Margaret Mead was a well-known anthropologist whose name often gets tossed around in women’s history celebrations and in women’s studies classes.

She’s credited with many inspirational quotes that now lie engraved on plaques, dangle on keychains and appear on bumper stickers. But one of Mead’s most popular quotations carries questions about its origin and legitimacy. No one can say for sure where Mead was when she allegedly uttered the famous words, but they seem to have roots right here in Coupeville.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,” Mead is said to have said. “Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

This June, about 30 Coupeville parents formed a group they’re calling PACE, which stands for Parent Advocates for Challenging Education. After the Legislature cut away at beneficial programs and school officials were forced to absorb the blow, the parents feared that the heart and mission of education would suffer, so they took it upon themselves to be visionaries.

“People want to do something, but they need to feel like they can go somewhere with it,” PACE member Ashlie Unruh said. “Everyone brings up all the negatives before we can say, well, let’s explore this, let’s see what it takes.”

The PACE group holds regular meetings and asks different people to take on certain issues. Though the idea is to benefit the Coupeville School District at large, Unruh, and fellow parents Patty Bruland and Sheilagh Byler, are focused on revitalizing Coupeville’s alternative Cedar program, which will see many changes in the coming year.

When the Legislature made cuts to help balance the 2011-2012 budget, alternative learning programs like Cedar took a hit. Though the students used to receive full-funding from the state, each student will now only be funded at 85 percent, which works out to be about a $116,000 loss to the program. Because of the drop, Cedar faces losing its high school program, its contract teachers and will be moving from its current location at Camp Casey to the annex near the high school. But PACE parents want to make it clear that the program is far from dying out.

“We have goals and ideas to build the program back,” Byler said.

Byler said she often hears misconceptions about Cedar, like that it’s closing or simply a drop-off for behavior problems, but neither is the case. Instead of getting discouraged, Byler and her partners are working with other parent volunteers to create a program at Cedar that will enhance and revitalize students’ educations and hopefully draw more kids.

“Cedar is one of those places where kids of all abilities can have their needs met,” Unruh said. “Teachers are committed to giving high achievers challenges and lower kids extra help, and the smaller class sizes allow them to do that.”

The women all plan to teach classes for the program this fall on a volunteer basis. The schedule is yet to be finalized, but Unruh will tentatively teach a writing class titled “Spilling Ink.” She plans to have the kids learn the writing basics, but also has them scheduled to publish a book and attend a young authors’ conference. She’s also teaching a Latin and ancient adventures course.

Byler will be leading an environmental science class, and Bruland will teach ancient adventures, a music class and geography.

“Cedar is a great enrichment program,” Byler said. “Kids who want to go into greater depth in any area can.”

The women hope to use Coupeville’s unique natural setting to create educational field trips and to bring in guest speakers from the community’s wide array of retired and working professionals. They’re hoping to keep Cedar’s commitment to alternative education alive.

“Kids are bored to tears with worksheets and are looking for more depth,” Unruh said. “We’re saying, it’s okay to do worksheets, but after they’re finished, give them their next challenge. Don’t hand out another worksheet or ask them to wait for the rest of the class to finish but give them something that enables them to apply what they just learned.”

Unruh said she knows the budget cuts will leave some holes in Cedar’s program, so the parents have taken it upon themselves to bridge the gaps. In addition to planning challenging classes, they plan to hold fundraisers throughout the year to help pay for the costs of supplemental materials and textbooks. A PACE garage sale that took place this spring brought in $1,000 for the program.

The women are looking forward to the 2011-2012 school year and plan to take advantage of the resources provided by Cedar’s new home in the school district annex. The annex offers more space, science equipment, gym and bus access, and art and music rooms among other things.

“Learning should be exciting,” Bruland said. “I’m preparing very seriously for it … private individuals really can do some things.”

To get involved, email Tacey Jungman at taceyjmsp@aol.com.