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FROM THE HEAD'S DESK 
by Percy L. Abram, PhD, Head of School
Dear
Parents,
In
the most recent version of the NAIS[1]
quarterly publication Independent
School, Michael
Hirschfeld[2]discusses how schools' curricula - and
their missions - must meet the needs of our current students well into the next
century. Hirschfeld posits that in a
depressed economic climate and amid increased competition and higher parental
expectations, schools that teach inquiry-based learning and problem solving
skills rather than stress rigor for rigor's sake will be at a distinct
advantage. He recommends that schools
focus on "core competencies" that will prepare students for their college and
work experiences in the future. Teaching
these skills - "expressing oneself effectively in oral, written and artistic
forms; collecting, evaluating and applying data to solve problems; and
employing scholarly methods in students' work" - will prepare students to work
across disciplines, in large groups or independently, and in international
settings. Gateway School
does an excellent job of delivering a developmentally appropriate and highly
integrated curriculum that teaches these core competencies. However, I believe that we can more
effectively communicate these principles to prospective parents and the larger
community. In fact, the message is just as
important as how often and to whom it is delivered.
This
Thursday and Friday at your goal setting conference with your child's teacher, you will
have the opportunity to learn more about our school's incredibly rich
curriculum and how ably our teachers guide students with care and attention to
each child's social, emotional, and academic needs. You will also have an opportunity to witness
your child advocate for his learning and articulate those areas that present
the greatest challenge for him. I am
certain that you will be equally as impressed by his candor, honesty and
humility, as you will be by his teacher's empathy, compassion and knowledge of
his strengths and areas for growth. Even
after a scant few weeks, it is remarkable how well these teachers know our children. What makes these conferences so successful is
our willingness as parents to listen openly and to partner with the teachers to
ensure that we are all working in the best interest of our students.
Our
teachers understand the students' unique approaches to learning, their
emotional impulses, their creative talents, and their anxieties and
disappointments. We care about them sincerely and endeavor to help them realize
their limitless potential. We cannot
communicate this message frequently enough to our students and to you.
As
parents we are lucky to be a part of a community in which committed and
supportive teachers value our input and work with us to create plans for our
children to help them reach their learning goals. This collaboration is truly rare and extremely
valuable. The goal setting conferences
are an opportunity for you to get to know more about the school, our teachers
and your child. I am hopeful that you will continue to treasure what a vibrant
learning environment Gateway
School has developed, and
will continue to spread the word.
Warm
regards,
Percy
[1] Gateway School was recently granted membership
into the National Association of Independent Schools.
[2]
Michael Hirschfeld, "Mission
Impossible?: Communicating What our Schools Actually Deliver," Independent School Fall 2009: 33 - 39.
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SCHOOL LIFE 
Peace
and Plenty Celebration
Thank you
to all those who helped make our Peace and Plenty celebration such a wonderful
event! Thank you to Tom Tobin and Mark
Sanchez for your years of bread-making assistance! We could not have done it
without the amazing efforts of our staff and faculty, especially Rosemary
Breedlove, Jeremy King and Caprice Potter, as well as the tremendous efforts
of our volunteers, including: Alexandra Armstrong, Rachel Conable, Courtney
Dent, Laura Everett, Kristen Faris, Christie Hausmann, Karen Hovekamp, Shiva
Hurvitz, Dana Nichols, Lisa Ortiz, Laurel Perotti, Diana Rothman, Liza Scully,
Don Shockley, Naomi Bendiner-Woldemar, and Linda Vidanage. Thank you!!
For those of you who were not able to attend the Peace & Plenty
Celebration on Thursday, the following is an excerpt from Caprice's speech:
For all the people of the world
to have Peace - and Plenty - we must all live our lives in a way that supports
and protects the earth, protects the air, water and soil, the trees and plants,
protects each other, the earth and all its creatures - from the tiniest gulf
fritillary butterfly in Life Lab to the largest trees in the redwood forest.
At Gateway School the 2nd and
5th graders planted wheat seeds last year that they lovingly made into flour
for the bread we will eat today that will nourish our bodies. We can also plant different kinds of seeds,
seeds of hope and change that can nourish our planet.
In keeping with our school's
mission of a commitment to environmental responsibility, the students, parents,
teachers and staff are developing the knowledge, the strength of character, the
leadership and the will to become global citizens and caretakers of this
beautiful planet.
