Yesterday afternoon I witnessed a happy occasion, the symbolic groundbreaking of a new school, and not just any school but the International School of Aruba. My ties with the school are deep and long. My son David took the bus ride to that fine institution of learning for twelve or thirteen years, from Kindergarten through junior high. ISA prepared him not only for university, but also for life I suppose.
The new school will be located right next to the airport, in Wayaca, a middle point, and will thus attract many more students. For years the enrollment hovered around the one-hundred mark, as the school was located a long ride away from town at Seroe Colorado, San Nicolas.
The school finds its roots in the early days of the refinery when the American expats working for Exxon – referred to as Lago on the island – created it for their kids within walking distance from the refinery and the adjoining residence bungalows. That was 75 years ago, which makes the school among the oldest within the International School System, ISS, its current operator.
A handful of island residents with an American orientation also sent their kids to the Lago School. It offered them a convenient option of private education on an island with a Dutch speaking system.
In the late seventies, early eighties this island’s hotel industry was invented and Aruba started welcoming more English speaking families of hotel executives. The school at Seroe Colorado grew. I knew some people, who knew some people, who in turn knew some very important people and thus I was able to send my son to pre-K at the colony, where he was nicely received and well educated by Utahan Barros. Utahan is still there, at the school, teaching the basics to pint-size people. She can also be found evenings at Gasparito Restaurant, her family’s business, talking to guests and taking a break from chalk and blackboards.
Pre-K at the time was full and with no more classroom space in the school building, the tiny ones were accommodated at one of the bungalows which doubled up as an annex. The much-loved, late Enccila Redhead gave them all of her attention and helped them blow their noses – her son is today much involved with the San Nicolas Merchant Association, she also did a good job there.
In 1985, Lago refinery folded. We didn’t see the writing on the wall. It was socking. Out of the blue the American refining company said no more, the plant is obsolete, we cannot carry that financial burden anymore, we’re going home. Going home for the refinery executives also meant closing the school.
Then something extraordinary happened. A group of parents, among them the former minister of tourism and the former minister of education – their political careers followed later, they were launched as movers and shakers within their community – hoteliers, investor, developers, and medical professionals whose children remained school-less banded together and reversed the decree. They dug into their own pockets, hired a head master and started the not-for profit foundation known today as ISA.
It was a powerful grass root movement. The school reopened with just a handful of students, perhaps 50. The slim budget was financed by tuition which was high, very high even in today’s standards. Then the local government struck a deal with Coastal, a US refinery, to reopen the plant and revive the industry.
It was a happy day at ISA. With the reopening of the refinery, the board of directors of the school knew that more students will be arriving, tagging along their parents, the new oil executives. Indeed in just one year, ISA was back on its feet as far as enrollment went with over 100 tuition paying students and a benevolent refinery to foot some of the building’s improvement bills.
A few years into that educational adventure when the school board got a bit over-zealous a parent organized a uprising, in the public library, overthrowing the old set, introducing new blood.
Why do I always have to come back to my own personal take on things? Because! And that’s how I see it.
I was among desperate parents convening in Dr. Lili Beke’s living room, at the time the emergency meeting was called. An Argentinean-born girl was then inspired to take the ball and run with it. Perhaps one year later, when she left, I got involved and remained on the school board for about 10 years. This is where I met the locals from the merchant and business community. My years on the school board probably benefited me more than I had ever benefited the school, I got involved and connected and gained insight into the way things work here.
We were a memorable bunch of interested and involved parents, fund raising with Glenda Chemali & Madeleine Mansur was a unique experience. These parents were on fire. We organized flee markets, and Christmas shows drawing top notch management resources from Ray Barros and Humphrey Thysen, two prominent businessman who served as chair persons of the board. The lesson to be learned is: get involved with your kids’ education and you are sure to get an education yourself in the process.
Some things still stay the same. For years, ISA has been trying to get some financial aid from the local government. Why not? The parents sending their kids to school at Seroe Colorado are tax paying citizens and their kids deserve the stipend. The government here has always – for the past 20 years – quoted old and antiquated laws which need to be changed. Twenty years of the same refrain.
At the opening ceremony yesterday the Prime Minister Nelson Oduber and the Minister of Infrastructure, Marisol Tromp, eluded to the fact that the ancient laws must be re-written. I can’t wait for them to get off their butts and do something about it. The school could use the cash, and it is the right thing to do. Some of the island’s young business people are a product of ISA, the fresh Codemsa management and the leadership at La Linda, just to name a few.
The school in Wayaca will be financed by ISS, an international organization which held together the accreditation process of ISA all these years. David Smith, with Coastal, now Valero, deserves credit for hooking ISS up with ISA. The local government did pitch in with a fabulous piece of land in a safe and central spot. Please keep some of the vegetation, trees and cactus, don’t raze it all the way other school construction projects do. All new schools in Aruba looks as if life has been yanked out of them, drab, depressing, for lack of anything growing and alive. Except the kids. Let’s keep some trees up to inspire students local and foreign to grow where they are planted.
