From the Auction Committee

Get your tickets here

 TICKETS AVAILABLE AT EARLY BIRD PRICES FOR 1 MORE WEEK ONLY!!

$60 through February 22, $75 After February 22

A ticket includes a meal and a drink 

The countdown begins: Our auction crew has been working hard to create a spellbinding event for us all to enjoy. We hope you are as excited as we are for a night where the whimsical and wicked collide and every bid will support the magic of our school's future. 

Also...We are looking forward to offering an array of delicious desserts, and we are still looking for some "EGGstra" help... with the rising price of eggs we are hoping that anyone who might have chickens and a surplus might be willing to donate eggs to be used at the auction. Please reach out to us at auction@madronetrail.org if you have access to extra eggs.

Link to Decor committee's Wishlist here

Last but not least, if you would like a free drink or 50/50 raffle ticket, be the first to name which Grimm's Fairytale this picture is associated with, email us at auction@madronetrail.org... 

From the May Faire Committee

It is that time again to start thinking about May Faire which will be Saturday May 3rd. For all crafty friends and families out there - please consider having a booth at the faire to sell your beautiful handmade items. Here is the link for more info and to have a booth.

From the Kitchen

Dragon Cafe Q & A:

To increase awareness and transparency about our meal program, we’re launching a weekly Q&A series! As a sponsor of the National School Lunch Program, we navigate complex regulations and tight budgets every day. Each week, we’ll answer real questions from parents and students or share insights we think our community will appreciate. Want to ask a question? Send an email to Chef Evan. All selected questions will be presented as anonymous in the Friday update.

Q: Do you use organic ingredients? If not, why not?

We prioritize fresh, high-quality food but primarily use conventional ingredients for two key reasons:

1) Federal Procurement Laws – Because we receive government funding, we must follow strict procurement rules. At least 75% of our food budget must go through a distributor offering the lowest prices, limiting our access to organic options. This prevents conflicts of interest, such as directing taxpayer funds to personal connections.

2) Cost – Organic food is often significantly more expensive. Since we are trying to operate in the black, we must keep costs low.

That said, some items, like our whole grain bread, tofu, tempeh, and granola, are organic year-round. We also use farm to school grant money to buy local, organic produce whenever possible, depending on season and availability.

Our specials next week:

• Soup: Turkey Chili w/ Corn Bread
• Wednesday Scramble Special: Green Chili 
• Friday Crispy Grilled Cheese Breakfast Roll-Up: Ham & Jalapeño  

Upcoming Foreign Friday Specials:

• February 21st - Mexico: Delicious slow-cooked chili Colorado (pork) over polenta

Chef Evan

evan.wilson@madronetrail.org

From the Farm-to School Committee

Spring is upon us! We would love to bolster our farm-to-school committee ranks so we can tackle upcoming projects including a plant and seed drive for the gardening program, a May Faire booth and more! Our next meeting is March 11 at 3:30 pm in Ms. Nancy’s classroom. If you are unable to attend but interested in joining the cause, please email Chef Evan.

Public service announcement:

Enjoy yummy, local produce while supporting our composting program!



We are still looking for monthly members for our Madrone Trail- Rogue Produce Membership.

Members can shop their Online Farmer’s Market, enjoy free delivery to Madrone Trail on Fridays, and access exclusive weekly sales. 

For each member who joins we can reduce our school compost pick-up fees. Join us in building a sustainable and healthy community and support our local farmers! 



Click here to create an account and purchase your $10 monthly subscription. You can also contact them at (541-301-3426) for questions.

From the Athletic Director

Yoga

Yoga has been extended by one week due to some missed yoga days due to the snow. The last 2 days of yoga will now be February 25th and 27th. Enjoy a couple of pics from our yoga club below.

Track & Field

Track & Field here at Madrone Trail is fast approaching. Please remember that school sports are a big commitment before signing up. Not only are the students expected to be at all meets and practices as long as they are healthy, but we will need parent drivers to meets as well. (If you are able to help please make sure you have a vehicle transportation form on file with Ms. Sherrie. The form is attached and they are available in the office as well. Bring in your insurance card when you turn it in, so she can make a copy.)

If your athlete does need to miss something, please communicate with the coaches ASAP.

Practice will begin March 3rd.

Reminder: If your athlete does not have a completed sport physical on file with Madrone within the last 2 years, please get in to see their primary care provider ASAP. The form is attached at the bottom of the athletic section. (You cannot participate in practices until this step is completed)

Please email me directly if you are having trouble getting in. I have some contacts through my wife’s work that can help get this done if needed. (3 Madrone Trail students have contacted me so far and we have Sport Physicals set up for them.)