We are excited to announce that
Gateway has joined the Green Schools Alliance
and will work with over 1,700 other schools around the world building
environmental leadership skills and making real changes that will help to heal
our earth.
Last spring at our annual Promise
and Renewal celebration, we made promises to reduce our carbon footprint by
developing good energy-saving habits, like biking to school today. To continue these efforts this year, the
Gateway Environmental Advisory Panel will be providing information, activities
and challenges to help our community participate in making even more of these
needed changes. We will also be looking
for interested students, teachers and parents to start a Gateway Environmental Club.
By working together, we can
plant those seeds of change and restore the path to Peace and Plenty for all,
and Gateway School can help to lead the way!
Reminder - No School - Oct. 8th and 9th - Goal Setting Conferences and Oct. 12th - Teacher In-Service Day.
Parent
Teacher Goal-Setting Conference Childcare and In-Service Day Childcare - All-day childcare
is available during conference and in-service days, Oct. 8th, 9th & 12th.
Please sign up in advance on the clipboard in the Main Office. If you only need to
leave your child in our care during your conference time, you do not need
to sign up ahead of time. There will be a sign-in sheet each day in
the West Cliff Room. Please be sure to sign your child in and out each day.
Book
Fair Thursday, Oct. 8th and 9th. During the two goal setting conference days we will be having a Book Fair
in Tess's 5th grade classroom. This is a great opportunity to
purchase books on an age-appropriate level and from a range of
interests. All the purchases at the Book Fair will support the Gateway School Library which is a great resource
for both teachers and students.
First
Grade Parent Coffee - Wednesday Oct. 14th from 8:30 - 9:00 am in the West Cliff
Room. Join Percy, 1st grade teachers Haley and Rachel and Resource
Specialist Joan Saia for an informal chat about your child's developmental
milestones and outcomes, and information on what to expect from your child
throughout the year.
Fourth
Grade Parent Coffee - Wednesday Oct. 21st 8:30 - 9:00 am in the West Cliff
Room
Second
Harvest Food Drive
begins Oct. 19th. The 6th
grade class is coordinating our school-wide canned food drive to benefit needy
families in Santa Cruz
County. The "Grind Out Hunger" campaign runs in all
schools to encourage students to help hungry children get the food they need. Talk
with your child and start saving up canned goods to donate so we can make this
Gateway students' best year yet.
Ranch
Builders is BACK!!! Gateway parents Rusty and Erica Berg and Gateway School
are working together to offer a 10-week Ranch Builders Club. Club members will
learn building and maintenance skills, including the use of farm
equipment. Past projects have included
bridge-building and other challenging activities. Ranch Builders is for Middle School students
and takes place at Jade's Ranch on Thursdays from 3:15 - 5:15 pm. If you are interested in having your child
participate, please contact Percy at dr.a@gatewaysc.org.
After School Music Class - Sarah Morris teaches flute and piano lessons to students
after school on campus. She still has space
available for some of her classes. If
you are interested, contact Sarah at sarahplaystheflute@gmail.com or
see the Wednesday flyer link at www.gatewaysc.org/news/index.php
Family Circus
Yoga - Oct. 18th, 3 - 5 pm at Gateway School with 1st grade teacher and yoga
instructor Rachel Sattinger and AcroYoga/Circus Yoga Teacher Amy
Impelizzeri. For more information, see
the Wednesday flyer www.gatewaysc.org/news/index.php.
2010 "Garden of Dreams" Online Auction volunteers
needed!
For the
first time this year, we are having an online
auction! We are removing the silent
auction from our annual event (set for Saturday Feb. 6, 2010 at the Dream Inn)
and taking it online. The Live Auction
will remain "live" during the February event.
The new online auction will be an exciting way to enable broad access
to our auction items so that our entire parent (and grandparent and friend)
community can shop for fabulous deals and support our school! Right now, we still need volunteers to help
with securing items for the online auction.
If you are interested in helping secure donations, please contact our
auction volunteer (and new Kindergarten parent) Michele Brady at mrbrady@pacbell.net.
Gateway
Students' Skeleton Dolls on Display in downtown Santa Cruz!
Skeleton dolls
made by Patricia's 2nd grade class of 2008-09 will be on display Oct.
2nd - Nov. 5th at Twist Store, 1364 Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz.
Thanks to Lara Marotta for giving our students the opportunity to display their works of art.
