Back To School

First Day ~ Tuesday, September 7th

Dear Siskiyou School Parents,

I hope this letter finds you well and healthy and that the summer brought you and your kids wonderful family time, relaxation and rejuvenation.

My month at home was wonderful. I spent much time with my husband and sons and enjoyed working in the garden when the weather allowed. With the help of my husband, who is a talented Lazure painting artist, I painted my old office, moved into a new office at Glendale and painted that as well. Summer is always project time around the campus as a whole, and thanks to Kristin and many helping hands from alum students, parents and volunteers, many corners are getting spruced up for the start of the new school year. It’s starting to sparkle!

In the last weeks, I have had many opportunities to show families around our beautiful campus. August is traditionally a time when we have a flurry of admissions inquiries. Today, when meeting a few potential students, I felt so proud to show them our light-filled classrooms and talk about our amazing school. Most of all, I was moved to talk about our teachers. In my many years with this team, time and again, I have seen them rise in heartfelt and creative ways, always holding the good of the children and the school at the fore. We are truly blessed by this exceptional team.

As per my recent emails, August has also been a time of planning meetings to prepare for these yet again dynamic times. Faculty and staff want to be ready to meet whatever ups and downs the 2021-2022 school year will bring and have planned accordingly. Our goal is to give the children the best of Waldorf education while adhering to best practices regarding health and safety, and I believe we have thought through the various scenarios and are well prepared to do that.

This Back-to-School letter has a lot of important information about our reopening, including daily schedules and logistics, parent meetings, mask wearing, smoke policy, etc. Please read it in its entirety and note important dates on your calendars. Any additional updates will be coming through the Tuesday Notice which we will resume publishing next week and also through our Friday Updates which we send out on Friday afternoons with an updated calendar for the following week. Having you be and stay informed is very helpful to us. Thank you.

Important Back-to-School Information

FULL SCHEDULE FOR THE 2021-22 SCHOOL YEAR:

We are pleased to announce that for the first time since March 2020, we will be running a full-day program starting this September. The full-day schedule will go into effect beginning the second week of school. We will start the first week of school--Tuesday, September 7th through Friday the 10th--with half days to give teachers and staff a chance to tweak COVID and smoke protocols as needed with all the kids back on campus and everyone a chance to ease back in. The whole school will go to full schedule on Monday, 9/13.

DROP-OFF & DISMISSAL TIMES:

1st week and all Fridays & half days, (9/7-9/10):

Drop-off for all grades: 8:10-8:25; the bell rings at 8:25.

Pick-up times for all grades:

Grade 1: 12:20pm

Grades 2-5: 12:30pm

Grades 6-8: 12:45pm

2nd week and all weeks Mon-Thur, starting on 9/13:

Drop-off for all grades: 8:10-8:25; the bell rings at 8:25.

Pick-up times for all grades:

Grade 1: 2:10pm (Sept-Feb)

Grades 2-5: 3:00pm

Grades 6-8: 3:10pm

COVID GUIDELINES & WEARING OF MASKS:

Per the Governor’s recent mandate, we will be wearing masks indoors at all times and following ODE guidelines regarding distancing. We will adhere to the 3’ distancing inside classrooms and will also wear masks outdoors when we can’t keep to the required 6’ distancing. We will be sure to give the children many mask breaks. There will be many opportunities for students to be out of masks outdoors at various times over the course of the school day. As you know, Jackson County currently has the most elevated numbers of new COVID infections in the state, and area hospital personnel are calling it a health crisis; we all hope this surge will pass soon. Please be sure to read the detailed COVID Guidelines and Related Remote Learning Policy for 2021-2022 by clicking on the link below or clicking on the COVID Handbook here.

SMOKE POLICY & SCHEDULE:

During wildfire season, please check our website each morning. By 6:30 each day we will have posted whether we will be having a half day or a full day, based on smoke pollution/AQI levels. Click on the link below to read our full Smoke Policy for Fall 2021 or by clicking the Smoke Policy here.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS:

By Opening Day we hope to have 3-4 tents up to serve as outdoor classrooms. These tents will be open on three sides for maximum ventilation. Students will not need to wear masks when in the tents. Teachers look forward to taking their students to those tents for some classes in the day. We are still looking for a few more parent volunteers to help us with the tent project, i.e. clearing areas on campus to situate the tents and then helping to set them up as well. Work on the tent project will start tomorrow, Saturday, August 21st at 10am.

