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Students are crazy about David Nufer, who has knit together a divided school with his warm, flexible style.WASILLA, Alaska — It's a sub-zero morning in early December. The last of the late-night stars twinkle and slowly fade overhead. The snow-covered glacial peaks that rise out of the Talkeetna and Chugach mountain ranges take center stage as crystallized silhouettes against the backdrop of an enormous, deep-blue Alaskan sky. Nestled between the mountain ranges in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley — Mat-Su to the locals — at the end of a gentle, almost poetically winding lane sits Finger Lake Elementary School. Nearly 400 students emerge from school buses and all manner of parent-driven vehicles and scurry into the building along the mercifully short walkway from the parking lot to the front door. Some of the students are accompanied by a parent; many are alone. Nearly all are greeted, by name, by Principal David Nufer, whose attire this morning features a tie that, when squeezed gently at its tip, displays an illuminated Santa Claus. Nufer, Alaska's National Distinguished Principal for 1999, smashes to bits every stereotype of the stern, autocratic principal of eras gone by. His connection to the students, staff, and parents in his building is as profound, complex, and tangible as the Mat-Su Valley landscape. While the feeling at Finger Lake is overwhelmingly positive, the school is not without its scars. Every year it has to yield to the reality of budgetary issues, which often require staff reduction. Being in one of the most tax-resistant states in the United States, the district has to contend with a heavy dose of anti-public-education sentiment, and, as Nufer describes it, "do a jig every year for funding." And, in the six years that Nufer has been principal, five Finger Lake students have died of causes ranging from leukemia to homicide. One of the students who died was the child of a Finger Lake teacher, which made the loss even more acute. "These things make you who you are," Nufer says softly. "We pulled together and got through it." Not that long ago, a trip to the principal's office meant you were in serious trouble. But at Finger Lake — in the midst of a school district the size of West Virginia and at least three times as rugged — you're likely to get a hug on your way out the door from the principal himself. Throughout the day, the 42-year-old Nufer hugs students in the hallways, the classrooms, and the lunchroom. "You definitely get your hugs in elementary school," says Nufer. "The hugging just happens naturally. Kids need to know that you love them." And Nufer does, on so many levels, love the kids. Himself the father of two students at Finger Lake, one in first grade, the other in third, Nufer first caught the elementary education bug while doing fieldwork for an undergraduate course. A native of Vancouver, Washington, Nufer came to Alaska to direct Christian education for the Lutheran church in nearby Palmer. After substitute teaching for two years, he taught third, fourth, and fifth grades for five years. In his six years at Finger Lake, Nufer has spearheaded shifts in the school's culture that are evident throughout the building. At the front entrance, for example, a donated collection of coats and gloves and other cold-weather accessories is free for the taking for families who are in need but too modest to ask for help. The building — Nufer's office, the library, the long and orderly hallways — is adorned with student artwork. The teachers wear relaxed faces and move gently among their students. And the students — the true barometers of a school's climate — are ecstatic whenever Nufer is nearby. "The kids love and adore him," says Diana Anderson, who teaches a combination of third and fourth grades. "If we run into him in the hall, I'll definitely lose control of the class." She's not complaining, though. Currently in her 11th year of teaching, Anderson has witnessed the contrast between Nufer and his predecessor, who took a more top-down approach to the principalship. Back then, the staff was deeply divided.