Dine Out for Life Lab - Help
support our Life Lab school garden and others with something you do everyday -
eating dinner! The following restaurants
will be donating proceeds from the following nights to gardens participating in
the open house.
Tonight - Wednesday, Oct. 7th, 6 - 9 pm - Hawgs Seafood, Santa Cruz
Please mention that you
are dining out for school gardens when you order.
Tuesday, Oct. 13th, Center Street
Grill, Santa Cruz
Please mention that you are dining out for school gardens when you order.
We've got a
few more lined up - info coming soon!
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BOARD NEWS
 I would
like to take a moment to introduce myself as the new President of Gateway's
Board of Trustees and to welcome you to what will surely be another great year
at Gateway. I am taking over this role from Lauren Tobin, who served for the
past three years. Lauren led the school through the search for a new head of
school two years ago as well as the strategic planning process last year. I am
honored to follow in Lauren's footsteps and serve this school that I love.
When I was
invited to take on the position of Board President, I was uncertain about such
a large commitment. But when I
considered how much Gateway - its teachers, programs, culture and traditions - has
provided for my children, how much I believe in Percy's ability to take the
school forward and the amazing group of talented and dedicated people who make
up the Board itself, there was no question.
Gateway's Board is comprised of current parents or alumni parents, with three ex-officio
members (Percy Abram, Kurt Almendras who serves as the faculty representative,
and Sheri Corona, President of the GPA). The members are: Ryan Brandt, Angela
Chesnut, Ross Clark, Jennifer Fahrion, Christina Falco, Nick Folger, Virginia
Ganley, Mike Gardner, Denise Lee, Sara Liu, Ray Love, Doug Morrison, Rafi Ortiz,
Anne Rowley, Lauren Tobin, Tony Walker, Sandy Wells, and Greg Whitley.
Among other
things, the Board is charged with looking out for the future of the school.
What do we need to do today so that the school will be thriving in 5, 10 or 20
years? The community-wide strategic planning process we went through last
school year led us to five goals, which I invite you to examine on the website www.gatewaysc.org/pdf/StrategicPlan09.pdf
For now, I
would like to draw your attention to one goal in particular:
Obtain
a campus owned by Gateway
School.
The current
building, what we think of as our Gateway School, is not in fact owned by Gateway.
The lease at the current site ends in ten years and our landlords (The Oblates of St. Joseph)
have plans to use the site as a retreat center for Catholic church members. Because of the uncertainty around extending
our lease, the Board is beginning a 10-year process of exploring the
opportunity to move to a campus we own.
The experts
we have consulted agree that our initial step must be to secure a site, in
itself a somewhat daunting task. The Board has established a New Campus Task
Force, chaired by the extremely capable Christina Falco, to begin the job of
finding potential sites for Gateway
School. We are in the
early stages of information gathering and need the help of the greater parent
community. If you have expertise in land use, building, commercial real estate,
city permitting processes, or if you have a nice parcel of land between 5 and
10 acres that wants a school on it, please contact Christina at christina.falco@gatewaysc.org.
During the
course of the school year, I plan to keep you up to date on the Board's work
through periodic reports in the Gateway Family News. I hope that you will read along with other
parents and let me know if you have any questions.
Warmly,Ginny Troyer
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GPA NEWS
by Sheri Corona, GPA President
Harvest
Festival Sunday, Oct. 25th,
1 - 4 pm. Please join us to celebrate the
harvest season by attending our annual Harvest Festival. This is such a fun
event for children and for parents as well. We are looking forward to a day
of fun at the booths put together by each grade including a pumpkin walk, 25-foot
climbing wall, obstacle course, garden shop, lollipop toss, and so much
more. BRING YOUR OWN dishes and utensils to get food from the burrito
bar! Look for Wednesday flyers with more
information and contact your room parent to see how you can get involved with
this year's festival. We hope you can all attend this fabulous family
event!
The
GPA held its first all-parent meeting on Tuesday morning. Percy gave an update on the beginning of the school year and GPA leaders
talked about a number of ideas for this and next school year. The GPA Executive Committee encourages all
parents to support our school community through involvement in the various
community events as well as in the following 5 easy ways:
1. Show
your community card at New Leaf MarketThey
donate a % of every sale back to Gateway.
2.
