchildren, but has not yet publicized how.

At this point we have the school owned by the AERF, a four person board, managed by myself, probably in conflict of interest with the board because I fund the AERF and am a member of the board and an employee all at the same time. We’re now school year 92-93. Calling in chips from the educators roundtable, I ask for a meeting with the Aspen School District Board of Education. Mardell and I go to ask that they consider taking the Community School in as a public school. They say yes, wonderful idea, in principle, the Charter amendment is working its way through the legislature, let’s see how that comes out. Tom Farrell is pretty close to the Colorado Department of Education and we can be current with Charter stuff. Then, or later, Farrell and I agreed to go to Denver, to the CDE, and pursue how a Community School should become a public school.

A year or so later Bill Randall, the Head of CDE was visiting Aspen, talking to Farrell, and he invited me to talk about the business. Farrell and Randell talked their thing, scores and drugs, and then they got down to a Community School as public school. A good dream but likely impossible; follow the legislature. Later that year the legislature indeed passed a Charter Amendment. Not too long after this Farrell and I trouped to Denver to meet with Randall and his CDE, COSB, and CASE about how state regulations would work for a Community School to become part of the state system. Mostly they laughed; Aspen was a killer word. If it was Aspen, the legislature would duck. Well, we did our due diligence and came up empty handed.

George only learned about his inheritance as a young adult, after he had already started a family. Before then there was no indication that he would ever inherit anything. In 1955 he was in the Army earning $150/month supporting a wife and three children when he inherited $3 million (which he has subsequently grown to $30 million). Currently, he pays no income tax on the money he receives from his investments because he gives so much of it away. His immediate and extended family of 22 people have been pooling their money together for over 20 years, which has allowed for a remarkable average annual return of 16%. His family has done so well, George says, because pooling investments gives them access to the very best financial managers and advisors available (they hire managers who manage their other financial managers). The majority of their investments are socially responsible, and George believes in paramutual betting: that is, if you want to predict weather in Florida months in advance, look at the price of citrus juice derivatives and futures.

It was around this time that I felt that the system could be moved with some display of power. Using the Aspen Foundation as a medium, I called a meeting of both school districts, the Skiing Company, Hines Interests, and the Foundation to announce that the Aspen Educational Research Foundation had 210 acres, a million dollars, and was going to build a Teacher Center, a new School in Carbondale, a Main Street, and a Highlander Center knockoff. David Parker came from Hines, nobody came from the Skico, Farrell and Bader came from the school districts. This was throw-down the gauntlet. McVoy did a lot of the presentation and took a lot of ownership at this meeting. The message was, the AERF has major resources, the state has new laws, the school districts have a history of cooperation, things are going to happen. Perhaps this felt like a reincarnation of the Education Roundtable, but in a different, and more public, venue. Nothing promised, nothing delivered, except the dream. The folks left probably wondering, “That’s a strange meeting, wonder what it was about.” Which was about the desired effect.

I think that the next event was a call to Bader that we wished to submit a proposal to the RE-1 School District, outside of the Charter Amendment, to build and operate a Carbondale Community School as a public school, in their school district, and in partnership with the District. RE-1 had just finished dealing with a charter school request from the Waldorf School which had been operating in Aspen and had been, from time to time, members of the Educator’s Roundtable. The Waldorf School had done a miserable job of trying to use the Charter Amendment to solve their admitted financial difficulties. They held public meetings for hopeful parents, tried to bring political pressure to bear on the basis of the numbers of parents who “might consider the Waldorf option if it were free,” and represented themselves as not only the parent’s choice, but actually a better alternative. They alienated the School Board. The Board denied their application, they appealed to the State, which appeal is part of the Charter Amendment, and their appeal was denied.

At one of our meetings in May at the Carbondale café, a woman sitting to the left of us overheard George talk about Rudolph Steiner. He was mapping out the local pre-school opportunities for me. George was talking about how the Austrian-born Steiner, founder of the Waldorf School philosophy, was crazy and knew nothing about education or child development. This woman interrupted us and informed us that her child was a student at the local Waldorf School. She attacked George (I sat in between them), and said, “Did you know Rudolph Steiner personally?” Since Steiner had died decades ago, she knew George had never met him, as he confirmed. “Well, then, how do you know?” George let her know he himself was an educator. She returned to her computer while George continued his lecture at me (but loud enough for the woman to listen on), explaining how Steiner started a pre-school when a cigarette manufacturer needed one for its employees’ families. From this sole experience, Steiner called himself an expert. I wonder then, does George consider himself an expert after only venturing in one elementary/middle school experiment himself?

