“In order for our Waldorf schools to be healthy, teachers and parents need to share the responsibility for creating, sustaining, and embodying their life and culture.” 

Robert Schiappacasse, Three Pillars of Healthy Waldorf School

Communities-Cultivating the Parent-Teacher Partnership

CWS Families & Friends,

      In January, we held our annual State-of-the-School Community Meeting, entitled this year, “Sustainability of Our School.” 

      The meeting began with guest speaker, Ina Jaehnig. Ina is a class teacher in Denver and is the chair of the Pedagogical Section Council. She also teaches at the Rudolf Steiner College and The Eugene Teacher Training Courses. Ina gave an interesting perspective of the Waldorf movement in history and in the world.

      Continuing to carry the theme of past meetings of the three-legged school, Faculty, Administration, and Parents, presentations from each group was given to help answer the questions: “How are we doing as a school? Are we creating, sustaining, and embodying a culture for our school community?”

Spiritual/Cultural (The Why)

Faculty work together to understand and acquire practical pedagogical insight.

      Jeff Parker, Grade 1 teacher, talked about the joy and excitement of being a part of a Waldorf school.  He mentioned that as a community, we all have a part in carrying the students of our school in all of the learning and growing that they do.  Ours is not a school where children are merely dropped off and picked up.  There is a great deal of opportunity and necessity to become involved and carry the school forward. 
     

      He explained how teaching at a Waldorf school is a very challenging calling.  Waldorf teachers do not have what some might consider the luxury of falling back on "what they taught in 1st grade last year."  Teaching a new grade and a new curriculum every year (until the 8-year cycle is completed) is a very daunting but very inspiring and exciting task.  This is one of the strengths of our form of education; the subject matter is fresh and living in the mind, body, and soul of the teacher and in this form it is brought to the children.  In order to keep up with this challenge, the teachers of our school must work together and with mentors and adult educators to craft their skills.  They are visited by mentors who observe them teaching periodically through the year.  Evaluations are also done by master teachers every other year, and these are reviewed by the faculty to make certain that all teachers are serving the needs of their students.  In keeping with the need to know what is going on in all of the classrooms, peer mentoring is done during the year as well.  Each teacher is visited by another CWS teacher in main lesson to observe and give feedback.  To meet the demands of a new curriculum every year, all CWS class teachers have the benefit of attending two intensive conferences during the year, one during February break and one during the summer.  These are all-day programs taught by experienced teachers who bring the essentials of each grade.  There are also opportunities for teachers to choose specific workshops in areas where they might need improvement or inspiration. 
 

      As a closing thought, Jeff stated the desire of the class teachers to have open, honest communication with parents.  It is of great importance to the teachers that all parents feel comfortable approaching them to discuss the best interests of the children at our school.  He gave the very heartfelt sentiment that it is the love of the children at our school that the CWS faculty holds as their strongest and most important motivation.

Economic (The What)

Expertise and leadership of parents help identify the concrete tasks, which serve to embody the school in the community.

      Omer Dogan, parent and CWS board treasurer, presented the school’s budget for the year. The budget predicts a total income of about $549,000. The largest portion of this income is tuition (79%). Donations, fund raising, fees, and after-school care income augment this income at about 5% each. At the expense side, we predict to spend about $541,000. The largest expense for the school is the salaries of the teachers and staff (81%). The second largest expense (10%) is the facility related items. Overall, our goal is to realize the predicted budget surplus at the end of the year. Comparing the actual income and expenses to date to the budgeted numbers shows that the expenses are in line with the budget. However, we will have to try harder as a community to realize the budgeted income. First of all, we were about $16,000 behind in collecting the tuition this year so far. Please help the school meet its budget by paying your tuition on time. The other two income items lagging behind are the donations and fund raising. The annual giving campaign has brought in about $20,000 through generous donations until now. This means that the school needs to receive another $12,000 until the end of June to realize the budgeted donation income. So, if you have not contributed to the annual giving campaign this school year yet, please help the school to finish the year in the black with your contribution. Finally, we can help the Fund Raising Committee meet their goal by helping them organize a successful Spring Auction. Please feel free to ask questions about the finances of the school. Omer will be happy to answer them.

