| Campus Happenings |
Student Council Members provided Classic Cleaners with Gateway's donation of coats which will go to foster children this winter.
2nd graders get ready to deliver baskets which they made with their 5th grade buddies to St. Francis shelter.
Percy listens to WWII veteran, Russell Dawson, our guest speaker at Grandparents Day.
3rd graders gave a singing performance at Grandparents Day.
5th graders learned about building structures to withstand earthquakes on a field trip to the Tech Museum in San Jose.
Folk Dancing with visiting artist-in-residence Evo Bluestein in music class.
Students learned folk traditions, rhythm and dance with visiting musician Evo Bluestein.
Alumni students served on a panel during Middle School Information Night in November.
Middle School students gave a musical performance during Middle School Information Night.
7th graders explain their "7 Wonders of the World" projects to their 2nd grade buddies.
3rd graders performed the River Re-enactment, as part of their study of the San Lorenzo River.
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1st and 6th grade buddies make snowflakes.
Middle School students demonstrated their Spanish Flag project.
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FROM THE HEAD'S DESK 
by Percy L. Abram, PhD, Head of School
Last week, I attended the National Association of
Independent School's 22nd annual People of Color Conference (POCC)
in Denver, Colorado.
Along with the two degree weather, I was treated to three days of
workshops, panels, speakers, and symposia on the importance of diversity in
independent schools.
Over the 15 years I
have attended this conference, I have watched it grow from a small gathering of
dedicated educators who struggled diligently to develop programs and strategies
to make independent schools safe and inviting institutions for underrepresented
minority groups, to a conference that invites celebrated authors, social
scientists, educators, and celebrities to share their experiences about the
diversity of our nation and our schools with the over 2,500 guests from around
the world. The theme of this year's
conference was "Mine, Yours, & Ours:
The Responsibility to Navigate the Rapids of Change", and focused on the
how we must be prepared to educate our students about the world in which they
will live, one that is increasingly diverse, complex, and interconnected.
The paradigm of a bifurcated America that is separated into
black and white, has been replaced by a richer understanding of the diversity
within these groups, and the myriad religious, socioeconomic, ethnic, gender,
and family structure differences that make our schools so rich and dynamic. One of the advantages of attending and
working in an independent school is that our school is not bound by strict
state standards, and that we can demonstrate our independence through our
mission, curriculum, and practices. At Gateway School, we have made a commitment to
ensuring that our curriculum (both explicit and implicit) teaches students to
value the diversity of the community around us.
Whether through the adoption of the our socio-emotional learning (SEL)
curriculum, Voices, to bringing in an
Artist-in-Residence to teach about world cultures through music, to using
narratives and poetry from African-American authors in the Middle School
advisory program to teach about empathy and responsibility, to increasing our
financial aid budget to attract new families from throughout the socio-economic
spectrum and to retain our current families, Gateway School's commitment to
broadening our students and family's experiences is remarkable.
We instill in our students an understanding of their place
in the global community and ensure that they acquire the skills and habits
necessary to be successful in high school and beyond. Successful independent schools ensure that
the learning that takes place in the classroom is complemented by the learning
and growth that accompanies our everyday encounters with our teachers, peers,
and mentors.
I am proud to work at a school that is committed to
promoting diversity in all forms (including ethnicity, family structure,
socioeconomic status, learning style, race, gender and religion) and one where
the faculty and staff is dedicated to ensuring that our students understand how
this diversity augments their educational experiences and helps them to grow
personally and as citizens of the world.
Thank you for all that you do to support our school
community.
Warm Regards,
Percy
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BOARD NEWS
by Ginny Troyer, President
ginny.troyer@gatewaysc.org
The Role of Gateway's
Board of Trustees
Gateway's board of
trustees is comprised of 19 parent or alumni parent volunteers, our head of
school Percy Abram, our faculty representative Kurt Almendras, and the GPA
president, Sheri Corona.
As is typical of
independent schools, Gateway's board has three general areas of focus. The
board hires and supports the head of school, develops strategies to ensure that
Gateway is true to its mission and thriving in future, and helps with the crucial
task of bringing resources to the school through fundraising to ensure a
balanced budget.
The most important role
of Gateway's board is to hire and support the head of school. We offer this
support: first, by providing him with space to do his job and second, through
periodic evaluations.
Though we work closely
with Percy and are there for advice if needed, the board does not focus on the
day-to-day running of the school. We do not have the training and expertise
that he has. Matters of curriculum, program, faculty and staff hiring and
oversight, facility maintenance and upgrade, and student policies and
discipline are Percy's and his administrative team's responsibility.
The board also supports
Percy by conducting a thorough and fair, written evaluation of him every year.