The Board, knowing that the first Charter proposal would set the example for the rest, used the Waldorf proposal to design a process for considering Charter School proposals: something like 90 day review by the Superintendents office, 90 day review by the District Accountability Committee, and then deliverance to the board for a vote. The Waldorf proposal had just been voted down when our proposal, a proposal for partnership rather than a Charter hit their agenda. At the first meeting of the RE-1 board they agreed to process the proposal according to their Charter School procedures, as a partnership proposal, but on a dual track that could convert to a Charter Proposal upon mutual agreement. The RE-1 board had included in their procedures for dealing with Charter Schools that would have only two, and they would be paced a year apart, and none would be considered after year three. I think our proposal looked like the potential to fill one of the two slots with something not too controversial, something that might even work. We became a serious part of their agenda, Bader began using positioning within the Board members and the State interest in Charter Schools to advance our cause cautiously.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Community School had some work to do before it could really say that it practiced what it preached—walked the talk. Mardell and I become Co-Directors of the School, we hire Anne Fitten Glenn as Development Director—we needed to raise money to stay alive, as always. The school, well the teachers, had become used to the Barry years. Towards the end of the Barry years it was each teacher on their own, deal with their kids, deal with their parents, be nice to each other, put on a good play, and somehow it would work out. There were some parents around whose children really needed the Community School, and they and Barry got into the alcoholic game of enabling. The teachers learned to lock into their classrooms and their students. They did a good job, for sure, they were good teachers, on the whole, but it wasn’t a school. A school means one integrated way of thinking.

Minutes later during this same meeting a man in his 60’s dressed in a vagabond cowboy ensemble greeted George. This wandering minstrel, T Ray Becker, abbreviated his purpose: he owns nothing and has no home. He plays his guitar whenever and wherever he gets the chance and sells his CDs, accepting only cash. He believes in quantum physics – what you put out there comes back to you.

In as much as it was somebody’s school it had become Mardell’s school rather than Barry’s school. Or, in fact, the school had never been anybody’s school, just under temporary management. Mardell provided order, discipline, support, and uniform expectations. Given no common vision, no leadership from Barry, the teachers found Mardell’s offerings compellingly valuable and necessary. She became essential; it was not possible to have a Community School without Mardell. She was also expensive in a time when fund raising was getting ever more difficult. She had also garnered  the discipline system into her domain. A teacher wants to teach, not discipline; Mardell wanted to discipline, not teach. What a Match! And besides, she could organize like a bandit. The question arises; is she holding things together, or is she holding things up?

George then tells us about his recent trip to New Orleans on behalf of the Needmor Fund and its community organizing in the 9th District. According to George, the 9th District is the first place blacks could own land after the ban of slavery. He observed the most effective community organizing at faith-based organizations, where the meetings take place at churches led by ministers. Many in Houston and Atlanta want to return home, but the city doesn’t want their poor black people back.

Teachers at the Community School have generally been of the right sort. Young, energetic, outdoorsy, independent, and pretty full of independent ideas. The institution seldom says no to independent ideas. A group like this needs a teacher of teachers, an older figure to take them through their twenties with a bit of wit and wisdom. Often enough the teacher that comes to us is indeed that “born teacher” and often enough they need a place to grow.

The Teacher Center in development with the University of Colorado School of Education is designing a one-year post-graduate curriculum for pre-service teachers entirely aligned with these thoughts.

Out of the 70 or so nonprofits that George has been involved in, he says that he considers only one successful – the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, because of its staff insight. Those running the show were living the show.

Every organization needs someone to own it and a nonprofit with an endowment becomes lazy. I suppose the same principles apply to individual lives.

A place to grow means, to me, a place to try things, to make mistakes, to be forgiven.

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