Getting a yurt seemed like a romantic idea to Judith Fossel several years ago. She put one on her Alna Road, Alna property but now has no use for the circular, tent-like structure and would like to see its $18,000 valuation off her taxes.

Her solution does that and helps a non-profit school in town. She’s donating the yurt to Juniper Hill School.

On Friday, a flatbed was sitting next to the yurt in Fossel’s field. Plans called for the yurt to go onto it in pieces for transport to Golden Ridge Road and the school that serves early childhood through grade two with nature-based and placed-based programs.

The school is very grateful to Fossel, founder-director Anne Stires said. It already has two yurts, including a donated one, and was looking at getting a third yurt when Fossel offered hers. Things seem to happen that way for the five-year-old, independent school, getting help from the community when there’s a need, Stires said.

Several parents helped build the platform for the third yurt. Stires said the volunteer effort is a perfect example of something the school believes very strongly in: “It’s not everybody for themselves, but that we’re all connected ... And we’re so grateful. Everybody’s really busy and they still give of their time to make these kinds of things happen.

“It’s like what life used to be like ... and I think that’s the kind of thing that’s going to make this world a better place. So that’s what we do at Juniper, and the families know that and they’ve been wonderful. And they all have a lot of skills, too, which is really great,” she added.

The school will use Fossel’s yurt for the kindergarten, which is expanding, Stires said. Kindergarten had been housed with first and second grade in one of the yurts, with preschool in the other. “But now our enrollment is up, quite significantly, so kindergarten’s by itself. So that’s why we needed the other yurt. It’s really exciting,” she added.

It will be ready for students in time for opening day of the school’s sixth school year Sept. 6, Stires said.

A lot of the learning takes place outdoors, even in winter when it accounts for about half the time. Why yurts for the indoor work? “We can hear the wind and the rain, and feel like we’re outside, but we’re inside. And they’re so cozy. They’re kind of like being in a little cocoon. They’ve been wonderful mobile classrooms for us.”

The school heats the yurts with propane. Windows provide air exchange and combine with the yurts’ cover material to let the sunshine in.

On Friday, Stires’ father, former Lincoln Academy science teacher Kinne Stires of Westport Island, was finishing the 27-foot-diameter platform with spruce floorboards. He and wife Susan Stires, Anne’s mother, volunteer at the school.

Taking measurements before sawing, Kinne Stires said he has rebuilt a few homes but could not have anticipated how long the yurt’s platform would take. He and the parent-volunteers got a lot done over Father’s Day weekend in June.

Susan Stires, also a retired teacher, was not surprised her husband took on the project. “Kinne can build anything, just about,” she said. “And it’s for the school, and supporting our daughter, so obviously he would want to do it.”

Fossel said her family and the Stires have a long friendship, plus she feels strongly about the importance of education. So giving the school her yurt, which she had come to call Judy’s Folly, made sense. “It was a very right thing to me. It works all the way around.”