Last year's evaluation drew on feedback from all constituencies and was a
useful tool for Percy and the board in establishing his personal goals as he
moves forward. In Percy we have a head of extraordinary intelligence, ability
and commitment. We feel very lucky to have him at our school.
We are working to
ensure that Percy has more administrative help next year, as he inherited a
very thin administrative staff that resulted from the drop in enrollment following
the dot-com crash. David Peerless, the previous head was devoted to protect the
school's program above all else, so it was the administration that bore the
brunt of the financial strain. Whether Percy chooses a division director model
or an assistant head, we know from our CAIS evaluators that the school's future
success depends on giving him the means to bring his administration more in
line with comparable schools.
In the area of
fundraising, I am happy to announce that the Annual Giving Campaign has raised $243,879
this year with 89% parent participation. Thank you all for your contributions.
One of our main strategic
focuses at present is initiating a 10 year plan to have Gateway on a campus it
owns. We are also excited about the new Social Emotional Learning program,
Voices, that has been adopted at Gateway. This is a program that interweaves
specific character development lessons into curriculum across the grades and is
a great step toward achieving one of our strategic goals: to support and promote Gateway's distinctive
developmental approach and culture of compassion.
Please contact me at ginny.troyer@gatewaysc.org if you
have any questions about the Board of Trustees.
Ginny
Troyer
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SCHOOL LIFE 
Tamales Now on Sale! Benefiting the
8th Grade 2010 Class Trip to Washington
DC. Order your tamales now to have for holiday
festivities or an easy dinner during winter break. Tamales will be made fresh
on Dec. 17th and can be enjoyed right away or frozen until needed. Order
by Fri, Dec. 11th for delivery Thursday, Dec. 17th after school. 8th graders will be taking orders at
pick up this week 12/7 - 12/11 or click here for an order form and return
to the Main Office with check payable to Gateway School.
Questions? Contact Wendy Koche 234-4949 or svwendy@yahoo.com.
Reminder about cold weather: During snack break, lunch time and before school (8:30-8:45) children
are outside on the playground. Please be sure they come to school prepared
for cold weather. (We open classrooms before the morning bell rings only
when it is raining, so most mornings children are outside on the playground
before school begins).
Reminder: No after school care on
Friday Dec. 18th.
Due to another holiday this month...The next Environmental Advisory
Panel meeting will be held in the library on Monday, December 14th,
3:15-4:30pm (note starting time). STUDENTS
ARE WELCOME! Snacks will be served! Last month we had inspiring input from more
Gateway students! A kid's Eco club is
forming, currently with a waste education focus and we are getting closer to
launching a EAP web presence. The first half of this month's meeting will be
for student input and for supporting them in planning their actions. Then they
are welcome to stay or leave while we meet about other business in the 2nd half
of the meeting. The agenda so far: student
action check-in; finalizing environmental content for the gateway website. Come join us!
Please contact Caprice at 479-4769 or caprice@cruzio.com with any
questions and to get on our email list and receive minutes from the meetings.
Financial Aid for
the 2010-2011 School Year: Last
month, the Main Office mailed out financial aid packets to all
families who received financial aid for the 2009-2010 school year.
If you did not receive financial aid for 2009-2010 and would now like to
apply for aid for 2010-2011, you can pick up a financial aid packet
from the Main Office. In order to apply for aid, you must file a
Parents Financial Statement (PFS) with School and Student Service for Financial
Aid (SSS) either by mail or online. You will find the paper PFS form in
the financial aid packet or, if you prefer, you can file your PFS online
by going to sss.nais.org. In addition to filing your
PFS, you must also turn in a copy
of your complete 2009 tax return. This year, tax returns must
be mailed in to SSS rather than being turned in to the Main Office.
Please feel free to black out the social security numbers on your tax
return before mailing it to SSS. We recommend that parents
start preparing now to get their 2009 taxes done as early as possible during
the month of February 2010, and file the PFS by February 1,
2010. As long as your PFS is filed by February 1, 2010
and the copy of your complete 2009 tax return is received by SSS
by February 22, 2010, your application will be considered for the
first round of financial aid awards (the round in which the bulk of our
financial aid budget is awarded). If you are divorced, separated or
never married, please be aware that each parent must file a separate PFS and
each parent must mail in a copy of his or her complete 2009 tax return to
SSS. Please contact Rima in the Business Office at x 308 if you have any
questions.
Student Council Coat Drive - Through the help of Gateway
students and families, the Gateway student council donated coats foster children. Pamela from Classic Cleaners came to pick up
our coat donations on Friday and was so impressed once again with our
generosity. She spoke to our Student Council officers and told them how
important these coats will be for the foster children of our community. In her
words she said, "these coats will provide not only warmth, but for some
who do not have a coat, these coats will provide self-esteem." Thank you to all of the Gateway families and
students for your generosity!
