12-19-01

IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR

Dec 18 Asia Meetings (students 4:00; parents 5:30)

Dec 21 Community Service Day (2:00 early release; Lopez students on 2:15 ferry)

Dec 24-Jan 4 Winter Break; NO SCHOOL

Jan 5 Work Party 9-4 at school; Belize trip students to airport by 10:30 PM

Jan 7 School resumes

Jan 7-8 Avalanche Training Course; first trip for Snow Science Group

Jan 9 Open House 4-6 PM at school

Jan 10 Friday Harbor parent meeting, 5:30 PM at school (attendance required)

Jan 10-11 Asia trip retreat

Jan 17 Lopez parent meeting, 5-6:30 PM on Lopez (location TBA; attendance required)

Jan 21 Martin Luther King Day; NO SCHOOL

Jan 25 End of First Semester

Jan 26 Belize Trip returns

Jan 28 Asia Trip departs; NO SCHOOL

Dear Parents and Friends,

As you know, life at school has been full of challenges lately. As difficult and time-consuming as working through the repercussions of 9/11 and grappling with delays and cost overruns in our building project have been, these challenges have presented us with wonderful opportunities to experience just how strong and supportive a community we have created together. It is good to have resolved much of our dilemma around our travel program, and to be underway with the more positive and exciting aspects of working out the details with student participants and their parents. And it is wonderful to be occupying our new learning spaces! I am so very grateful to all of you who have helped bring us this far, and so appreciative of the patience and understanding you all have shown along our rocky road to our vastly improved campus. I hope you will be able to join us in celebrating how far we’ve come at the Open House January 9, from 4-6 PM

We’ve decided to include samples of student work in our newsletters. I hope you will enjoy the comments collected from Kim’s 7th/8th grade Language Arts class, who saw our local production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol after reading it in class, and James Kellogg’s college application essay.

May your holidays be filled with love and peace,

PEG

Tis the Season

Our annual All School Community Service Day will happen this Friday, the 21st, with students spending the day engaged in efforts to brighten the day for friends and those in need in our community. We will continue with some traditional service projects, and would welcome your participation helping us make and distribute Christmas cookies, sing carols around town in a horse-drawn carriage, clean and improve our classrooms, and celebrate our school and extended communities (and how’s that for alliteration?). We have also committed some of our students and families to help with the Kiwanis toy wrapping from 5-7 PM Thursday the 20th downstairs at the F.H. Legion Hall. This is a great way to make a community contribution, and earn $ For Scholars hours as well. There are of course many other opportunities available to students to make a difference for some needy person or organization, especially this time of year. And it is a fine idea to log community service hours before time gets too short, especially now when there are so many meaningful ways to help out.

Open House

We will be holding an Open House for the entire community on Wednesday, January 9, from 4-6 PM. A number of community members have expressed an interest in seeing what we’ve done with the portables. This will also be a good time for prospective families to come and take a look at the school. We will be inviting prospectives from our files – if you know of any others who are candidates for admission, please let us know and we will send them invitations as well. Do encourage anyone you know who would be interested to join us, and if at all possible, join us yourselves on January 5 from 9 to 4, when we will have a supervised work party to get ready for this event. There is much to do to improve on the spaces we’ve established, and we will have someone on site to coordinate the painting, cleaning and grounds work that needs to be done.

Seniors

If you’re the parent of a senior, you know that this next month is an important and stressful time, one where we all need to work closely together to support our seniors in the steps they are taking towards independence next year. College applications will be due, and the FAFSA form that is required of all who wish to apply for financial aid at any college needs to be filed by the end of January for priority consideration of aid requests. Let us know if you need these forms, or the similar PROFILE financial aid form that some schools also require.

