The Meaning & Celebration of Michaelmas 

at Cedar Springs:

Friday, September 27, 11:00 am - 1:15 pm

As the land around us begins its inward turning, evidenced by the changing foliage, shorter days, and cooler mornings, we too begin a journey inward to reconnect with those inner forces of light and strength that propel us onward during this time of outer darkness and recapitulation. Far from a time of "sleeping," these shorter, darker months offer us an opportunity to go ever deeper into our own soul life and more fully ignite our inner light and shine it outward into the world.

Here, at Cedar Springs, we bring that inner journey to life through our annual Michaelmas festival, which offers to the children and families of our community an imaginative picture of harnessing the powers that each of us holds within to overcome our own fears and bring forth the gifts of that inner resolution to the greater world. 

The Michaelmas Festival and Play, written by CSWS Founding Kindergarten Teacher, Nancy Jewel Poer, commemorate the mythological, heavenly battle between the Archangel Michael and the powers of egoism/materialism, represented by the Dragon. With the guidance and support of both elemental and cosmic forces, the characters in the play are able to embrace the challenge to face and subdue the dragon that threatens to consume them. In our own lives, we can draw on the spirit of Michael to guide and inspire us to find courage within ourselves to meet the darkness.

Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf education, offered us the following verse to recite and inspire us during this powerful time of the year. It also serves to remind us of the spiritual forces that are available to us during this time of seasonal and inner transition:

Victorious Spirit!

Flame through the impotence

Of irresolute souls

Burn out the egoism

Ignite the compassion

That selflessness,

The life stream of humankind,

Wells up as the source of spirit rebirth.

In the spirit of these words, the faculty and staff of CSWS invite you and your extended family to join us on Friday, Sept. 27 for our annual Michaelmas festival as well as the school's 24th birthday celebration. Festivities begin at 11 a.m., with the Second and Sixth grades presenting the Michaelmas play. Our "Feats of Courage" children's activities will follow in the back meadow, and we will close with a community blessing and a meal.  Family and friends are welcome.  Overflow parking will be available in our basketball court and next door in the Livery field.

We hope you will join us for this special celebration.

Nicole Deutsch, Third Grade Teacher

For the CSWS Faculty

Schedule of the day:

Gather in amphitheater

(Ringing of the bell - gather in circle for lunch blessing)

Our hot lunches are graciously provided by the Upper Grade Classes and are fundraisers for their class. Send your children with their lunch money to school and it will be collected at the lunch serving table.

Mondays Starting Next Monday, 9/23

Class of 2015

Organic baked potatoes, veggie chili, toppings, side of fruit      

Tuesdays Starting Next Tuesday 9/24

Class of 2015

All beef, nitrate free hot dogs with whole wheat bun, side of fruit (veggie hot dogs also available)

Wednesdays Starting This Wednesday, 9/18 

Class of 2016

Taco Mountain: Organic pinto beans, brown rice, cheese, lettuce, and corn chips. Sides include salsa, hot sauce and sour cream

Fridays Started 9/13
Class of 2014

Dear Cedar Springs Community,

As some of you know, this is my daughter Kendall's 8th Grade year and, thus, it will also be my final year as Director of Community Development (DCD) for Cedar Springs.  I love my job, and I am excited about this coming school year.  There is still a lot I want to accomplish before I leave. Since open knowledge of my intentions will help us all in this transition, I am sharing this information early in the school year.

My husband, Jim Curtis, and I discovered Cedar Springs when our children were young (Michael began in 3-Day Kindergarten with Lauren Hickman and Kendall was only a toddler who soon enrolled in Parent-Child).  It is now going on our 14th year as parents at CSWS and my 7th year in the DCD position.  It has been a wonderful, hands-on journey for our whole family.  Choosing Waldorf education for our children proved life changing.  We don't think our children's nature-filled childhoods and love for real learning would have been as rich or enhanced, had we chosen another method.  Our son, Michael, is now flourishing as a Junior at El Dorado High School with a 4.0 GPA and serving as one of the Programming Leads on the county's high school Robotics Team, proving once again that early technology is not necessary for our Waldorf alumni to excel in these areas.  Kendall balances both her academic and athletic interests and is no longer that little toddler who helped me drop off Michael to the Morning Glory classroom.  In fact, both of my children are now taller than I am. 

In reflecting this summer about whether I would continue at CSWS past Kendall's graduation, it seems my family and I have grown alongside with Cedar Springs.  My background in Organization Development and management consulting seemed helpful to our school during this time span that I have been here.  As I look forward to what I feel CSWS needs next in its development, however, I believe deeper Marketing and/or Fundraising expertise will be needed to take our school to the next level of development and growth.  Although how we treat people and communicate in our community, project management, as well as juggling multiple demands will always be a part of good development work, more expansive marketing/outreach and experienced fund development is essential to our future growth.