Library News 
Merle was a presenter at the
California School Library Association Conference in Ontario, California
on November 21, 2009. She discussed the
Gateway School Laos book project, as part of a panel "Diversity in
Action." The Laos
book project culminated in December 2008 when Merle visited with the children
and teachers of Hat Sang Village
School near Luang Prabang, Laos. She shared handmade books from Gateway School's third grades, and donations for the village school from the children of Gateway School.
To prepare for the Conference,
Merle worked with Gateway students to help create a portion of her
presentation. Three middle school students (Daphne Lariviere, Isabelle Moss,
and Ryan Kahn), who are part of the Video/Acting elective, volunteered to
collaborate with and film three fourth graders (Bianca Chesnut, Ben Zuniga, and
Kolya McGlynn) as they discussed the book project they participated in for the
children in Hat Sang Village in Laos. A big thank you to Nicolas Moss for
helping edit the production with our students.
Merle incorporated the DVD made by our
students into her power point presentation at the Library Association meeting.
She received very positive comments about her session and several people in the
audience showed interest in our overseas project and told Merle about ideas
they had for doing one of their own.
As a follow-up to her visit and through our
generous donations from parents and the library program we will be purchasing
books from the local children's publisher Big Brother Mouse. Three hundred and twelve dollars will be
spent on books for the Hat Sang Village
in Laos.
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GPA NEWS
by Andrea Hultzen, GPA Vice-President
drehultzen@sbcglobal.net
*Gateway Gear Holiday Sale*
In the lobby next week. Sweatshirts marked down
40%+! Also, we have our popular Gift Cards to make your holiday shopping
even easier this year.
Shop and Support Gateway! Need a birthday gift,
holiday gifts, gift for a special babysitter or friend?? Shop on-line at www.MountainAve.com and a portion of your purchase goes to
support Gateway. Please be sure to select Gateway School
as your charity during the checkout process!
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 Market. (They donate a % back to Gateway). This system is changing and we'll have details soon, but keep using your community card through the holidays.
2. Purchase 2010
Eco-Metro Guide at Gateway. To get an idea about this coupon booklet go to www.ecometro.com.
3. Register your
credit, debit and grocery cards at www.escrip.com. (Any time you use those cards they donate a % to Gateway!) This support does
not cost families any extra money. By simply registering your
debit/credit cards at eScrip.com the GPA earns a percentage of your purchases. The more families we enroll, the
more we can plan for even bigger and better improvements for Gateway!
4. Register your
credit/debit cards & shop at www.onecause.com. (They donate a % at no extra charge!) Onecause program pays our school for
registered online shopping purchases. Just register at Oncecause.com, select Gateway as your "Cause" and
then shop from among hundreds of your favorite merchants. Examples include:
Amazon, Zappos, Macys, REI, The North Face, LL Bean, Best Buy. Some merchants credit the
school up to 10% of your purchases!
5. Shop 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.)
Upcoming GPA Activities:
Middle School
Dance: January 8th,
2010 at the United Methodist Church.
Jan. 21st, Thursday- Staff Treat Day hosted by Grades 2nd, 5th and 8th.
More details from your room parent nearer the date.
Science Night - Gateway will host another wonderful Family Science event
in February 2010. This year we are planning a weekend daytime event during which
Gateway students will be able to select from a variety of science
activities.
With this weekend venue, we look forward to having even
more of our talented parents participate by volunteering to conduct a science project or
demonstration. Topics have ranged from medicine, astronomy, marine
biology, chemistry, and physics to the use of alternative energy sources and
the carbon footprint of student lunches. Creativity is encouraged! You do not need
to be a professional scientist to organize and conduct a project.
You are invited to create a project based on your career,
hobbies, or interests. The most important thing is for the project to be
hands-on and something that can be done with a group of 8-10 students in about
an hour. As before, projects will be ranked according to which grade
levels are most appropriate for the activities involved. If you do not
wish to organize a project but would be interested in assisting in some other
way, we can always use the extra help! Please contact parent volunteer coordinator, George
Delli-Santi either by e-mail or telephone if you are interested in
participating in Gateway's 2010 Family Science Day! george.den11@gmail.com
or 408-338-9011. |
DEVELOPMENT NEWS by Meg Corman-Hall, Director of Development & Communications
meg.corman-hall@gatewaysc.orgThe Annual Giving Campaign has raised $243,879
as of today, and we have reached 89% parent participation. Below see how each of the grades did. Thank you to all those who have participated
so far in helping us reach our goal!
