Dear Westside Waldorf parents,
We hope this letter finds you in health and good spirits. It is in times like this that we see how much we all truly rely on one another to be vibrant and strong. Throughout our community, we are realizing how much our families, friends, teachers, coworkers, classmates, and neighbors enrich our life, imbue it with larger purpose and meaning, and even help us carry the weight of it.
As we all navigate our way through the quarantine, we are striving hard to continue our work and sustain our school and teachers. Almost overnight, they came together to create a plan for how to continue to serve your students. Many of them are working harder than ever to transfer the spirit of an education that is so much about connection and experiential engagement, to a virtual realm--hoping that though they are not face to face with your child, the beauty of the education is still transferring from them to you. The days of our Early Childhood and grades teachers are spent preparing and adjusting materials, creating recordings, and counselling and supporting parents by email and phone so they can help your families adjust to the changes, settle into rhythms, and stay connected.
While we are not in our physical school space, we continue to steward the buildings and the people that hold your children until we are able to bring them all together again. We continue to pay our rent, our utilities, and the teachers and staff who are keeping the virtual school alive and who we need to care for, so they are in good shape when our school doors reopen. Just as our school will be struggling, we recognize that for some families, this time will present true financial hardship. If you find yourself in this situation, we encourage you to reach out to the school’s finance office.
For now, we have entered into a different kind of partnership—one in which you carry the heavy load of having to be constantly present for your children and actively engaged and guiding the process normally taken up by their teachers. We know this is especially challenging for working parents who also need time to nurture their own businesses and be attentive to their own jobs. Our teachers will continue to explore ways in which they can provide more support for you at home and also ways in which to deliver a more complete experience.
While the world seems to be putting us on pause, we know that the children’s development will continue to unfold. We are grateful that you are willing to share the load, so that together, we can keep moving the children onwards. By supporting one another, like two sides of an arch, we can create a beautiful and strong passage for our children between this time of hardship and the future, healthy school life to which we are all looking forward.
In Service,
Anjum Mir
On behalf of Leadership Council and Board of Trustees