With James’ permission, I am including below the essay he will be using with many of his college applications. It certainly speaks to the fine character of this extraordinary young man, as well as to the powerful impact our Asia trip can have on its participants. I’m sure you will be hearing more in the months ahead from this multi-talented recently certified Firefighter, student representative to our Board of Directors, and future Valedictorian (just three of his remarkable list of accomplishments). And I have a hunch we’ll all be hearing more from him in the years to come, as there is little doubt James is on his way to making a real difference in the world.

(James’ essay – in a separate file – since it’s long, you probably will need to size down the type font, Robin)

Snow Science

We are excited about a new program we will be offering in January in response to interest expressed by some of our snow-loving students. Though some of the details were still being nailed down as this newsletter went to press, we do know that the group will be engaged in both field studies (avalanche training, backcountry explorations on snowshoes and snowboards, and snow camping) and classroom learning about the science of snow. Eric will be leading their field experiences, and Michael – whose PhD in physics and geology focused on glaciology – will teach them in the classroom. We are also fortunate to have two volunteers who have both wilderness experience and geology backgrounds, Nina and Brendan Cowan, joining the group for the entire program. With such excellent instructional support, and high motivation from the students, this program may well become an enduring offering at Spring Street School.

Swim Lessons in January

I have been working on arranging for our middle school students to have swim lessons twice a week for the three weeks we are in school in January. We would be rotating our middle schoolers in the 6th period PE class (and perhaps even those in my Algebra class) through a sequence of six lessons. Though I feel strongly that there is great value in all island children working on improving their swimming skills, this is something that our operating budget cannot cover, and for which we would need to bill parents. Consequently, I need to hear from all parents of middle schoolers whether they would like us to proceed with planning, given a fee of $45-50 per student for the session. Please call the office and leave word one way or the other. If these are successful, we will look to offer lessons to older students as well, probably during February.

TRIPS

Plans are shaping up nicely for both our overseas trips this year, after delays experienced in the wake of 9/11. I know I’ve shared our President’s wonderful quote at our parent meetings recently, but would like to include it again here, as it speaks powerfully to some of our key objectives with these trips:

"America’s leadership and national security rest on our commitment to educate and prepare our youth for active engagement in the international community. I call on schools, teachers, students, parents, and community leaders to promote understanding of our nations and cultures by encouraging our young people to participate in activities that increase their knowledge of and appreciation for global issues, languages, history, geography, literature, and the arts of other countries." - President George Bush, November 13, 2001

The Central America group had a terrific retreat last weekend, and is well on its way to being ready to depart January 6th. Shann, Rod, and Jeff Dyer are wonderful leaders and are doing a great job of planning, building on the foundation laid by previous groups, and building in some exciting new destinations and opportunities as well. Please remember that final payments are due December 27. The group will return January 26th, and will not be expected back at school until Jan 30th (January 28th will be a day off from school, and we will give them an extra day to work through jet lag and get ready to get back in the classroom).

The Asia group is beginning to make important itinerary and project decisions, and will hold its retreat Jan 10th/11th. Though it was difficult to accept the necessity of leaving India out of our plans this year, we are getting excited about the opportunity to explore and contribute in more of Southeast Asia. There will be new villages to make contact with, new stamps on our passports, and unique cultural opportunities available to our travelers this year. Please be sure to send in the first payment of $1200 for your participating child by December 27, so that we can cover the cost of their airline tickets. Final payments are due January 15. We will keep you posted on other developments as we firm up our plans.

FUNDRAISING

1. Annual Fund

You will find enclosed in this mailing a pledge card for the annual fund. Please return with a donation if at all possible (or check a box with your pledge and note when you will be able to send a donation). Several parents have already risen to this occasion since I sent out the letter explaining our current financial challenges, and I am pleased to report our percentage of participation has risen from 24 to 46% as a result. We can do better, though, and we continue to aspire to 100% participation. If you haven’t donated yet, please do so with a gift of any size. Being able to show 100% participation is a powerful asset when seeking contributions and grants from major donors and foundations.

