October 1-2 - Photo Days
October 2 - Count Day
October 12 - Fall Harvest Festival (Parent Council)
October 14 - NO SCHOOL - Teacher PD
October 30-31 - Parent Teacher
Conferences -- NO SCHOOL
November 1 - NO SCHOOL
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This week we marked the Autumn Equinox, when the length of days and nights are the same. Outside, we feel the seasons change from summer to autumn, with the morning and evening chill in the air. We will begin noticing the nights becoming longer than the days while our attention turns increasingly inward.
With school now fully underway, we have upcoming school photo days, a harvest celebration, and new activities focused on finding adequate space for our growing school as described below. We also ask for your attention to safety, punctuality, and attendance. You can read all the details below in this week’s Songbird.
Thank you for helping support your children’s education at Mountain Song Community School.
--Dr. Teresa Woods
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School Photo Days
October 1-2
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School photos will be taken this year again by Jana Lilian Kaiser of Noa’s Art Photography on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 1st and 2nd.
To find the order form to purchase photos,
click here
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October 2 is Official Count Day: Make sure your student is counted!
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Student October Count Day is when all public schools in Colorado report the number of enrolled students. This is the enrollment level by which our 2019-20 funding is determined. Make sure your student is counted!
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Economic Data Survey - Fee Waivers
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Please complete your Economic Data Survey form if you have not already done so. If you qualify for free and reduced lunch status, your school fees will be waived. Even if you think you may not qualify, please complete it and turn it in, since we need a high participation rate to help the school qualify for additional funding. Information is completely confidential. Thanks to all who have completed it so far! Click here for more information.
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Please
Drop-Off and Pick-Up Safely
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Since school started this year, we have experienced some close calls in keeping children safe during morning drop-off and pick-up.
Please help keep all children safe during these times by observing traffic zones.
No parking is allowed in certain areas on the streets surrounding the school, including in front of the school building.
These zones are marked by traffic signs. These are kiss-and-go lanes, and we ask you to
please
not park there. If you park there, you are requiring other vehicles to drop children off in more dangerous areas.
Please keep all children safe by respecting these zones.
We also ask that you
do not
drop your children off from your car and expect them to cross the street unaccompanied. Studies show that children have great difficulty crossing busy streets on their own until about age 14 due to lack of awareness of danger and still-developing motor skills.
Young lives depend on you driving safely. Thank you for your care.
If you are interested in volunteering as a Drop-Off Safety Monitor in a morning shift from 7:50 - 8:15 a.m., please e-mail Cathy Cayton at
cathycayton@gmail.com
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Please be conscientious about arriving to school on time. We are starting the year with a high number of chronic late arrivals, and we ask that you please help support your child to enter the classroom prior to 8:15 a.m., when teachers start the school day with class activities.
Children can enter the school and get settled between 8:00 a.m., when the doors open, until 8:15 a.m., when school begins. Arrivals at the classroom after 8:15 a.m. are considered tardy. All children arriving late must be accompanied by an adult into the building and signed in at the front office before they can be issued a pass to enter class.
Tardiness impacts individual children, as they enter their classes after the greetings, rhythm, activities, and social-emotional climate have been established for the day. Tardiness also impacts an entire class as the group experiences the interruptions and scattered start to the day when children arrive late. Studies link chronic tardiness to lower levels of learning, behavior challenges, and later in life, job performance.
We aim to cultivate good learning and social habits within each classroom community. We know the challenges of getting the household up, dressed, fed, and transported to school safely, and we so deeply appreciate your support.
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Attendance Awareness Month
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Research shows how important school attendance is for academic, social, and emotional learning. In fact, school attendance is a stronger predictor of who will complete high school than test scores are. Click below for more information:
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Fall Harvest Festival
October 12, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
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The Mountain Song Parent Council Festivals Committee would like to welcome our community to join in this year’s Fall Festival on Saturday, October 12th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Fall Festival is the committee’s gift to our community and is completely free. We will welcome the autumn with stories, stone soup, drinks, and bread.
How can you help?
