Above: After months of designated recess spots to maintain cohorts and with COVID community spread dwindling and our school community remaining healthy, Willowwinders enjoyed their first combined recess of the school year this month. It was a blast!
Friends,

One year ago, the pandemic introduced us to words and actions we had never needed before - social distance, flatten the curve, isolate, mask up, and asynchronous vs. synchronous. On March 25th, 2020, Willowwind closed its doors to in-person learning and began a new distance learning adventure to finish up the last 10 weeks of the 19-20 academic year.

One year later, we have much to celebrate. Despite changes to routines, traditions, and safety protocol, students have spent this school year engaged in meaningful learning while building incredible classroom communities. Faculty and staff put their love, sweat, and tears into each and every day with your children. We wouldn't be where we are without their passion, innovation, and dedication. And this weekend, we also celebrated the completion of our employees' COVID vaccinations!

We cannot celebrate the success of the last year without gratitude for our parent community. To our Willowwind parents, thank you for your commitment to our school. The greatest gift of all is your trust in who we are and what we do. We are better for knowing your children.

March 2020 was filled with worry and uncertainty. One year later, we are filled with joy and pride as we celebrate how far we have come. We are excited to see what the next year has in store for our school community.

Sincerely,
Michelle Beninga
(she/her/hers)
Head of School
One Year of Teaching During COVID-19
What a year it has been...

At the end of last March, Willowwinders were beginning to settle into the new routines of distance learning and working/teaching from home. This March we have a lot to celebrate.

  • All faculty and staff are fully vaccinated.
  • Daily absentee average of 1.5%, a record low for the school.
  • Only one class was moved to online learning due to quarantine needs.
  • We have had just three student cases of COVID (due to non-Willowwind exposures) and zero cases among our faculty and staff. 
  • Thanks to faculty ingenuity, student-led instruction and immersive learning projects have continued with only minor modifications.
2020 was rough but we have a lot to be proud of!
As we reached the one-year mark, faculty and staff were asked to reflect on this unprecedented time and share some of their "wins" from 2020, things they were proud of, pleasantly surprised by, etc. Below are some highlights.
First grader, Nolann examining a set or rocks during a science unit.
Mr. Ryan, Teaching Artist, assisting students with paint pallets during class.
5th/6th grade mentors read to kindergarten friends outdoors early fall.
"The faculty and staff at Willowwind found creative solutions to presenting work and reaching out to our community. It's okay if some of the ideas didn't work as we expected because that's part of learning and growing as a team. Creative problem solving is what we teach our students and we lived that this year." -Teacher
"I am proud of my flexibility, problem-solving, creative solutions, organization, determination, extra hours, task management with more plates spinning simultaneously than ever before." -Teacher
"I enjoyed when my child was learning from home in the spring and I was able to see more of what he learns, what the teachers are doing, and how he learns best. It was like getting a close-up view of what Willowwind is like for the children." - Parent
5th/6th graders working together on a science experiment.
Mr. Sam, our Music teacher, singing a song with the kindergarten class.
3rd/4th graders utilizing their outdoor classroom in early fall while the weather was still nice.
"Willowwind is amazing because of the teacher collaboration and the opportunity for students to work with students of all ages. Without the ability to do that this year, I really felt the impact in the classroom. What we traditionally do is amazing and a year without it just highlighted the importance of things like Group Discussion, partner families, mentors, and collaborative class projects." -Teacher
"I had never used Zoom before, so I learned about that and I like it!"
- Staff
"People don't give kids enough credit. Kids get it. There were doubts if kids could wear masks all day (highly debated nationwide). They not only can handle wearing a mask all day, but they grasp the importance. The biggest struggle for me now is teaching kids how to put paper towels in the trash can not next to it!!!" - Teacher
"I am proud of making it through a really tough year. I was a teacher, health monitor, sanitizer, protocol enforcement, etc. Even when I felt I was failing as an educator, because I was such a good protocol enforcer, I just kept going and doing my best to teach." - Teacher
First graders working on writing poetry last fall in preparation for Authors' Cocoa.
5th/6th graders having a mock debate about the merits of breaking from England during a unit on the American Revolution.
2nd/3rd graders researched, wrote, and produced a newspaper, The Turtle Times, which reported on fall happenings around campus.
In April, GreenState Credit Union will kick off its annual Give & Grow for Schools Initiative. During the month of April, GreenState is matching its members' donations to local schools, including Willowwind, up to $7,500. That means we have the potential to raise $15,000 with the match. This initiative is a great opportunity to extend your gift even further.

We firmly believe that a Willowwind education should be accessible to anyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. This year's focus will be on growing the General Scholarship Fund to supplement and extend the benefits of our sliding-scale tuition model to the families who need it most.

Historically, the bulk of Willowwind's financial aid dollars have come from an STO (School Tuition Organization). Over the past few years, these organizations have seen a decline in giving, and as a result, Willowwind has received less and less scholarship funding. New tax laws in 2020 disincentivized charitable giving even further and this year Willowwind is expected to receive only a fraction, if any, of the funds needed to support our current families in 2021-22.
Did You Know...
On average 50% of Willowwind's K-6 families benefit from our sliding scale tuition model.
About 20% of those families receive additional funds to offset tuition costs.
A significant decrease in gifts to STO's has resulted in a sharp decline of available scholarship funds.
Scholarships Have a BIG Impact
Scholarships are one way that Willowwind can help drive diversity in its school community. They create opportunities for deserving students of different socioeconomic situations to join our community and experience the small classes, personalized learning, and engaging curriculum that Willowwind students benefit from each day.

Scholarship dollars also help provide support to families who experience sudden changes in financial means due to changes in health, employment, or other reasons. Without adequate scholarship funding, Willowwind may not be able to provide enough financial support to families who need it. For some, scholarship awards will make or break the decision to enroll or even re-enroll.
Here's How You Can Help
You must be a GreenState member in order to participate in this matching effort, and those gifts must be made through their website by April 30th. GreenState Credit Union will match member gifts of $25-$500 per household. Donations will be deducted from the personal account you select at the time of giving.

Open a GreenState Account
New accounts can be opened with no minimum balance requirement and membership is open to anyone living or working in the state of Iowa, University of Iowa students, staff and alumni; and direct relatives of GreenState members. Learn more...

Non-member donations are also welcomed and can be made directly to the school through our online giving page or mailed to the address below.

Willowwind School
950 Dover Street
Iowa City, IA 52245
Climate Action Grant Update
In 2019, Willowwind was the recipient of the Iowa City Community Partnership Climate Action Grant. An award of $4,200 was given to support a “Children-to-Children Climate Actions” project at Willowwind. The project will focus on composting and waste reduction; gardening, local food, and healthy plant-based diets; and stormwater management through green infrastructure. In addition to funding student-created communication and outreach materials, the grant will provide partial support for the construction of raised beds for the garden, and contribute to rehabilitating and showcasing the existing Willowwind prairie strips and bioswale.

While many of the project's plans were delayed last year due to impacts of COVID, we have picked up where we left off and are actively working towards completion. Recently, over Spring Break, a crew from Impact7G in Clive, IA came by to perform controlled burns on our two prairie strips and bioswale. Our friends at Sustainable Landscape Solutions (SLS) will be back in late spring to assess whether these spaces would benefit from additional planting/seeding to further diversify existing species.

Our website has recently been updated to include more information on this project as well as photos and videos of the burns. Check it out!
Bioswale Burn
Prairie Strip Burn
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