Who: 6th-8th graders                               

Practice Schedule: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 3:30-5:00 pm.

Please pick your students up promptly at 5:00 on practice days

No practice on Wednesdays or the first week of Spring Break.

2nd week of Spring Break practice: Monday, Wednesday (Only Wednesday practice), and Thursday 3:30-5:00 pm

Tentative meet schedule: March 17th, April 7th, April 21st, April 30th (6th grade district championships) and May 6th (7th-8th grade districts)

(I will try to add one in a couple of weeks as well)

Registration deadline: February 28th

Registration forms have gone home with around 45 interested 6th-8th graders this week. 

Soccer Club

We will once again be having Soccer Club this Spring here at Madrone. Please turn in a participation form to Ms. Sherrie along with payments or payment arrangements. (Scholarship and payment request forms are in the office.)

Who: 3rd-5th graders

When: Wednesdays 1:30-3:00 pm at the Madrone Trail field on the following dates:

March 5th, March 12th, March 19th, April 9th, April 16th, April 23rd, April 30th, May 7th, and May 21st, May 28th

(Note: May 14th was on previous Friday updates, but has been removed due to a prior engagement by coach Jonathon. May 28th has been added.)

Cost: $75

Athletic shoes required. Cleats and shin guards are optional (No Football cleats)

We would love to have a couple of volunteers available to help Coach Jonathan, please email me if you are interested.

Registration deadline: March 3rd, 2025 

Registration forms will go home with interested 3rd-5th graders next week.

Meet our Soccer Coach

For the last three years, I have led the girls soccer program at Cascade Christian High School as head coach. My first year at CCHS I was awarded the League Coach of The Year. I have helped with the Rogue Valley Soccer Club (formerly Rogue Valley Timbers) U10 Boys & Girls Soccer Academy for the last four years. This last year I was able to lead the Academy myself, running all the sessions with 20 girls and 60 boys! Before this, I coached a U12 Boys recreational soccer team for three seasons with the Rogue Valley Soccer Club. I began playing soccer when I was six years old and played into high school. After graduating, I began to play Ultimate Frisbee competitively in a few different cities, including Portland where I attended Warner Pacific University. There I started an Ultimate Frisbee club that won club of the year at WPU. I graduated with honors in Social Entrepreneurship that has continued to influence in me a desire to stay connected to my local community in socially conscious ways.

These days, I spend most of my time at home with my family. I have a wife of 13 years named Rachael, and two kids: Leonora (2) and Willem (6 months). Our property, The Greenwood Estate, hosts an Airbnb as well as several ventures in farming and a ceramic studio where my wife runs classes and workshops. We have two milking cows, two goats, a guard dog and flock of chickens, ducks, and geese.

Over the last four years I also ran my own business life coaching practice, attended council meetings with my family business that I serve as a member, and grew the farming estate where our family currently lives.

-Jonathan Hillis

Special thanks to our newest sponsor this week.

Go Dragons!

Jeff Roberson

jeff.roberson@madronetrail.org

West Orthodontics

Our exceptional team is proud to serve the communities in and around Medford, Oregon. Since 2002, Dr. West has been Medford's premier orthodontist by staying on the leading edge of technology and making the happiness of his patients his number one priority. We strive to create a caring yet professional environment where you and your family can feel at home. We look forward to meeting you and helping you get the smile you've always wanted!

Call 541-770-1176 or visit us online at https://www.westortho.com/

Dr. Lance West offers comprehensive orthodontic treatment, including:

• Clear Aligners
• Early Treatment
• Adolescent Treatment
• Adult Treatment

Spotlight on 7th grade

When I first discovered Waldorf education I was immediately drawn in by the intentionality surrounding every aspect of the education. From the way a faculty meeting is run to how the kindergarten eats their snack, every facet of the Waldorf education model is rooted in deep and meaningful intention. Of course the goal of such intention is to immerse a person into an environment designed to facilitate growth and well-being. 

This strategic intentionality is well seen in how our curriculum meets the developing student as they grow through the stages of childhood. Anyone with a 7th grader at home can attest, it can be quite challenging to know what is going on with them, so how can a school curriculum be designed to meet them where they are as a person, especially as who they are as a person remains enigmatic, even to themselves. 

The first step begins with acknowledging that the 12 and 13 year old is going through some of the most dramatic changes both physically, chemically, and emotionally that they will ever experience. And though this can make them seem unstable at times, it also makes them richly potent with the capacity to surprise us, and themselves. It is a time in their lives where embracing change, taking chances, exploring new possibilities, and discovering bravery become important guide posts. 