Purchase 2010 Eco-Metro Guide at Gateway. To get information about this coupon booklet go to www.ecometro.com. To order the Eco-Metro Guide, click on this link for the Wednesday
flyer www.gatewaysc.org/news/index.php3.
Register your credit, debit and grocery cards at www.escrip.com. Any
time you use those cards they donate a % to Gateway!
4.
Register your credit/debit cards & shop at www.onecause.com. They
donate a % to Gateway at no extra charge!
5. Shop
for unique gifts online at www.mountainavenue.com. They
will donate a % to Gateway. This will be available in several weeks - we will let parents know later this month.
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 ADMISSIONS NEWS by Colleen Sullivan, Admissions Director
Open
House
We will be hosting our first Open House of the
year for prospective families next week.
If you have any friends who would like to come and visit our wonderful
school please encourage them to come!
Open House Thursday,
Oct. 15th, 9 - 11 am Call 423-0341
ext. 302 to RSVP.
Calling
all kindergarten Siblings!
If you have a child who should be starting
kindergarten next fall, please be sure to send me an email. We will be sending out the sibling
applications this month. Also, we want
to be sure to invite you and your child to the Sibling Tea on December 15th.
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DEVELOPMENT NEWS by Meg Corman-Hall, Director of Development & Communications
October 19th - 25th is Annual Giving Pledge Week. Every family is asked to make a tax-deductible
donation to this campaign. Pledge your
"wedge" to make our pie complete!! Look for more information in the
mail next week!
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FACULTY PROFILE
Third Grade Teacher, Kaia Huseby
Where were you born? I was born in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Where did you attend college? What
did you study in college?
I went to Bryn Mawr College (in Pennsylvania)
and majored in English Literature. Three years ago, I completed a master's degree in
Mind, Brain and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
What are your hobbies? I enjoy hiking, gardening, weaving,
watercolor painting, listening to jazz, learning languages, and traveling. I
also love spending time with my husband and my two sons (4 and 7).
Who was your favorite (elementary or
middle school) teacher? Why? My favorite teacher was Mr. O (for Oglesby) in my public
school in Vermont.
He was a phenomenal writing teacher because he challenged and supported us. We
wrote in our journals for the first half hour of every day and we had to
publish four stories by the end of the year. This was 5th grade and each story
had to go through nine drafts of editing and revision, no matter what. Then we
learned how to bind our stories into hard covers; we stitched them together
with dental floss! I still have these stories and sometimes share them with my
students.
What do you like most about teaching
at Gateway School? The people! I enjoy working with
everyone in the Gateway community - students, parents, and fellow teachers. We
learn so much from each other!
What project or lesson that you
assign at Gateway are you most proud of?
Why? I
developed a lesson to teach children about how learning happens in the brain
and how every brain in unique. As part of the lesson, students add lengths of
rope to a giant rope net to show how connections are formed between neurons as
we learn. After the lesson, they understand that because we all have such varied
experiences and interests, our networks have developed differently and no two
brains could possibly be the same. This leads to a rich discussion about
respecting diverse learners.
What project or lesson excites your
students the most? Why/how?
Two projects
come to mind right away. My students are always excited about constructing our
Ohlone hut by hand from willow branches and tule grasses. They also get very
excited about our 3rd grade crayfish study, especially doing scientific
experiments on real, live crayfish (in a kind, appropriate manner)!
How would your students describe
your personality in class? I think they would say that I am kind but firm; they might also say
that I smile a lot and can get very excited about what we're studying!
What is your favorite tradition at Gateway School and why? Peace and Plenty. I love that we
make our own bread and share it. This is such a symbolic and joyful day in our
community.
Describe something about yourself
that no one (until now) knows about you? During college, I spent two summers working as a landscape
painter in Italy.
I traveled around by motor scooter, with paper and watercolor supplies in my
backpack. I did all of my paintings sitting in fields, along roads, or in town
squares. At the end of each summer, I had a small exhibition and sold my
paintings.
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PARENT RESOURCES
Lori Getz, Nov. 2nd, 7 -
9 pm at Georgiana Bruce Kirby, 425 Encinal Street.
Gateway School and Kirby are partnering to bring
cyber-education consultant Lori Getz to speak with Gateway parents. Her talk this year is entitled "Keeping up
with Internet Safety: Talking to Your Child about Cyber Security, Cyber
Citizenship & Personal Safety". For more information, visit www.tinyurl.com/kirbyevents.
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