I encourage anyone who may be interested in the DCD position or any elements of it to contact our Board of Trustees President, Nancy Weiner (530-906-7724 or nancy@mhcenter.com) for more information and to express your potential interest.  Although the Hiring Task Force will not be starting interviews until after the first of the year, Nancy and I both invite you to contact her in the interim.  I would also be happy to answer questions about the job specifically.

I invite all community members to get involved in Development efforts at the school this year. The more hands helping even with small pieces of the larger picture of Development go a long way to improving our school.

All interested community members (past or present) are invited to join us for a Development Kick Off Meeting on:

Friday, October 4

1:45-3:15pm

In the 3rd Grade Classroom

Sincerely,

Lynn Morgan, Ed.D.

Director of Community Development

Parent Guild Steering Committee 2013-2014

Welcome and thank you to this year's Parent Guild Steering Committee.  We had our first meeting last Friday after school and enjoyed meeting one another and planning for our coming school year and September events.

Faculty Representative - Sarah Shaver (2nd Grade Teacher)

Development Representative - Lynn Morgan

Treasurer - Lisa Steinmetz

Secretary - Sarah Mayhew

Class Representatives:

            Morning Glory - Melissa Larsen

            Rose - Luli Velasco/Heather Obadashian

            Lily - Kat Azevedo

            1st - Lisa Mellberg/Melissa Larsen

            2nd - Maurya Drake

            3rd - Eric Nicita/Amy Doyon

            4th - Danielle Bean

            5th - Marcie Trujillo

            6th - Sarah Mayhew

            7th - Jane Andrew

            8th - Kari Benton

Share Your Cloak and Help
to Spread Warmth this Winter

St. Martin, mounted on his shining steed, rode by with flowing cloak and girded sword; the downcast beggar with beseeching eye and hand in hope uplifted, stumbled forth; the rider's glance fell softly on the pain-wracked figure.  Tight the knight brought horse to halt and, taking cloak and sword, he slit in two the costly garment, wrapping lovingly the goose-fleshed shoulders, starved with Autumn's cold.

-Brein Masters

As you have surely noticed, the light of the sun is quickly dwindling and cold days are right around the corner.  In honor of the journey into colder weather, and of Saint Martin's great deed of brotherly love, we in the Second Grade will soon be collecting coats for the Koats 4 Kids drive.  Bins for collection will soon appear in both the upper and lower campus for you to place your donations until October 18. We will have them cleaned and pass them along to those who need a little extra warmth this winter. 

Thank you for your help,

Mrs. Shaver and the 2nd Grade  

Auction Brainstorming Potluck This Friday

Cedar Springs Logowear On Sale Now!

This Month's Scrip Tip: 

Keep track of online shopping with AutoEARN

Do you do a lot of online purchasing?  You probably already know that Amazon and REI contribute to our school through scrip, but there are about 700 more stores on eScrip's online mall that contribute as well.  This may make you wonder, "How is a busy parent to keep track of which store contributes to scrip, and which doesn't?"  Well, the kind people at eScrip have made that easy. They have a handy little web app that you can download called AutoEARN. Once you have AutoEARN installed on your computer, the eScrip symbol will automatically appear on the left corner of the screen whenever you are on a contributor's website.  With a simple click of that button, you can activate your eScrip account on that site to earn CSWS money through your purchases. 

So how does one download this app? Just follow these steps:

1.  Register for eScrip, if you have not already done so. 

Click Here to Register Now

2.  Click Here to Download AutoEarn. After checking the box where you swear that you have indeed read the EULA (End User's License Agreement), you can initiate the download by clicking the very obvious Download AutoEarn button.

That should do it.  Once the app is downloaded, the eScrip button should appear whenever you are at a registered contributor's website; but, you'll need to watch for it on the left corner of the screen when you're shopping.

Please click on the button when you see it; there will be no contributions made to the school unless you click on the button, and we all want our shopping money to stretch as far as we can.

Hopefully this helps with keeping track of online shopping contributions. If you have any problems with this process, or are in need of any new scrip cards for any of our programs, please contact me. I'll try to get back to you quickly.

Thanks,

Sabina Keller,

Scrip Coordinator

sabinakeller@att.net

530-748-6097

Super Sitters Babysitting Class

Saturday, October 26th in Placerville

Presented by Marshall Medical Center

Designed for young people 11-14 who desire to become competent, responsible babysitters.

Pre-registration required. Click here for flyer. Call Community Health Education at Marshall Medical for more information. 530-626-2990.