Alliance e-News

Dear Colleagues,

September brings a change in the light, cooler temperatures, hints of autumn colors, and a deeply familiar settling back into the rhythm of a new school year. At least, that is the traditional picture of this time of year; although seasonal changes have been disrupted and are unpredictable for many of us, our schools remain an essential anchor for our students, their families, and our communities. Internal and external traffic patterns have moved from summer to fall, with a shift in demand for our energy and attention. For many of our students, a return to school is a welcome relief (even for the older ones who might not say that out loud). For some, it is a life-saver as schools provide a haven of trust, safety, meals, and acknowledgement of worth. Thank you for all you do to provide safe harbors for children.

In nature, September in the Northern Hemisphere is a time of contraction: the days grow shorter, the temperatures drop, birds and animals migrate, and plants begin to die back. Unlike the marvels of nature all around us, our Alliance has entered a season of expansion! Our Board has been engaged in strategic work - first developing a plan (the easier part of the task), now enacting its various parts. As we engaged in a facilitated planning process, we confronted the reality of needs and resources. We recognized that we had reached the outer edges of our current model, with an association of 59 schools now spread across 15 states, new initiatives forming, our commitment to a self-study and peer review process to ensure the continuous growth and development of our schools, and advocacy at the national and international level for education based on our seven Core Principles.

We have completed a cycle: we are no longer in a "right to exist” stage of pioneering, legal arguments, and clarifying terms of use. Twelve of our schools have fully completed our self-study and peer review process and have been granted a sub-license for use of the term “Public Waldorf” as evidence of this. Four have completed their self-study and will have a peer visit in the next few weeks. Three are close to completion; several others have launched the process this year. Every school that has completed this process has found it to be strengthening and positive.

We are slowly building our online resources (but more are needed). Our summer online professional development provides support for many teachers and school leaders. Our new, one-day symposium attracted an enthusiastic, engaged audience. We are currently planning for our January conference, a major opportunity for our schools to meet, learn, gain resources, and see themselves as associates in a movement that stretches across the country. We continue to provide direct support to schools through work with faculty members, boards, leadership and parent talks. Working with the intention that Waldorf education should positively impact education in general, we are presenting at conferences and publishing articles about our work.

And yet, we see that so much more is needed but beyond the reach of our current team of one full time employee, a part time assistant, some contracted hours, and a dedicated, volunteer Board of Directors. Given this, and the legacy of hard work and commitment that got us to today, the Board decided to “go big” with another full time position to more fully support our important membership work and services to schools.

It is noteworthy that we all made this expansion possible. For many years, the Alliance was an almost entirely volunteer organization. Board members gave their expertise and time freely to build and protect this work as it grew. They practiced fiscal responsibility, saving as much as possible, primarily from school membership dues and a few generous gifts. This enabled us to add the position of Executive Director in 2022; with the continued support of our Board and our member schools, we have built considerably over the past four years.

Some of our founders are no longer alive; others serve as elders, providing advice as needed; a few are still actively engaged. We run the Alliance as leanly as possible. Our current reserves will allow us to establish our much-needed new position and, in doing so, ensure succession and secure the future of the Alliance, but those reserves are finite. We anticipate that we will be able to develop more revenue-generating activities (there is no shortage of ideas for these!). We will also be taking our message to wider circles to seek funding from like-minded individuals and groups.

As a remarkable sign that we are on the right track, as I was working on this message, I received an email from a good friend of our work with news of a very generous gift. A validation and encouragement to continue to move forward with energy and purpose - for, as Ralph Waldo Emerson noted, nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

We will keep you updated as our plans move forward, but I think I can safely say that you will be seeing more of us this year. The needs of childhood, public education, the earth, and society have perhaps never been greater or more urgent. I am grateful every day to be working alongside all of you.

As a closing note, we have lost several powerful, important voices over the past couple of weeks. Here is one small gem from Wendell Berry:

And we pray, not

for new earth or heaven, but to be

quiet in heart, and in eye,

clear. What we need is here.

Thank you for being here.

Warm wishes for this next stage of our collective journey,

Liz Beaven

Executive Director

Doorways: Openings and Closings

Welcome to our newest member school, Orchard Academy, in Riverside, CA! The school opened its doors (on a temporary site, like so many schools before it!) to TK-8th grade students. It is also offering a homeschool learning lab program for K-8th grade.

Orchard Academy is part of an umbrella organization, Springs Charter Schools. They have over 20 campuses stretching across 8 Southern California counties. Their schools provide a range of pedagogical approaches: Orchard Academy is their first Waldorf-inspired school and a new model for the Alliance. A warm welcome to everyone at Orchard Academy!

We sadly announce two closures:

George Washington Carver High School of Arts and Sciences The Sacramento City Unified School District made this difficult decision in early summer due to budget concerns and declining enrollment. Carver positively impacted the lives of many young people with a curriculum that included the arts, drama, a garden, festivals, rites of passage, and community integration along with college and career readiness. We thank the faculty, staff, leadership, parents, and students who gave so much to this endeavour, and acknowledge and express great gratitude for the pioneering work of Dr. Allegra Alessandri, who worked tirelessly with others to found the school and led it for its first 14 years, establishing the school within considerable constraints. Thank you to everyone who served this school and its students!

The Community School for a Creative Education, Oakland, CA has also been closed after 15 years of operation (incorporated in 2008). The school's Board decided on closure, and its authorizer accepted this decision, after an extended period of prevailing declining enrollment and ongoing budget challenges facing many area schools, plus, at the Community School, several changes in leadership. The Community School had an incredible vision, bringing the gifts of Waldorf education into a highly diverse, significantly underserved community with many immigrant families. It worked in close partnership with community organizations, elected officials, and surrounding faith communities, and provided social services, including a food pantry, to families and its wider community. The school was an active partner in teacher education and a launch point for Emergency Pedagogy Without Borders. It worked with Emergency Pedagogy Bernd Ruf to lead an intervention in 2018 to support those affected by devastating wildfires. Community School won recognition locally, statewide and globally, including having a table at the Waldorf 100 festival in Berlin in 2019.

Several of its services are being maintained despite the school's closure. The school emphasized inclusion and rich diversity with multiple languages and cultures represented throughout the school. We recognize with heartfelt gratitude the work and vision of the school's founding director, Dr. Ida Oberman.

We hope to learn from the stories of both of these schools; each has important lessons to teach (and would be a wonderful subject for a doctoral study).

Zoom Collaborations for Busy School Leaders!

We will resume our regular Zoom sessions for people in leadership positions in our schools. Our first session for this school year will be on Tuesday, September 15 at 7 am HT (sorry!), 9 am AKT/10 am PT/11 am MT/12 noon CT/1 pm ET. Note that this is a new time: we hope this will make these meetings possible for more schools.

We will meet on the first and third Tuesday of each month. We plan to have one general-interest meeting each month, an open forum for connections and topics as they come up (beginning the first Tuesday of the month in October). The second meeting each month will be focused on a particular area: planned topics include geographic constellations (Hawaii and Alaska, California, the Mountain states, the Central states, and the East Coast). Everyone will be invited, but we thought it would be helpful to consciously make space for the strengths and issues of different parts of our network of schools.

Plus, in response to feedback from schools, we will build in some breakout/conversation groups based on the stage of development of schools. We will send out reminders with topics. If you would like to receive a calendar invite for these sessions, please contact Carly Fedor.