If you can help, thank you!!! Please sign up by clicking this link.

OPEN HOUSE & PARENT-TEACHER CHECK-INS FOR ALL GRADES:

Next week’s Tuesday Notice will include sign-up links for Parent-Teacher Check-ins and the Open House times for each grade. Parent-teacher check-ins before the start of school are optional; sign up only if you want a moment with your child’s class teacher to share things that have come up over the summer or other important developments. As for the Open House, it’s a time when class teachers open their classrooms for a few hours before the start of school. Students and parents are welcome to stop by and just say hi. Students are happy to see their teachers and classmates; it’s a sweet opportunity; Each class will have its own Open House window, so please check the TN for the times your class teacher will indicate. We ask everyone who comes for the Open House to please wear a mask. Thank you!

PARENT EVENINGS AND PARENT EDUCATION EVENTS THIS FALL:

We look forward to coming back together for Parent Evenings and Parent Education events. Due to the current COVID surge in Jackson County, we will host all these events on Zoom at least through September and October. We hope to reconvene with you on campus as the year progresses.

FIRST PARENT MEETINGS & PARENT WELCOME NIGHT, SEPTEMBER 16th:

We look forward to seeing you all (on Zoom) at our first big community event of the year: Parent Welcome Night. It will be held on Thursday, 9/16 @ 6:00 pm. We will start out together, the whole parent community, for the first 30-40 minutes. Then class teachers will convene with their class parents for their first class parent meeting of the year. Please save the date!

CLASS SCHEDULES, PARENT HANDBOOK & DIRECTORY:

At Parent Welcome Night, teachers will give you an overview of the year and share class schedules, block rotations, upcoming class events, etc. Since the meeting will be on Zoom, we will send the materials home with the children for your reference. The Directory and Handbook will be published and sent home in early October.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

Please click on the link below for the Siskiyou School Calendar. What our events will look like will depend on conditions at the time, but one way or another, as we did this last year, we will find a way to go forward with what matters to and for the children and our community. Stay tuned!

MIDDLE SCHOOL FALL TRIPS:

Due to COVID and the smoke, we will not be hosting the fall trips in September. We will wait for the smoke to clear and see where things go with the surge to decide how and when to organize some whole-class outdoor adventures for our middle schoolers. We will let you know as soon as best options become clear.

OUR TEACHERS AND STAFF THIS YEAR:

Our teachers are beginning preparations in their classrooms and are so looking forward to welcoming the children back. Below, our faculty and staff for this school year.

Faculty

1st Grade: Leann Tourzan

2nd Grade: Jeremy Criswell

3rd Grade: Javier Alvarez

4th Grade: Heidi Martin

5th Grade: Christine Benson

6th Grade: Kelly Tisdel

7th Grade: Jen Franczak

8th Grade: Ghigs Razi

Gardening/Woodworking: Michael McGlone

Handwork: Cynthia Bower

Games: Margie Glatte

Music: Melissa Archer

Chinese: Jennifer Carroll

LA/Gardening: Robert Dilansa

Middle School Math: Jenny James and Dustin Monda

Ohana Program and Parent Education: Nina Gallwey

Drama: Eve Smyth

We are pleased to announce that Ms. Paz has returned to our school after taking off a year. She will be the 3rd Grade Assistant and will teach ACORN and assist in a few other classes as well. We are so grateful that she is back with us!

We also welcome Shannon Clery, Little Gnomes kindergarten teacher and Siskiyou School parent, to our team this year. In addition to Ms. Paz, Shannon will be teaching ACORN in 3rd grade.

We have hired Victoria Lawton-Diez as Spanish teacher for all the grades. We look forward to having you and the children meet her!

Cordero Juncal, called “Mr. Cord” by the students, will assist Mrs. Archer in the lower grade music classes and teach some of the middle school music classes.

Faculty Support

Grades 1-4 Mentor: Molly McKissick

Grades 5-8 Mentor: Catherine Razi

DEI Coordinator: Moriah Mahlstadt

Administration:

Office Manager: Kristin Beers

Director of Fundraising: Lora Wilde

Business Manager: Cynthia Bower

Office Assistants: Ms. James and Victoria Lawton-Diez

Housekeeper: Rafaela Gonzales

Buildings and Grounds: Various helping hands

CALENDAR OF IMMEDIATE EVENTS