On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at Boulder Elementary, 88-year-old Rhandi Rachlis settles into one of the small colored squares on the kindergarten classroom rug, joining a class of five-year-olds for story time.
It’s a scene that has become familiar since she arrived at the school last fall, but one that represents a significant change after more than two decades at another Jefferson County school.
For 22 years, Rachlis served as a “foster grandparent” at Basin Elementary, working with students of all ages. When the school entered non-operational status last June, she faced a choice: retire from the volunteer work that had defined much of her adult life in Montana, or start fresh somewhere new.
“I kind of missed having that in my life,” Rachlis said. “I thought, ‘It’s probably going to be different in Boulder. I have no idea what I’m in for, but we’ll see.’”
What she found was a welcoming community and a new routine. Two days a week from noon to 3 p.m., Rachlis works with Stephanie Carey’s kindergarten class and accompanies elementary students to physical education.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, Rachlis sat in her designated square on the classroom rug as Carey read “Arthur’s Valentine” aloud. When Carey asked the class questions about the story, Rachlis occasionally added her own thoughts. “Sometimes I have something to add, which I try to do politely,” she said.
The class has been learning about the Lakota Sioux in recent weeks, and after story time they worked on a craft project making miniature teepees. The activity resonated with Rachlis, who had worked for years with Montana’s Native American community. For a show-and-tell the week before, she’d brought in a Native necklace made with buckskin, shells, and porcupine quills, along with other Native-made art.
After the teepee making, the class broke into small groups. Rachlis worked with a handful of students on phonics, using flashcards with three-letter words. She asked each child to sound out the word, then quizzed them: “How do you spell this word? How do you say it?”
Rachlis has become a natural part of the classroom routine, guiding reading groups, playing games and reading stories with the kids. “Her real asset has been her life experiences,” Carey said. “We appreciate her spending time with the kindergarten class and look forward to her weekly visits.”
Managing a classroom of eager five-year-olds requires patience. When everyone wants to go first, Rachlis has learned to structure activities so each child gets a turn without fixating on who’s first.
Her philosophy with struggling or disruptive children centers on three principles: experimentation, patience and kindness. “If I can do enough of that, they’ll let me in and listen,” she said. The key is paying close attention – to how children think, how they feel, how they approach tasks. “I try to get into that little bubble,” she said.
It’s an approach grounded in decades of working with young people. Children are “fascinating, wonderful, fresh, entertaining and delightful,” Rachlis said. “And they teach me. They teach me how to slow down and pay attention in order to be able to communicate with them.”
Rachlis never had children or grandchildren of her own, but working with young people has been a thread throughout her adult life. She taught crafts to children through the Police Athletic League in New York City when she was younger, and after moving to Montana in 1963, she taught ceramics to children in Bozeman before settling in Basin. She later worked at Wakina Sky, an after-school program for Native American children in Helena.
In the early 2000s, she first learned about the foster grandparent program and met some foster grandparents. After a successful program application, Rachlis completed a background check and a physical exam, then approached Basin Elementary and was welcomed there.
Rachlis’ work at Boulder Elementary is part of the AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program, administered locally through Rocky Mountain Development Council in Helena. The program matches volunteers aged 55 and older with children who need additional support in schools and educational settings across six Montana counties.
About 12 foster grandparents from Helena and surrounding areas currently meet monthly for trainings, which are sometimes in-person in Helena and sometimes virtual. Recent sessions have covered topics like helping children with speech difficulties and classroom management strategies.
For more than two decades, Basin Elementary became Rachlis’s home away from home. There she worked with students, helping them with their school subjects and providing individualized attention. The small school allowed her to know each child well.
She recalled working with students who felt they couldn’t create, and remembers “helping them get through that block so that they were enjoying doing it.” Her own love of creating things with her hands – what she calls her “native urges to play” – drives her desire to pass that joy on to children.
“Seeing them learn new things and have tools as they progress is the most rewarding part,” Rachlis said.
At an age when many have long since retired from volunteer work, Rachlis shows no signs of stopping. In fact, she walked 2.8 miles with a friend over the weekend.
“I largely lived my life from my gut, and I know when something is right for me I’ll pursue it,” she said. “There’s no end in sight right now.”
The staff at Boulder Elementary has made the transition easier. “People in Boulder at the school are really kind to me, and that means a lot,” Rachlis said.
Her advice for potential foster grandparents is straightforward: understand what the organization expects, reflect on why you want to volunteer, see if those things align and give it a chance.
Meanwhile, Rachlis will continue showing up Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons at Boulder Elementary, sitting in those small squares on the kindergarten rug, helping children discover the world around them.
