February 6th, 2009
ISSUE #9
|
Weekly Reminders
 Saturday, Feb. 7th - 8am - 3pm: DESERT STAR AT THE SEDONA MARATHON- Come visit our 3 Water Stations and Expo booth at the Sedona Cultural Park. Link To It. Saturday, Feb. 7th - 10:00 am:
GREEN THUMBS WORKING DAY- This meeting is for everyone interested in grounds work. Meetings will
be the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month. Please come and participate.
Tuesday, Feb. 10th - 3:00 pm: BOARD MEETING- All InvitedMonday, Feb. 16th:
PRESIDENTS DAY -
No school
Thursday, Feb. 19th - Friday, Feb. 20th:SCHOOL CONFERENCES -
11:30 Early DismissalTuesday, Feb. 24th - 8:30 - 10:30 am: "WALK THROUGH THE GRADES" -
Step into each classroom for 10 minutes and observe kindergarten through grade 6. This will be followed by a questions and answer period. Call the office to sign up! Alternate dates: 3/25 & 4/23 March 4th - 1:00 - 2:45: JOAN TREADWAY TALK - "Parenting the Adolescent" - Those of us who attended her presentation last week on the media were well rewarded and are revising some of our parenting skills.March 16th - 20th: SPRING BREAKNo School
|
ALL SCHOOL MEETING HIGHLIGHTS:
Thanks to all of you that attended Wednesdays All School Meeting. Here are some of the highlights:
* Catherine Weld led us in Bal-A-Vis-X activities. This stands for balance/auditory/vision eXercises. Beanbags and balls are used to help the child or adult with balance, coordination, eye tracking, and crossing the midlines. These activities have been shown to help students with learning difficulties as well as enhancing balance and coordination for all of us. Most of the faculty will be taking this training in February so expect to see more ball exercises in the future!
* Did you know that your volunteer hours leads to grants for the school? Did you know that each family is requested to put in 50 volunteer hours a year to Desert Star? There are many parents that are volunteering but we need many more. Committee structures are being finalized in order to give parents a better idea of where they can put their volunteer hours.
* Jennifer Young, our Desert Star business manager explained our current financial situation. She quoted our human capital i.e. the parent involvement in the school as our "gold reserve." In terms of our monetary situation the dominant need for the money is due to the improvements made to the infrastructure and the expansion of the school. We are not able to borrow from any more banks at this time. Student absenteeism caused a $12,500 reduction in the state equalization payment in the first four months of school. Even being tardy or picking your child up early from school may increase our absenteeism rate! We are very grateful to the teachers who have agreed to delay being paid their next paycheck in order to help the school may pay other bills. We have a $25K deficit this month. If parents all were able to pay their supply fees it would bring in about $35K. If we do not find the $25K it could escalate to $50K or $75K by the end of the school year.
* Pam Israelson talked about the Desert Star committees. We should have that information out to the D.S. community very soon. Thank you for all those that volunteered to help for the Sedona Marathon booth this Saturday.
* Tomas Winn and Catherine Weld said that at this time the school is planning to have a 1st through 7th grade school next year, and The Board has every intention to find a way to provide a Kindergarten next year as well. Many options are being explored and the hope is that this decision can be made in the next two weeks.
* Stephanie Schmid who heads the Fundraising Task Force Committee did a wonderful expressive piece on how Desert Stars process has been like an archeological dig. It was inspiring to see that we have been through other times of financial crisis and pulled through to be where we are today. $35,000 has been pledged by parents for the expansion of Desert Star and the goal is $150,000. She gave us all beeswax and asked that we create reminders in wax of our vision for Desert Star. It was great to see that many of us had created hearts, flowers, or a wheel or a bowl or something that supports. PLEASE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE SCHOOL YOU LOVE!
PARENT COUNCIL - Volunteer Opportunities
Green Thumbs Working Day: Saturday, February 7th - 10:00AM. Spend some volunteer hours and show up with your gardening gloves.
Meetings will be held the first and third Saturdays of the month.
|
 |
|
|
Greetings!
One advantage to sending your children to a small school is that there are several teachers watching out for the well-being of your children throughout each day. The teachers and I at Desert Star School take supervision very seriously as we know that you entrust your children to our care, expecting them to be safe at school. We all feel that we are responsible for all the students, whether they're in our class or not. Thank you for entrusting us with your children!
Susan Simon
Principal, Desert Star Community School
|
We Are Watching Your Children
By Susan Simon, Principal
Supervising students is an important responsibility for teachers and administrators in any school. Good outdoor supervision prevents accidents, leads to appropriate social interactions and allows the teacher to learn more about each child in his classroom. Watching the interactions of children at play and in between classes provides valuable information for the observer. Inside supervision sets the tone for orderly classroom dynamics and steady learning to occur.
Desert Star Students are supervised from the time they are dropped off each morning until they are picked up in the afternoon. Supervision at drop-off time begins at 8:15am. Students are permitted to go directly to their classrooms in the morning. This gives them time to get settled before class begins. Often parents try to hold brief conferences with the teacher at drop-off time. This isn't a good conference time as the teacher is usually busy preparing for and greeting the students. The class teacher and special area teachers are responsible for the students throughout the school day.