Grade Participation %
Kindergarten 93% Liz's
class 14 of 15
Emily's
class 14 of 15
1st grade 88% Haley's
class 12 of 13
Rachel's
class 11 of 13
2nd grade 96% Cathy's
class 13 of 14
Patricia's 14 of 14=100%!
3rd grade 93% Jen/Julie's 12 of 14
Kaia's 14 of 14 = 100%!
4th grade 88% Kurt's
class 15 of 16
Sari's
class 13 of 16
5th grade 89% Bill's
class 15 of 17
Tess's
class 17 of 19
6th grade 81% 22
of 27
7th grade 85% 23
of 27
8th grade 90% 28
of 31
Congratulations to Mercy and Seth
Wilson who won the
drawing done for the first class to reach 100% parent participation (Patricia's
2nd grade class). The Wilsons
won four 49er tickets and pre-game field passes!
Congratulations to Larisa Jordan-Mancini and Michael Mancini who
won the drawing for the second class to reach 100% parent participations
(Kaia's 3rd grade class). The Mancinis won a gift certificate for $60 at Ristoranti Avanti!
Gateway School's
"Garden of Dreams" Auction Gala is Saturday
February 6, 2010 at the Dream Inn.
Plan on a fun evening out to socialize with Gateway friends, dine, dance
and check out the remodeled Dream Inn! Take advantage of the hotel and
make it an overnight "getaway"! The
event includes our fabulous Live Auction, including Fund-a-Need which enables
you to support the school even if you don't want to purchase anything in the
Live Auction.
Our "Garden of Dreams"
on-line auction will run from February
24th to March 17th, 2010. We are still collecting wonderful donations
for the on-olne auction. If you have a
business, service or item to donate, please contact kindergarten parent Michele
Brady at mrbrady@pacbell.net or
Kristin Smith in the Development Office at ext. 332 or kristin.smith@gatewaysc.org.
Happy holidays to your family from both Kristin Smith and myself! We home you have a wonderful Winter Break! |
 ADMISSIONS NEWS by Colleen Sullivan, Admissions Director
colleen.sullivan@gatewaysc.org
We have had two well attended open houses already this year. If you have friends or neighbors who are
investigating school options for their children, encourage them to attend one
of our Open Houses to learn more about our school or simply have them contact
me at ext. 302 or by email.
UPCOMING OPEN HOUSES
December 9,
9-11am
January 9,
10am-12pm - Saturday!
January 12,
9-11am
A big thank you to our parent tour guides who gave tours at the November Open House: Margie Erickson, Doug Morrison, Anne Rowley, Patti Quillin, Laura Lucas and Shannon Hersey.
Calling all Kindergarten Siblings!
We will be hosting our second annual Kindergarten Sibling Tea with
our incoming kindergarten siblings. It is scheduled for Tuesday, December 15th at
9am. Younger siblings of Gateway
students who will start kindergarten next fall are invited to the West Cliff
Room with their parents
for coffee & hot
chocolate and snacks so that they can begin
to get to know one another. If you have a child ready for Kindergarten
next year and have not yet received an email about this event, please contact
Colleen at colleen.sullivan@gatewaysc.org or at 423-0341 ext. 302.
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OUR VOICES CARRY
Each
month, our faculty would like to give you a glimpse of the kinds of ideas we
are discussing with your children regarding our new Character Education
program, Voices. The
Voices program is built around six foundational themes -Identity Awareness,
Perspective Taking, Conflict Resolution, Social Awareness, Love and
Friendship, & Freedom and Democracy - that address important aspects of
emotional development and their impact on the individual, our community and
society as a whole. The themes include developmentally appropriate reading,
discussions, and project-based activities that take place in the classroom over
a six-week period.
On December
7th, we began discussing the theme Conflict Resolution with
students. Over the next six weeks, our
teachers will teach
students to consider the points of view of other persons involved in the conflict. Help them learn the signs of conflict
escalation and how to de-escalate conflicts. One good way to reinforce this
important theme is to discuss it with your child. We understand that, depending on your child's
age and developmental readiness, these conversations will range from
rudimentary to quite elegant and nuanced.
We have provided a few concepts that your child has been learning
in class:
- If you have a
problem with a friend, it may be because you have misunderstood each
other.
- Apologizing and
taking responsibility for our behavior is an important way to help heal a
conflict.
- Treating an enemy
with kindness, generosity, and humor can sometimes break the cycle of
conflict.
- When someone we
thought was our friend turns against us, it may be confusing, but we
cannot let ourselves be mistreated.
- All behavior has consequences.
Talk with your child about a time when they felt courageous
for taking a risk to support a friend who was being teased. Did this help to resolve the conflict? How did his/her friend feel after?
We
encourage you to send feedback to your child's teachers about your
conversations.
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