2. Landscaping Project

Stop by "Green Man", located at 400 A Street (behind freight company, next to the Back Door Restaurant), to see the beautiful display of plants reserved for Spring Street School. We are grateful to Adam and Jason for all their help – they have already donated many hours and will be donating plants as well. Major plantings donated will be marked with the donors’ names. It has also been suggested that we look at providing similar opportunities with named benches or bricks, for example. It will be wonderful to participate in the unfolding of some park-like space in front of our new buildings, a process that will also provide great field studies opportunities for our students while helping them acquire greater ownership of their surroundings at school.

3. The easy ones

Don’t forget to save and send in your King’s receipts, and shop when possible at Schoolcash.com. These are two easy ways for you to help the school to raise money!

Parent Meetings

Thanks to those who attended the December parent meetings. It’s always good to hear from you, and your input on ways of meeting our current financial challenges, along with the first round of suggestions for consideration in our strategic planning, was especially appreciated. Please note that the January parent meetings represent 1 of 3 required of parents per year. We went with this policy to ensure good participation by parent groups at least 3 times a year, and agreed that the consequence of missing any of these 3 meetings would be 1 ½ hr added to volunteer hours expected.

We’ll continue gathering input from parents on future directions for the school to assist in long term planning, and I’m hoping a few of our alumni will still be in town and able to join us and share their experiences making the transition from Spring Street to college. We will let you know what the features and focus for these meetings will be when we call with the phone tree to remind you to attend.

Textbook Bills

These were mailed out recently, and although I know we are all juggling our finances at this time of year, it is important that you pay them promptly, as they represent expenses the school has already covered. Your prompt response will help alleviate the cash flow pressures we have been experiencing in conjunction with our building project.

Student Reactions to A Christmas Carol

(Robin: Do whatever you think works to include these… and if it seems to be too much, it’s not critical to put them in…)

Dear Members of Stage Left,

After reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a group of seventh and eighth graders from Spring Street School joined me last Friday to watch your production of this classic story. I thank you for your decision to produce this and for the high quality of work in all areas of the production. I thought you might enjoy the following excerpts from the students’ comments on the performance.

Best regards, Kim Norton

I saw your production of A Christmas Carol on December 14. It is by far the best play I have ever seen. I liked how you made do with very few props.

Nikolaj

Fezziwig’s energy was very good. It made the character stand out! The play followed the book very well.

Joey

I liked the show. The acting was my favorite. The characters seemed real. Fizziwig was great when he was jumpy and energetic. Thank you.

Nina

I thought your production of A Christmas Carol was very well done with excellent acting. Yours was the best play I have seen in a long time.

Nick

I liked Marley’s ghost because he looked just like Dickens had described him. You did a good job of following the book.

Dustin

Your play was amazing. The actors were very strong and I could believe they were their characters. I especially liked when Marley’s ghost dropped his cash box and the creative lighting.

Molly

I enjoyed your play. I especially enjoyed the part where Scrooge dropped on the flat on the ground and started crying. The costumes were well done and you did a good job of following the book. Thank you.

Alex

I went with my class on Friday December 14th to see your play of A Christmas Carol. One of the things I really liked was that there were only a few actors and a lot of characters to play. Each actor had at least two characters to play.

Meghan

Thank you for putting on such a wonderful show for the public. Your actors seemed so real, like they believed they were the characters themselves. At the end I liked how Scrooge’s laugh was so contagious and jolly. Thanks again!

Fahren

I was amazed at how well all seven of the actors played their parts. I can tell that they put time and effort into making the production a good one. Fezziwig was energetic, Tiny Tim was cute when he said, "God Bless us everyone!" He has a lot of voice for such a little boy. The set was fabulous. I think a play with minimal props and set makes the audience have to use their imagination to picture what the cold office of Scrooge’s looks like. Thank you very much for making the play exciting. I hope that Stage Left can put on another production and I will definitely come and watch it. Thank you for your time and effort.

Annie