Recess is an important time to provide good supervisory coverage of students. At Desert Star, there are approximately 85 students on the playgrounds at the same time. Thirty first and second graders are assigned to the play structures nearest their classrooms. There are usually two teachers watching this play area. The third through sixth graders play on the remaining play areas. There are usually three staff members supervising this group of students. On some particularly nice days, most DS teachers will be on the playground!! We're happy to say that playground injuries are kept to a minimum with such good supervision.
Desert Star teachers walk their students out to the circle at the end of the day. Students are carefully supervised as they get into the cars that will take them home. It's only after the last student is finally picked up that the supervisors can lay down their responsibility. We're watching your children and they're safe in our care.
Submitted by Susan Simon, Principal
|
Teacher & Community Corner
Announcements
Carpentry Help Needed:
Desert Star Art Teacher, Zenna MacGregor, is about to begin a project of placing student decorated tiles on the benches in the drop-off area of the school. She needs help adhering hardboard to wood and working with adhesive on the tiles. If you can help, please call the office (928) 282-0171 and leave a message for Zenna. Thanks!
Supply Donation Update:
We have received 7 more supply donations ! Thank you to those families. Only 83 to go. Desert Star asks $150 Per Semester Per Child to help support the school. Out of 90 children, 17 supply fees have been paid in full. We want to continue talking about the possibility of expansion and kindergarten. Please get your donation in as best you can, as quick as you can.
Family Support Events:
Rudolph Steiner College - Informed Family Life
Spring Parenting Conference
"Educating Our Children - Changing the World"
April 25-26, 2009
Sacramento Waldorf School Fair Oaks, CA
Register at informedfamilylife.org
House For Rent:
One-bedroom "Earth Ship" house adjacent to DS school. Freshly painted interior, unfurnished and available now. All utilities included. $800/month. For information call: Tomas Winn 301-3491
Desert Star Teacher Biographies:
Find out who are our teachers and what are their backgrounds? http://www.desertstarschool.org/teachers.html
Desert Star Newsletter Archive Link:
Did you miss any of our newsletters? View them by going here: http://www.desertstarschool.org/newsletters.html
Parent Testimonial Link - Please Add To Our Site:
We are encouraging all parents of Desert Star students to participate in adding to our parent testimonials page. Just click and fill out the form by going to:
http://www.desertstarschool.org/parent-testimonials.html. Thank you!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teacher Highlight -"Desert Star's Fourth Grade Class" By Sarah Akerson, 4th Grade Teacher
 Fourth grade began the year learning about early life in this particular place. Our state geography block taught us about the first people, or Native Americans, as well as the second wave of people, which included missionaries, conquistadors, trappers and miners. The importance of archaeology in understanding geographic and social history was learned first hand, when the students rooted through Ms. Akerson's recycling bin, or remains, to see what they could learn about her.
Throughout our geography block we read Brighty of the Grand Canyon and then hiked the original Bright Angel Trail on our camping trip near the canyon. There was much talk of our burro buddy as we hiked the trail, with one child saying, "I wonder if we'll see Brighty's spirit on the trail?" Our camping trip also included sightings of elk, condor and great horned sheep.
Fourth grade has also been steeped in Norse Myths, descriptive writing, the tenses, fractions and zoology. In zoology, students became skillful at closely observing animals' forms and relating them to the animals' special functions. One day we had Hammy the Hamster and Ruby, a Maltese, in the classroom; the students were delighted with our guests and eagerly became focused naturalists. The fourth grade will be visiting the Phoenix Zoo the last week in February, where we will receive a tour and a workshop that discuss Arizona habitats and animal adaptation in the desert.
Thank you, Desert Star Community, for supporting and contributing towards these fourth grade experiences!
Submitted by Sarah Akerson, 4th grade teacher.  
Left: "Odin"
Right: "Thor"
Teachings of the Norse gods.
Chalk drawings on 4th grade classroom chalkboard by Sarah Akerson.
|
Fundraising -
5 Easy Ways to Support Our School
1. We get credit for every single search
and every time you purchase something online! It really works!
GoodSearch.com and GoodShop donate to the organization of your choice
(hopefully Desert Star!) when you perform a search and again when you
buy online through GoodShop.
2. Next you can REALLY help Desert Star by using GoodShop to make all your online purchases!
Here's how: Make Good Search.com your home page with Desert Star
Community School chosen as who you GoodSearch for, then every time you
need to shop hit the Shop Now link on the GoodSearch page, in GoodShop
search for the store of your choice - there are hundreds! When you
purchase this way, Desert Star can get up to 37% of your purchase
donated to the school! Remember this for any large purchases you need
to make, it can really add up for the school.
3. Be
sure to use Desert Star's Amazon Link, located in the right hand column
of our website on the home page. We get credit from Amazon only if your
purchase through Desert Star's Amazon links, yet not from Amazon
directly. Please do all your Amazon shopping through our link.
4. You
can also order from our Waldorf book list right from our site! Go to
our website under Parent Resources and then to Recommended Books.
5. And
be
sure you, and all your Arizona friends and relatives direct a portion
of your state income tax (up to $200 per individual/$400 per couple
filing jointly) to Desert
Star. It's easy - just pick up a form in the office or to the Support Us page on our website then go to the State Tax
Credit page.
THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
|
|
|
Thank you in advance for spreading the word about Desert Star Community School.You may forward this newsletter by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. For more information, please call or visit us on the web.
|
|