"Walking in here six years ago was like walking into the Grand Canyon," Nufer recalls. "One group was on one side, while the rest were on the other, and between the two was an enormous pit. That's where we started." The main split, he says, was the perception that the principal rewarded favored teachers with coveted assignments. Nufer's solution was to turn over the scheduling process — 483 students spread out among 50 staff, 21 classrooms, and three specialists — to the teachers. It turned out to be a good move. The teachers now feel valued and supported. Anderson says the changes Nufer has brought about at Finger Lake have played a major role in improving the quality of her teaching. "We now have an atmosphere here that more closely approximates home and family, which of course allows for greater learning," she says. "I most definitely feel listened to, and Dave does what he can within his power to help. He doesn't even get mad at me, and I can be relentless when I'm advocating for my students." Indeed, Anderson grew so attached to her second- and third-grade combo class last year that she couldn't bear to let them go, so she persuaded Nufer to allow her to stay with the group. "The principalship is about the kids," Nufer. "I have strived to give the teachers the resources they need rather than putting ourselves in a box. I don't want to be bound by tradition." One of the traditions Nufer has parted with is the dictum that educators must educate until they drop. Anderson says that working with Nufer has taught her the importance of a full and rich life outside of the classroom. "The most important thing I've learned from him is that while it's important to put in your time to be a good teacher, there is more to life than teaching," she says. "He makes it OK to have other priorities. He models that by being involved in his church and the community, and by making time for his family. And, of course, the quality time we spend away from school only enriches our time here." Diana Jobin-Vig, a specialist at Finger Lake for the past five years, says that Nufer's approach to the principalship allows her to be more effective at adapting the curriculum for children with special needs. "You can tell he genuinely loves children," she says. "He goes out of his way to make this the best environment it can be, and he's very good at giving specialists the flexibility we need to do our jobs." In addition to bringing teachers into the fold in more meaningful ways, Nufer has made parental involvement a priority. Since Nufer assumed the principalship at Finger Lake, parents have come to think of the school as much more than a collection of classrooms. More than 90 parents are members of the Finger Lake PTA. They attend and teach adult education classes at the school on topics ranging from anger management to accessing the Internet. They volunteer throughout the day, overseeing basketball and soccer before classes start, and tutoring one-on-one in math or reading long after the day's final bell. "Parents want to get involved, and we make sure that's possible," says Nufer. "They care about their kids, and they feel welcome and needed here." Ley Schliech, mother of two Finger Lake students and current president of the Finger Lake PTA, says that Nufer's style of leadership certainly makes her feel welcome — and needed. "David is accommodating and supportive — a partner," she says. "He is willing to allow parents into the process." Schliech, a trained health educator who has scheduled her life for maximum flexibility, says she admires the way Nufer carries out his duties. "He's optimistic, he has a great sense of humor," she says. "He can ride out stuff, like personalities and differences of opinion that come and go. He doesn't personalize things. A principal's work is never simple — they have to be willing to take the heat and criticism from all different sides. I admire his willingness to do that." Paddy Coan, a Finger Lake parent who has volunteered and worked as a paid staff member at the school for the past seven years, says Nufer brought enthusiasm and an ability to build partnerships to his role as principal — with magnificent results. "He takes parental involvement above the classroom level," says Coan, who was PTA president at the time of Nufer's arrival. "I admire the way he took a look at what was going on before making major changes." Probably the most notable change at Finger Lake is bringing teachers and parents onboard as full partners in planning and refining the school's two-track system of mixed and single-age classrooms. Parents and teachers can choose between the standard, single-grade classroom and classes that blend kindergarten with first grade, second with third, and fourth with fifth. Coan admits she wasn't crazy about the idea at first, but that she warmed to it over time. "The multiage classrooms form pods of families that develop very strong bonds," she says. "It also enables the teachers to really get to know the parents." Although Coan was raised in nearby Anchorage, most of the families at Finger Lake aren't natives. The school, therefore, plays a much greater role than it would in a more urban setting. Senior citizens, for example, visit regularly to play cribbage to supplement math lessons. And the highly revered men and women who arrived in the Mat-Su Valley in the 1930s and now live at the Pioneer Home in nearby Palmer visit frequently. They help out in a variety of ways — tutoring in reading or math, or simply passing down the area's historical legacy via good, old-fashioned storytelling. "Most people don't have an extended family here," Coan says. "The schools are like family and we develop very strong bonds. I think that collaboration is the one thing that gets us through." And collaboration may as well be David Nufer's middle name. Since arriving at Finger Lake, Nufer has started a site management team that includes parents and staff. Instead of isolating itself, Finger Lake communicates its successes to the community through student-led conferences, portfolios, performance assessment, science fairs, math nights, family days, and school programs and performances. The entire Finger Lake community is playing a role in developing standards that will meet or beat those set forth by the state of Alaska. But perhaps most important is Nufer's commitment to collaborating with the students — a collaboration that takes many forms. On Wednesdays, for example, Nufer visits a classroom, where he reads a story while the class eats lunch. At a few minutes before noon on this wintry Wednesday, he swings by the janitor's office to pop a tray of chocolate-chip cookies into an oven. While the cookies bake, he talks about how far Finger Lake has come since his arrival. He is characteristically modest about the role he's played in the school's turnaround, and equally optimistic about its future. "There are so many openings down here at the elementary level, so many opportunities to intervene and nurture before it's a problem that can't be solved," Nufer says when explaining what keeps him motivated, and inspired. He pauses before opening the door to Anderson's classroom, where he will serve his just-baked cookies and read Because a Little Boy Went Ka-Choo! by Dr. Seuss while the children eat their lunches. "But we have to let kids drive the train. We have to put them first."
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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