July 2009

Principal Outreach
A Newsletter from Bob Ruud, WLS Teaching Principal, to WLS Families

July, 2009
 
Dear WLS Families,
 
There’s a lot going on. Here’s what’s most important, from my point of view...
 
A Montessori Point—A New Point of View: Maria Montessori brought about profound change in education. There’s something of a paradox in her effecting such dramatic change and yet advising caution to adults setting out full of missionary zeal to change schools into something they have in mind. She wrote:
 
We have to consider education from a new point of view. We must proceed with humility. We must not look at ourselves with the authority of great philosophers, great social reformers who impose reform upon the school, and therefore upon humanity. It is not we who must judge. We must hold ourselves in humility and observe childhood, observe the individual child, with a view to discover if he himself can furnish us with a guide, or lead us to the solution of the problem.

 
Not that the humble mission was without its grand side. In defining Montessori Method, Montessori suggested eliminating the term “Method”, staking out much higher ground:
 
We must consider the human personality and not a method of education. For the word “method” we should substitute something like this: “Help given in order that the human personality may achieve its independence,” or  “Means offered to deliver the human personality from the oppression of age-old prejudices regarding education.” The defense of the child, the scientific recognition of his nature, the social proclamation of his rights, must replace the piecemeal ways of conceiving education.
 
In the humble, hopeful, and confident spirit of the new, I have two very important announcements to make:
 
Administration: You all know that Randi Shapiro notified us some time ago that she would not be renewing her contract as Director when it expired at the end of June, which is today. It is impossible to simply sum up the contribution that Randi has made to the school, from being one of its founding mothers to guiding it through fourteen years of steady growth. She will continue to serve as a consultant for a time. Which brings me to the next point, which is the next generation of administration at WLS: Deana Siekmann, who has been our Special Education Teacher for seven years, has been selected by our board to succeed Randi as Director. Deana has been interested in administration for a long time, and just completed her Master’s in Educational Leadership a couple of weeks ago, and is working busily toward her Principal’s license. You may have noticed that she has become more and more involved in administration at WLS, and especially in board affairs. Deana’s position starting July 1 is 75% Director, and 25% Special Education Coordinator. We are currently searching for a full time Special Education Teacher to replace Deana in the direct teaching role of our special education program. In addition, my role as Teaching Principal has been 60% teaching and 40% administration since I joined WLS in 1999. The board has now shifted my role to 20% teaching and 80% administration. I will continue to teach Language Arts in the middle school, but will be much more active on the administration side than I have been. The school has grown way beyond the administrative configuration put in place when I was hired, and we are more regulated than we have been in the past. We need more administration to guide and support our teachers, and to put systems in place that make it efficient for us to get the work done. Randi will be advising us as we move through the transition.
 
Staffing: We have had to make a difficult decision this year regarding staffing. It was driven by the budget, which required us to reduce our expenses significantly in 2009-10 (those of you who were at the public forum on the budget in May got the detail on that). After much brainstorming and analysis, we teachers came to a position that none of us really wanted, but felt we had to accept as the only way we could find that would enable us to balance the budget and be true to our philosophy. That is, we decided to reduce the hours in the Assistants’ day from eight to five. That reduction also eliminated their benefits. The impact on them personally was and continues to be a difficult thing for all of us. The factor that made us move forward with this solution to the budget problem was that it fit with our philosophy, and some might say that it was a move in the direction of a purer implementation of Montessori philosophy. Our training generally states that the ideal Montessori classroom has thirty students with one teacher, in an environment that is a suitable size and well prepared for the children to exercise their independence. That ratio is thought by most Montessori trainers to be the most effective in fostering the children’s independence and sense of community. Not that we don’t value the role that our Assistants have played over the years: we have had very highly educated, trained, skillful and talented people in the role of Assistant. And we will still have them with us for most of the day, and especially for those parts of the day when they are most needed. We are allowing and encouraging each teaching team to arrange their hours to best suit their needs (so for example, the Assistant might not be scheduled when music or Spanish is scheduled). If you have questions about this, please feel free to get in touch with me.
 
New Staff: We are happy to announce that we have hired a new Assistant in the third Upper Elementary class, Carol Harris’s class. Her name is Milagros Wogen. We are very excited to have her join our team!
 
Searching: Two searches are underway at this time: one for a Special Education Teacher to replace Deana in the direct instruction role; the other for a Special Education Assistant (Paraprofessional) to work with a child one-to-one. Please help us spread the word about these openings.
 
Parent Volunteers: No doubt that the change in the classroom staff teams will place more emphasis on volunteer assistance in various ways. The call will be coming from your child’s classroom. I hope you all can find ways to help out.
 
Progress Reports and MCA’s: The progress reports were mailed out pretty much on schedule.  The MCA’s are supposed to be posted for the public (e.g. summaries published in the paper) right about now, and that usually means we receive them shortly afterward. We’ll mail them to you as soon as we can after we get them. Be sure to get in touch with your child’s teacher or me if you have questions about the tests.
 
Summer Letters: Our traditional summer letters will be sent out on Monday, July 6. Placement of children new to the school and new to fourth year will be confirmed in the letters. They will each include a supply list.
 
Board: The 0910 Board will have its first meeting on Wednesday, July 29. The Board is comprised of teachers and parents in the school family (teachers below are marked with (T) and parents with (P)). Note that teacher terms are one year; parent terms are two:
 

Carrie Baker-Rantala (T): July 2009/June 2010
Mike Beller (P): July 2009/June 2011
Rich Drapeau (P): July 2009/June 2011
Sarah Hassebroek (T): July 2009/June 2010
Susan Hoffa (P): July 2008/June 2010
Paul Johnston (P): July 2009/June 2011
Patti Quinn (T): July 2009/June 2010
Deana’s seat ? (T): July 2009/June 2010*
Liesl Taylor (T): July 2009/June 2010
Alicia Williams (P): July 2009/June 2010*
Beth Wilson (T): July 2009/June 2010