Reunion ironies swirl above desert campus of Shumla School

April 22, 2007
By Bill Sontag
Feature Writer

Linda Rios Bromley, a Del Rio native and Houston resident, never saw the Harrington Ranch north of the Pecos River, nor the Shumla School where her parents are being honored, until she received a long-anticipated hug of instant friendship from the school’s founder, Dr. Carolyn Boyd, Wednesday (April 11).

Bromley, author married to Houston attorney Bill Bromley, keeps abreast of cultural changes in her hometown, as evidenced by her recent election to the board of directors of the Laughlin Heritage Foundation. But the news (delivered by LIVE! in January) that the Houston-based Albert and Ethel Herzstein Foundation had donated $100,000 to Shumla School, in the name of her parents, Bill and Nina Merle Rios, brought tears to Bromley’s eyes.

In like fashion, Boyd had never heard of the Rios family until Michael Hajtman, president of the Herzstein Foundation, contacted her saying (paraphrased) “O.K., here’s your check for a hundred grand, but we want the new housing it will pay for named for Bill and Nina Merle Rios.” Since the connection story broke, January 6, 2007, the two women – Boyd and Bromley – have conversed by phone, joyfully planning the meeting on the campus, two weeks ago.

The generous check is half of the total for which Boyd is searching to construct much-needed Shumla School campus housing on the remote desert landscape of the Jack and Missy Harrington ranch. But the gift has permitted the school to get started, designing and building a dormitory for students, to be augmented later with development of a cluster of bungalow cottages.

Shumla School was founded by Boyd in 1998 on the generous donation of 70 acres of land by the Harringtons, in an arid, limestone bowl, fringed by water-carved canyons to the east, and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the west. With clever curricula linked to Texas TAKS test standards, the school has hosted thousands of fifth-graders from Del Rio and Eagle Pass for “Pecos River Kids” day-long outings and fun, hands-on lessons about ancient lifeways and practical applications to contemporary living and learning.

To date, Boyd says 9,000 schoolchildren have spent time with the Shumla teachers and volunteers, and about 1,000 adults have participated in experiential, sometimes scholarly programs aimed at the intellectual pursuits of more mature audiences.

Until now, both faculty and students – for overnight programs – have lived in tents. Boyd wants to expand the school’s attraction by providing overnight accommodations for all ages, and the Bill and Nina Merle Rios dormitory and bungalows will fill the bill.

“Ethel Herzstein was my mother’s aunt,” Bromley explained, putting the family pieces together to fit the philanthropic Shumla puzzle. “Through family emergencies and all kinds of challenges, they were as close as sisters, with a very tight bond.” So, Shumla School, within easy driving distance to the historic family “back yard” in Del Rio became an attractive target for the Herzstein Foundation generosity, according to Bromley.

Incidental to the connection, but not easily ignored, is that Bromley’s father – Bill Rios was a Southern Pacific Railroad career employee. “My dad was stationed for awhile at the Shumla Station,” said Bromley, marveling at the irony. Just west of the school’s campus and the new dorms and bungalows that will bear his and his wife’s name is a rapidly deteriorating limestone building where Bill Rios worked occasionally until his retirement and the family’s move to Houston in 1990.

Boyd visited the offices of the Herzstein Foundation near the famed Galleria shopping mecca on Houston’s west side. “It was functional, but it was not overstated, and it certainly was not posh,” said Boyd, remembering an energetic, almost playful reception from board members there, in contrast to more formal, somewhat stilted philanthropic environments she’s seen since she began fundraising for Shumla School.

The Herzstein Foundation board members teased Boyd during her presentation, making faces, whispering conspicuously, alarming her a bit with their antics. But in the end, board member Dr. Nathan Topek, a Houston internal medicine physician, told Boyd, “This project and the recognition for the Rios family should have been launched a long time ago.”

Friday evening (April 20), Bromley said of her visit to Shumla, “I’m just pretty overwhelmed. I had read the Shumla Web site [www.shumla.org] , so I knew a little bit about what to expect, but it’s nothing compared to being there and seeing it first-hand. The accomplishments and what’s they’ve gotten done are way beyond my expectations. The improvements on kids’ TAKS tests is remarkable.”

Boyd explained that a teacher from Seco Mines Elementary School, Eagle Pass, wrote after class experiences in the Pecos Kids program that school TAKS test scores in science rose 28 percent, “And she attributes that to the kids’ experiences here at Shumla.”

Closer to home, Boyd said that Val Verde County has the 12th highest dropout rate in Texas (of the state’s 254 counties), and Texas has the highest dropout rate in the country. “We’re in a crisis situation here,” Boyd exclaimed. She hopes the Shumla experience will be noticed, and practiced elsewhere.

“It’s already being modeled in other places. If we can demonstrate the success of this model, then we can change the way kids are taught across Texas. I’d like to see little Shumlas all over the state, eventually,” Boyd said. “We even had one little kid who said he was going to flunk the fifth grade, just so he could come back to Shumla next year, but I told him, ‘No, no, no, that’s not what we want!’”

Bromley said, “I plan to come back in November because of my participation on the Laughlin Heritage Museum board, and our plans to have a celebration for Veterans Day in November at the Laughlin Heritage Museum. So, I’ll E-mail Carolyn ahead of time to see if she has some scheduled activities I can go up and see. I really would love to see Shumla with all the kids out there.”

Boyd has raised more than $1.6 million in philanthropic assistance since she founded Shumla School in 1998, but her long-range plans are dependent on continuing that so-far successful record. Her immediate need is for the next $100,000 to add a group of bungalow cottages to the Bill and Nina Merle Rios student and faculty housing.