By Mike Gervais
Register Staff

9-13-2007

Inyo County’s newest lead educator is just where she wants to be in her career.
As the alternative education director in Inyo County, Nancy Williard oversees the Jill Kinmont  Boothe School and the foster youth program, which provides educational opportunities to minors who are incarcerated or in foster care.

“This is my niche in education, I have a passion for it,” said Williard. “I really feel strongly called to do this.”
Williard’s office is at JKBS where she oversees about 32 students who, for various reasons, opted out of the traditional education received at the county’s high schools, in favor of a more alternative setting.
JKBS “is for students who are not necessarily special education students, but who, for whatever reason, had significant problems with the traditional education system,” Williard said.
JKBS is one of only a handfull of community schools in California that offer an alternative to traditional high school. In addition to the 9-12th grade classes offered at JKBS, there is also an “explorers” branch of the school for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. Thosestudents are invited to experience the school and decide if that is the educational route they would like to take.
For example, school starts at JKBS with “morning focus,” an assembly of the student body. From the focus group, students go into music classes “to get them focused and ready for the day.” Then classes begin.
The school teaches much of the same material that students learn at traditional high schools, but focuses on providing a different environment for the students.
Williard’s position managing alternative education in Inyo County is a little different than her past jobs. Williard began her career in the inner city of Memphis, Tenn., where she taught eighth-grade English and history. More recently, she served as principal of Edna Beaman Elementary School in Benton.
“I was doing a lot of regular education as a teacher, but now I’m doing a lot of managerial things here,” she said.

Nancy Williard began as the new alternative education director in Inyo County on Aug. 1. Photo by Mike Gervais

Part of her position as alternative education director includes grant-seeking to help fund JKBS and the other Inyo County alternative education programs. “I do a lot of work with grants because the program that helps these schools is a combination of grants and special funding” through the state and federal government.
“One challenge is our size. We’re so small, but our students need these services” to continue their education. And alternative education is not funded like standard public schools.
“But there are a variety of categorical grants that give the school money” for specific programs, such as math, music or science, that keep the school afloat. Williard is more than willing to seek out whatever financial assistance is available.
“It’s part of what came with this position,” she added.
Aside from funding, educators at JKBS contend with rural isolation and a small campus – both factors that make the school one of the most unique community schools in California.
“Our biggest challenge is always geographical in this area, having (enough) personnel and making contacts for off-campus activities,” Williard said.
Williard said that she plans to focus Inyo County’s alternative education on “transitory placement.”
“The goal would be to put the students back into a positive education pattern,” whether that’s at JKBS, Palisades Glacier High School or conventional school. “We have students who graduated from this school who are presently at Cerro Coso (Community College) which is a huge accomplishment,” Williard said.
“The goal is to have the students progress, that’s what we work towards.”
Williard herself has a Bachelor’s degree in English from Rhodes College and a Master’s in Library Services from the University of Tennessee. She furthered her education at U.C. Santa Barbara and U.C. Bakersfield, completing California teaching and administrative credentials.
After graduate school, Williard worked as a librarian for a K-8 school in Appalacia and in schools in Santa Barbara. She moved to the Eastern Sierra in 1995, and has worked in Lee Vining and Benton schools. She also served as curriculum coordinator of the Eastern Sierra Unified School District.
“Ms. Williard brings valuable skills and experiences to Inyo County Office of Education. She has a positive vision of alternative education, as exemplified in the Jill Kinmont Boothe School and the various Opportunity classes supported by the county office,” said Pamela Jones, assistant superintendent student services and curriculum.
For her part, Williard wouldn’t want to be anywhere else at the moment.
“It’s exciting to work at this school, this is where I want to be,” Williard said.