To meet this hunger for exploration, and to encourage bravery, we began the year with our 7th grade Raven Adventure. The Raven team led a powerful rite of passage that took the students out of their physical and emotional comfort zones and gave them a chance to reflect on their own changing self, while also spending a few days building forts, sleeping under the stars, and connecting with nature.

To become a new person through the tumultuous waters of adolescents means that some part of you needs to die away. For the student, puberty marks the end of the golden years of childhood. This feeling of new possibility, and the need to question all aspects of society, finds fertile ground in our studies of the European Renaissance and the world-changing growth in art, science, philosophy, politics, and architecture that took place during that time. During this block the students find particular love for such characters as the great Leonardo Da Vinci, who had more unfinished works than anything he actually finished or created. Or Michelangelo, who talked back to popes and snuck into morgues in the middle of the night to study the human body.

We also take the students through the Age of Exploration, a time when great changes were taking place across the globe. Interestingly enough, it was a time that grew from the impetus of death in the wake of the black plague. Not completely unsimilar to how our society is finding its new way post-covid. 

In our chemistry, physics, and algebra blocks, the student is met with a world of phenomena that is often out of balance, something they can relate with. To discover how balance can be brought into the world, and used to dramatic effect, whether in a chemical reaction, combustive explosion, easily lifting themselves off the ground with a series of pulleys, or solving a complicated algebra equation as it applies to a life situation, the student can discover an appreciation for a world ever in flux and the tools we use to bring balance, understanding, and industry to it.

And of course, with so many dramatic changes happening to the student physically, it becomes the proper time to take a deeper look into how the body works and grows during our anatomy and physiology block. 

One last piece of our curriculum worth noting, is our work in perspective art as well as charcoal and graphite drawing. The student is met with an inner world that often seems to be built of polarities. By discovering how to create depth through perspective, or shape and refined detail and texture through black and white drawing, it further gives the student a sense of possibility and balance. 

Overall 7th grade offers a rich and dynamic curriculum and so far this year it has been quite a bit of fun to lead this class and to be learning right alongside them.

~Mr. Barbee

Spotlight on Rosebud Kindergarten

One of my very favorite things about being a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher is the gift that I receive daily as I stand witness to the earnest and active work of little children. I do my best to be an anchor amidst this activity and create an environment in which they feel free to explore many sensory rich opportunities.  

Some of these include purposeful work like washing dishes, setting the table and sweeping, others include outdoor play where the children test physical boundaries by climbing, swinging, balancing and lifting heavy objects. Water and melting snow, mix with sand and dirt to make sticky mud creations. Other artistic activities are teacher led where paint, wool and thread are brought to life through the dedicated hand of the child. 

You may ask why? Why is touching mud, swirling sudsy water and stomping in rain puddles so important, (other than being fun of course!). The young Sprout and Kindergarten aged child is seeking to feel at home in his/her/their bodies. Our job in the Waldorf Kindergarten is to offer these real life experiences in an effort to welcome them into what it means to be human, to care for our cubbies, our classroom, ourselves.  

Then, to move through the classroom in such a way that we do not crash into others, are able to take turns, to know where we begin and end; and the other begins. All of this activity is developing the child's four lower senses which are the sense of Life, Touch, Balance and Self-Movement. You see, it is in fact my job to provide these opportunities so that these growing humans may develop these senses. The four lower senses are the beginning of a lifelong journey which, with enough intention from educators and families, can support the healthy development of the human all the way up to the age of 21 and beyond. We are indeed on a journey in the Waldorf School, the journey of life!

~Miss Gina

Did you know that Oregon’s public charter school students receive less than half the funding of their district peers? 

This funding disparity isn’t an accident—it’s the result of an outdated law passed 25 years ago. Since then, charter schools have stepped up to serve students who need more support, yet lawmakers have never fixed the broken funding formula that keeps charter students at a disadvantage.

Charter schools are public schools. Charter students are public school students. So why are they being shortchanged?

The time for change is now. House Bill 3444 will ensure charter schools get their fair share of state education funding—so students aren’t left behind just because of the school they attend.

Take Action Today! 

Tell your state legislators that it’s time to fix Oregon’s unfair funding system. Support HB 3444 to give all public school students the resources they need to succeed.

Make it personal! Share why your charter school matters and how funding inequities impact students. Together, we can demand change!

Quote of the Day

Handlettered by Ms. Cori

MADRONE TRAIL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

www.madronetrail.org

Madrone Trail Public Charter School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or age in its programs and activities.