Holmes school could become West Central’s beacon of hope

One recent Friday, Steve Barnes, principal of Holmes Elementary School, held a baby goat in his arms and walked to every classroom in the school. He’d been “goated” by the West Spokane Kiwanis Club as a fundraiser for the Wishing Star Foundation. Teachers and staffers stuffed dollar bills into a jar. Students plunked in dimes and quarters.

No one seemed surprised to see their principal carrying around a goat. Holmes, located in the West Central neighborhood at 2600 W. Sharp Ave., is a school where people adapt to the unexpected.

They have to. The student turnover rate is astonishing. So far this year, 197 students have enrolled in the school, while 195 students have left.

Schools in higher-income areas might have a dozen students leave the entire year.

Some of the 375 students live in homeless families. Some live in poverty and transition.

The West Central neighborhood offers low- to modest- income housing and convenience to downtown and public transportation.

This West Central neighborhood is changing almost daily now. Some middle and upper-middle income folks have lovingly restored the area’s early 20th century homes. Nettleton’s Addition, part of West Central, was just added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Drive through West Central and you’ll see quaint porches filled with wicker chairs, next to homes so trashed you can’t believe your eyes.

But the biggest change is on the horizon. Kendall Yards, a proposed upscale development that will include 2,600 new residential developments, plus office and retail space, will be located mostly along the Spokane River west of the Monroe Street Bridge.

The development will be within walking distance of Holmes.

A newly formed group, the Summit-Bridge Alliance, this week unveiled its Web site.

“The Alliance, while generally supporting Marshall Chesrown’s proposed Kendall Yards development, is concerned about the impacts on the West Central Neighborhood and the Spokane River.”

The area is primed for class and turf skirmishes. One way to defuse them is to focus on the children. Holmes Elementary is already a gathering place for the community.

“They don’t trash the school,” Barnes told me.

Holmes is always in need of volunteers. The residents of Kendall Yards could become those volunteers.

“Our kids need every support to help them learn,” Barnes said. “They need good, supportive role models. They need the gift of time.”

The school has amazing energy. I spent the day there April 21, teaching writing to kindergartners as part of Get Lit! I handed out word magnets to students. They held them in their hands like treasures.

Gifted, committed teachers and staff have found their way to Holmes. Last year, Barnes was named the Dick Stannard Distinguished Elementary Principal of the Year for Spokane Public Schools.

Rotary and Kiwanis are big supporters of the school. Kendall Yards residents will be walking into a school filled with the rich bounty of caring adults.

I predict that some of those Kendall Yards volunteers will get hooked on Holmes.

They will go beyond volunteering. They will tell the children: “You stay in school, get good grades, and we’ll pay your college tuition.”

Barnes told me that Holmes has the potential to become “a shining beacon for the neighborhood.”

To realize this potential, adults must do something as unexpected as carrying a goat around all afternoon. They must work together across class lines with one common goal: a better future for the neighborhood’s children.