'Our winds have changed': State Superintendent Chris Reykdal visits Prescott School

For Prescott senior Irma Serratos, her school is her community.

Serratos will graduate in about two weeks, and thanks to the combined efforts of her community and the state Legislature, she will not be part of the final graduating class from Prescott. Despite financial challenges that threatened to shut the school down after this school year, funding from several sources is allowing it to stay open for future generations.

"At the very last moment when we saw that it was going to just close down, I feel like our community came in together to help us," Serratos said.

Serratos, who plans to pursue a degree in radiology after graduation, serves as student body president in Prescott. She and the student body treasurer, junior Maddison Matheny, proudly guided a tour of their school on Wednesday, May 27, during State Superintendent Chris Reykdal's visit.

Serratos is from Vista Hermosa, a community of farmworker families about 20 miles west of Prescott. About 80% of Prescott School District's students come from Vista Hermosa, and the community played a big part in fundraising and advocating for Prescott School to stay open.

So, when Reykdal made his visit on Wednesday, he started with a tour of Vista Hermosa and the facilities at FirstFruits Farms. Reykdal was invited by community members when they met with him earlier this year to talk about the school's financial issues.

Led by Operations Manager Siro Diaz and Human Resources Director Ryan Ayres, Reykdal along with a few other community members and school officials got to see what it takes to get fruits from the farm to the grocery store and beyond. By noon that day, about a million apples had already been processed at FirstFruits.

Reykdal also met with several community members at the Vista Hermosa Community Center. Eva Madrigal, who moved to Vista Hermosa in 1979 and has worked there full time since 1987, shared some of the community's history as well as her own.

During her time in the FirstFruits community, Madrigal has worked in the warehouse, the day care, the main office and in housing, which is what she does now. Of her four children, one has a PhD, one is a nurse, one is a teacher and one is soon to graduate from Prescott School and Walla Walla Community College.

"I am a migrant worker. I worked in the farms. I worked wherever my dad would take us to work, and so I didn't get that benefit of having an education," Madrigal said. "So therefore, our kids, we pushed them. And we had amazing teachers in Prescott. It's a small school, and our kids are in a small classroom setting, so that connection is huge."

Madrigal also talked about Ralph and Cheryl Broetje, who founded Broetje Orchards, sold today under the FirstFruits label, with the vision of helping people become healthier, wiser, freer and more autonomous.

"If I'm here in this community, I want to make sure that what Ralph and Cheryl left here continues," Madrigal said. "Because the way the world is right now, we need a lot of this."

Reykdal asked whether many young people stay in the community after graduating.

"I've worked in the school since 1999, and there's a lot of second-generation kids in school," Superintendent Jeff Foertsch said. "But even with that said, it's maybe 50%, probably less, that are second generation. So there are a lot of folks who went to our school, grew up here, who've now gone other places, and there are definitely some that have come and are giving back as well."

Moving forward, now that the school district is expected to become debt-free within one year, Reykdal said enrollment would be the main issue the state is paying attention to.

"Everyone's struggling with enrollment declines," Reykdal said. "And it's okay that we're shrinking. We have communities that shrink. But then they've got to manage their assets that way. They've got to operate like a school that's smaller and not bigger, constantly thinking about what can be done efficiently and consolidated."

Reykdal also visited classrooms at Prescott School, along with school leaders and State Sen. Perry Dozier, who attended Prescott School and advocated for legislative funding. The tour guided by students featured many of the artworks around campus that were made with the help of artists-in-residence Tia Kramer and Amanda Leigh Evans.

Students even made an art piece for Reykdal to take back with him as a thank you gift, which said, "Our winds have changed," and included students' signatures.

Before departing, Reykdal congratulated school leaders and community members on their hard work that ultimately prevented the school from closing.

"You all had a high bar," Reykdal said. "Huge levy passage, you liquidated an asset, you got the community to support this. The Legislature helped out a little bit. So you worked your tails off, and you did all this. You did all this."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.