Education advocate retires from Two Eagle River School
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PABLO — A continuous stream of past and present students came to speak to Clarice King as she sat at a table on the Two Eagle River School lunchroom. They all gave her a hug, and most told her “I love you, Clarice.”
This is not a sentiment students usually share or even feel for their principal, noted Penny Kipp, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Education department head.
But King is not just any principal: She is retiring from Two Eagle after 28 years at the school, and he staff, students and community honored her on May 24.
Beginning her career as an educator, King, then Clarice Charlo, graduated from Arlee High School, attended the University of Montana and earned her teaching degree in high school social studies and Native American studies. She was a member of the original education committee that developed Two Eagle River School and was on the committee for the formation of Salish Kootenai College, also. Before she was an administrator, King taught at Two Eagle.
Close to 600 students have graduated from TERS during King’s tenure.
Jordon Wilder was one of those students. He admitted he had a rough time in seventh grade, but over the years he built a good relationship with King. He’d be hanging around in the hallways, he said, “And Clarice would have to tell me to get to class.”
Now Wilder works at Turtle Lake Head Start and uses tricks King showed him. King also taught him to never give up. One of his friends died when Wilder was in high school, and he dropped out of school.
“Clarice was on me to come back to school,” Wilder said, adding that he graduated in 2010.
“(TERS) is not a school; it’s a family,” he explained.
Jami Hansen, who will serve as interim principal over the summer, said King connects with the students as well as handles discipline.
Her way of work with Indian student has been to be concerned with the students themselves, because they come with so much baggage. She’s shared her beliefs with the Two Eagle staff.
“We build up their egos,” she said, “and then get into the academics.”
Programs such as No Child Left Behind are concerned with just academics, she said, but the TERS staff finds ways to help students build their self esteem.
Earlier in the day King was honored by the TERS staff and CSKT tribal council members Joe Durglo and Jim Malatare.
When King was called to the microphone, she teared up. While she was collecting herself, she received a standing ovation.
“I’ve been here a while,” King said, after wiping away her tears and swallowing the lump in her throat. “I’ve seen kids grow from babies to elementary school students. Some of the graduates are parents now.”
She complimented the staff, describing them as exceptional people.
Looking at the Chief Cliff drum, she said, “This is not Mike’s (Mike Kenmille) drum group; they are mine. They are all TERS grads.”
Then she told a story about a member of Chief Cliff, Miah Michel, a 1994 Two Eagle graduate. Miah, she said, had worked very hard to graduate; and he finished his course work early in the spring. King told him to go home but to be sure to come back for graduation.
The next morning, she was out by the school buses, and who got off but Miah?
“I said, ’Miah, what are you doing here?’” King remembered.
He said, “Clarice, you are going to have to write me a note because my mother doesn’t believe I graduated.”
“So I wrote him a note,” she said, smiling.
One parent spoke, saying she may not always have agreed with King, but she always could talk to her.
“It’s been (King’s) dream to see Native kids get educated; she believed they had a lot to offer,” the woman added.
“The school will go on, you’ll make this a bigger and better school,” King said.
Staff members presented King with a framed print of two eagles and an original oil by Laurel Ovitt showing two teepees.
“One (teepee) says Dixon and one says Pablo in Salish,” said Cheryl Morigeau. “Two Eagle River is hidden in rocks along the creek bank.”
Morigeau has worked at TERS for 33 years, most of those years with King, and her sister painted the piece.
Staff members also passed the hat to purchase a recliner for King, which she’ll pick out herself.
As far as her retirement plans, King said, “I’ll stay home.”
Besides sleeping in, she’s been buying fabric for year and has a sewing machine still in the box, so she plans to start quilting again.
She also has lots of family; she had four children, lost two, and treasures seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren and “many, many more from Rudy’s side.”
Rudy is King’s husband. The couple will celebrate their 23rd anniversary on May 31.
