Hi,
Friends. It's Monday, January 25, 2010 and we’re cashing in on
another sunny day. Saturday was our first big break after four long days
of rain (and an exciting hail storm!) and along with the sunshine came eight
willing parents to help us start sprucing things up. You brought good energy and open hearts and with that (and a
few tools!) we got a lot of things done.
We so appreciate your coming out to help.
For
those of you who couldn’t make it, you’ll have another chance to get involved
in a Parent Workday on February 6th from 9:00 to 3:00. Kris is organizing this one and the focus will be the
gardening with Pedal Patch. Kris
has been working with purposeful intention to connect NSW with our local communities
and Pedal Patch is one that responded with great enthusiasm. With their support, we will be
building, prepping, and filling boxes with mulch getting ready for planting
fruits and vegetables that will help feed the people in our area who are in
need of nutritious food. Keep a
look out about more detailed information about this. Kris will keep us posted.
You
still have a great opportunity to participate in Marilyn McGrath’s Four Part
Parenting Series. She agreed to reschedule so we
could get more parents involved so her classes now will be on Thursdays and
begin February 4th from 6:45 to 8:45. Plan to be here around 6:30. We will provide child care ($10 per child/$5 per sibling to
go directly to the teacher). And,
yes, you can tell your friends.
This is not exclusive to NSW parents. Marilyn’s great!
Coffee
with Roleen
is on the calendar for Tuesday, February 9th, from 9:30 to 11:30. We are still verifying the place and will keep you
posted. Let us know if you are
interested in hosting. Our next
Coffee is scheduled for April 21st.
The
teachers are planning a Parent Enrichment Afternoon on Thursday, February 18th
from 3:30 to 5:15. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but they
are working really hard at putting together documentation panels that have us
honoring our history of spaces and work.
At our staff retreat in Santa Barbara, we laid out plans to define our
systems (who’s doing what work?
How will we get it done?
Who will help?. . . ) so we can have a clearer focus. It’s not easy to do. We will be meeting with Flor from First
Presbyterian this afternoon and we will be working until about 8:00
tonight. One of the things that
the hardest part is organizing blocks of time to get things done but the
teachers are committed to do it. They are an amazing group of women! We will keep you posted with ways you
can help.
Comedy
Night is
coming up fast so be prepared to LOL on February 20th. It’s always one of my favorite evenings and Zoe (Gibson’s
mom) is working hard once more to make it a great one. For those of you who are new to us,
Comedy Night was established about five years ago when Greg Fitzsimmon’s son,
Owen, started preschool here. It’s
an evening where The New School-West becomes The Blue School-West and it’s fun! Zoe works with Comedy Central and is in
touch with some really funny people and even though Greg’s Owen and JoJo are in
elementary school now, he comes back to host, much to everyone’s delight,
especially mine! Details will be
coming soon but mark your calendars so you don’t miss this FUNdraiser.
And
if you loved Jim Heimann’s L.A. book, you’ll love his evening at Walgrove
Auditorium. Jim’s doing his third annual
joint fundraiser with our friends there and will be showing pics and telling
stories of all the photos and L.A. history that didn’t get in the book! We always have such a great time and
walk away a little dazed at how much information Jim has to share with us. It’s a real history lesson! But one you didn’t often encounter in
school! The original calendar says
that it will be on March 7th but that’s Academy Awards day so we’ve
made it the night before. So line
up your babysitters for a couple hours of entertainment on March 6th. Make it a date night and plan to hit the town
afterwards. I know we’re going
to! Details coming.
Start
gathering ideas and donations for our Silent Auction that is coming up in April. The fundraising committee is working diligently to make the
evening one worth remembering. I’m
polishing my dancing shoes as we speak.
So,
It’s Monday! And there it is. Here’s to a great week. xoxoRoleen