Xinkai Elementary School

Xinkai Elementary once enrolled around 400 students at its peak, but faced a school-closure crisis as enrollment collapsed to under 30, sparking a local "save our school" campaign. The community's response reinvented the school as a small-school arts and music program: corporate-donated violins meant every student learned to play. Building on that momentum, Xinkai has recently been approved to become a public-run Montessori experimental school, opening a new chapter for this small Dahu Township community.

新開國小全盛時期曾有約400名學生就讀，後因生員銳減至不足30人，一度面臨廢校危機，促使在地展開「搶救母校」運動。社區的回應是將學校轉型為小校音樂藝術特色課程：透過企業捐贈小提琴，讓每位學生都能學習拉琴。乘著這股動能，新開國小近期獲准轉型為公辦蒙特梭利實驗學校，為這個大湖鄉的小社區展開新頁。