- Join the Parent Council Festivals Committee
- Take home and complete a craft kit
- Volunteer for set-up and/or clean-up for the festival
- Help seek donations
- Volunteer to collect windfall apples in Penrose, Colorado
- Donate veggies for the soup
- Volunteer to chop veggies with the community after school on October 11
- Most importantly, come join us at the festival!
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Help Restock the Parent Council Food Pantry
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The MSCS Parent Council has established a Food Pantry for our school! We have an ongoing need for accessible nutritional food for our students, and with your help, we can fill that need. The Food Pantry is in need of restocking. Please drop off donations in the bin just inside the front doors. Cold items can be dropped at the front desk.
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Board Voice
Volume 1, Issue 1 – Bill Burkett & Aubrey Fennewald
Welcome, Mountain Song Families, to the first edition of the
Board Voice.
We, the Mountain Song Board of Directors, plan on publishing regular communications in the Songbird about what the Board does, what the Board is doing right now, who the members are and what their roles on the Board are, and other news about Board activities that are important to Mountain Song Families.
We are still ramping up our activities and plans for the new school year and have gotten off to a great start with a new Board president, Tina Halligan, new Board members Hilary Hoekenga and Aubrey Fennewald (who really isn’t that “new” to the Board), and returning members Scott Diebert and Bill Burkett. Our five-member Board is just enough to operate and govern the school, but we’d like to expand the Board to at least 7, and ideally 9, members – so if you are service-minded and would like to serve the school in an important leadership role, please contact me, Bill Burkett, at
wburkett@mountainsongschool.com
for more information.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
We are happy to say that we are bursting at the seams - that so many families from the region are committed to public Waldorf education is a wonderful thing! But it does put a strain on our operations and future growth plans to remain in the present building, which we lease from the local school District 11. We anticipate adding yet another new grades class next year, yet we have used every available space in the current building. We will simply need more space next year.
The Board of Directors (BOD) met for their annual retreat on Saturday, September 14th. Much of the day was spent in discussion and consideration of the great undertaking ahead of us to move the school. The BOD focused on identifying goals, and reviewing and discussing a plan of action for this school year (2019-20) in order to ready the school for a move to a new location!
The BOD and the ELT are committed to keeping you informed of that plan and updates as we move through the coming year. This is the first of many regularly-scheduled communications from the BOD to the Community regarding our progress to find a new home for our beloved school. The Mountain Song BOD and volunteers of Board committees are:
- Working actively on the plan to move the school
- Seeking out potential sites and funding sources
- Recruiting additional BOD members and Committee volunteers with expertise in real estate, development, and finance
- We anticipate a 25,000-40,000 square foot facility with possible acreage for facility and program development
- We are working within a timeline that is 8-24 months.
A Call to Action!
WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!! This is a call for YOUR help. We need ALL community members to step up! Parents, community members, friends, guardians, family ... we especially need any expertise in capital projects, construction, real estate, or move-the-school related experience. We also need help with development (fundraising), communications, and outreach ... WE NEED YOU!
The Futures and Development Committees have joined forces for the coming school year and will be operating as one joint committee to lead much of the work to come. If you can give your time and feel you have the skills set(s) we are looking for - OR, if you can connect us to one of those hotly sought-after recruits - please contact Co-Chairs Scott Deibert or Aubrey Fennewald:
Thank you all for your commitment to our Mountain Song community!
Coming Up
Future editions of the
Board Voice
will continue to provide status updates on the new school planning and progress, introduce and describe the officer roles and Board committees, and provide updates on important things going on at Mountain Song Community School.
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100 Years of Waldorf
An Education for the Future
All over the world, people connected to Waldorf schools are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first Waldorf school this month. Here is a video recently released in celebration of Waldorf schools around the world.
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We have 2019-2020 enrollment opportunities still available for 6th, 7th & 8th Grades.
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Article or announcement contributions must be submitted to Dr. Woods by Tuesday at 5 p.m. for inclusion in each week’s Songbird newsletter, typically distributed on Fridays. (
twoods@mountainsongschool.com
)
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Mountain Song School Event Calendar
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Mark your calendar with these important Mountain Song Community School dates.
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Mountain Song Community School | 2904 West Kiowa St, Colorado Springs, CO 80904
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Looking for past issues of the Songbird or to sign up new recipients
click here
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