By Patric Hedlund

The Duhm family lives in Pine Mountain. Anne Duhm and her husband have four children, ages 10 through 17, in El Tejon Unified School District now. These are excerpts from a recent interview.

“We’re from a family of educators,” Anne Duhm said, noting that both her parents and her husband’s parents are college or high school teachers. “Education is important to us. Each of my kids is different. They need to be encouraged at home and at school.”

For many years Duhm’s children were homeschooled: “We homeschooled with CAVA (California Virtual Academy) for 5th through 8th grade for our son. By 9th grade we wanted him to go to Frazier Mountain High School (FMHS). But after all the stories I’d heard, I felt I was sending my child off to war.”

Duhm reports that Principal Anthony Saba made a great difference in just one year at FMHS: “The whole vibe on the campus is so different. Our son has seen a seriousness about the school grow. The message is: ‘your education is important and you have to step up to the plate.’ I definitely saw that happen this year. In the three years my son has been there, we have seen an exciting change.”

What Duhm calls their family’s “adventure” at the high school is a compelling story of a family becoming participants in a community school that is pulling itself forward despite the challenges of state budget reversals and local declining enrollments. Some families, she said, are seeing the benefits of a small, family-like high school culture.

Duhm’s son attends the ComTec Academy within FMHS.

“My mother-in-law notices the AP (advanced placement) and honors classes, and told me, ‘I am amazed to see the projects this kid has been bringing home.’

“I’m pleased my son has been in a small school. It has been a good thing for him. It has been great this year to see exciting things happen at the ComTec Academy and at the Pine Mountain Learning Center [in the district]. We need to keep going forward.

“This area is a great place to raise children. My children love their life here. I think this high school can be a place that attracts people to want to come so their kids can go to school here. We need to keep going forward. Every chance I have, I talk to parents. I am very pleased.

“When you see the care and compassion in how these teachers interact with these kids, how could I move? I go to all the backto- school nights, I talk with all the teachers. We go to the campus, we are there for sports events, plus we have high schoolers at our house talking about how much they enjoy different teachers.

“The Spanish teacher, Mrs. Martinez, is amazing. We want to see her come back and my son wants to take Spanish IV from her. She has a great sense of humor but she means business. They respect that. She has a good relationship with the kids.

“Mrs. Heasley and Mr. Domke of the ComTec Academy are interested in doing great things for these kids on the mountain.

“It was so neat to see the Falcon Extravaganza! We needed this, a big spring Open House. It was just wonderful. We got to see outstanding opportunities for kids at FMHS.”

This is part of the June 29, 2012 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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