Social and Interpersonal (The How)

The spirit of the school can be present whenever two or more are gathered to work on behalf of the school community. Teachers and parents work together in the administrative life of the school to develop and maintain the agreements, which give order and clarity to the procedural life of the school.

      Cosimo Storniolo, parent and volunteer committee member, talked about parents participation in the school. Volunteering is a commitment of all parents to enhance the social and financial well being of the school. Over 100 parents were signed up for a volunteer position. All volunteering is currently done through the committee structure or as a class parent. Certain large school events are handled by the faculty, with volunteers acquired through class parents. We are open to changes in the structure of volunteering in the future, including logging in hours of volunteering, and paying out of volunteering. The committee is open to all feedback.

---------------------------------------------

Values, Mission, and Vision

Waldorf education values:

(From Windows into Waldorf by AWSNA publication; copies of this book are in the office.)

• family and community life
• a healthy unfolding of childhood
• joy in the learning process
• education focused on wholeness in body, soul, and spirit
• intellectual excellence, imagination, strong memory, and problem-solving skills
• viable alternatives to high-stakes testing
• age-appropriate use of the media
• training of ethical and moral judgment
• beauty of the environment as a formative force in the child’s world

CWS Mission

Our intention is to educate independent-thinking people who meet life with courage, and respond with initiative and creativity to the needs of the world and their fellow human beings.

Discussing our Vision

   About 10 years ago, the school community set forth four visions for the school. In this letter I would like to reflect mostly on the first two. It may even be getting time for families and faculty to renew our vision for the school. So let’s begin our discussion with this….

1. A school with eight full grades, kindergartens, and early childhood programs, including a preschool and parent-toddler group.

   In 1993, the Corvallis Waldorf School began with a Kindergarten class of eight children. Now the school has a pre-school program, two full Kindergartens, first through fifth grades, and a combination seventh/eighth grade. This year we currently have nine classrooms of children equaling about 120 students. 

   This spring, we are adding a parent-toddler group led by Margaret Conner. Next year (FY 2007-2008) as we bring on a new first grade class, we will grow to 10 classrooms and anticipate at least 130 students. We will have all grades between first and eighth except seventh. In three years (FY 2009-2010), we will have reached our vision of all eight grades along with the kindergartens and early childhood programs. 

   A question that has come up lately is, “What is a full class?” Our short-term goal is for classrooms to have between 15 and 20 students. Smaller classes have their pros and cons, but usually a too small class has the real challenge of each child lacking the variety of personalities to learn from and in some cases from finding a like-temperament in the class with which to bond. It is with this view that we hope our new first grade classes for the next three years begin with at least 15 children. An average class size of about 17/18 would be ideal for our school at this time in our development. Does it need to change in the future? Not necessarily, but larger Waldorf schools (usually in larger cities, of course) tend to have between 25-30 students.

   Some of you may be thinking about a Waldorf high school. That has not been a vision of the school so far, but that does not mean that with enough interest that could change. Share your thoughts…

2. A full and enriching curriculum, true to Waldorf tradition and philosophy that educates the whole child.

   This vision can seem a little vague at first blush, but in reflection it is genius in its simplicity. Very practical matters arise from this vision. One is in the hiring of qualified faculty who are trained by quality educators themselves in Waldorf training schools. This can be a challenge since the Waldorf movement is growing faster that new trained staff can keep up to the demand. I’m not saying that the only qualification for a qualified teacher is Waldorf training. There is a lot more to a hiring committee’s wish list and must list, but it is where we start.

   How does a school attract good teachers? Quality teachers are attracted by the connection they feel for a particular class of children, the collegial feeling between the faculty members at a school, and by the strength and caring of the school community. Happily, these are some of our strengths. We try to find teachers who are willing to put down roots in our community and stay at least through eight grades. This is another positive for us since the Corvallis/Albany area is a great place to live especially for families. Teachers do not go into teaching for riches, but salary is a factor. We want teachers to be able to live off their salary and enjoy the quality of life we all want in our community. Other benefits typical for a Waldorf teacher that CWS has committed to offer in support of their teachers and to stay competitive for attracting and retaining teachers, is health insurance (currently for the teacher only and not for their family, but we would like to cover children at least.), tuition remission for their children, and ongoing training and conference opportunities. The CWS board and faculty, determined to step up our efforts of attracting and retaining qualified faculty has made some important decisions this year that we felt were of the highest priority to our school.

• To add experience pay for each year as a Waldorf teacher along with annual cost of living increases.

• To allocate more money in the budget for mentoring support particularly for new teachers as they gain the practical experience of managing a classroom. We had to move some budget items around for this one. Particularly this year it meant doing with less paid office help by combining the office manager and enrollment coordinator position.

• To also allocate some money to build a remedial program that will not only support teachers in their teaching duties but also strengthen our program for all children.

      The other main practical matter of offering a full and enriching curriculum is the spectrum and quality of our specialty classes (or enrichment classes if you prefer.) At this point the only way we have been able to even offer specialty classes typically taught at a Waldorf school has been by individual donations. Practically speaking, we should have specialty classes in our annual budget (and not outside of it dependent on someone offering to donate the funds). This coming school year, we believe we can get all the specialty classes into our budget at least at some level. We have the same advantages and challenges of attracting and retaining the level of teaching staff needed for our language, art, eurhythmy, strings, music, handwork, and woodworking. We have been very lucky to have the dedication in this area that we have been blessed with so far. But we must not rest there, we need to review and meet competitive wages for the best teachers we can hire and keep.

3. A community of adults that shares in the celebration of life-long learning and the arts.

   There are some opportunities for learning offered at our school for adults. One is a painting class taught by Chris Guilfoil. Last year, the adults and children together put on a wonderful play. If you have thoughts and ideas about community life among the adults, please share them.

4. An opportunity for growth in the future, stewardship, and service for generations to come.

   Frank Hall is the committee chair for our long-range planning committee. We are leasing our current space from the local school district, but have long hoped for owning our own property and building where we can build and grow according to our needs. It is time to put some energy into this endeavor! If you would to join this committee, contact Frank.

-------------------------------

And finally, we would like you to introduce you to two of our colleagues you may have seen in the halls sometime: one of our mentors and one of our remedial teachers! We will continue to bring you bios from others in the community in the future. Faculty bios are on the faculty page.

LeeAnn Ernandes, Faculty Mentor

LeeAnn came to Waldorf Education through her two sons in l980, which also coincided with the first year of the Eugene Waldorf School.  She served as a pioneering parent for many years until she began her preparation to become a class teacher.  LeeAnn taught grades for nine years while also beginning her work in adult teacher education, which began in Eugene in 1990.  Currently, she teaches upper grades curriculum and pedagogical development courses, substitutes, mentors and evaluates for a few west coast schools. LeeAnn received a Bachelor of Science at the University of Oregon in 1970 in the field of Public Administration.

Christi Raunig, Remedial Tutor

 
After getting my Master's in Teaching at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, I worked as a middle school teacher in Auburn, Washington for five years teaching primarily reading, but also math and science.  I also coordinated the school's learning assistance program for students who were performing below grade level in math and reading.  When I had my daughter, who is now 6, I quit teaching and we moved to Corvallis so that we could raise her in a smaller community.  I also decided at that time that I didn't want to be a classroom teacher any longer.  After much thought, I decided to pursue a degree in acupuncture.  The opportunity to work as a tutor came about at the same time and has been a perfect match.  It gives me the opportunity to work with kids one-on-one and in small groups--which I love, and it gives me the time to pursue my studies.  I really enjoy figuring out how to help each child and being able to focus on each of them individually in a way that I never could when I had 32 in a class.  I love working at the Waldorf School as it has such a nice energy to it and is such a nurturing place.

----------------------------

Thanks for all that you do to make this community shine!

Ann Craig

On behalf of the CWS Board & Faculty