From the Director

Greeting Madrone Trail families,

I know I’ve told you all before about my grandparents and their cattle farm in the Napa Valley. I would spend the majority of my summer months at this wonderful Northern California ranch, filled with pastures, gardens, and lots of cows! As with all such farms, there were chores aplenty. One dusty summer afternoon, I was helping with the chores. We were organizing supplies stored in the shade of a massive walnut tree. I was probably no more than six years old at the time. As a reward for my labor, at regular intervals I was allowed to drive the tractor up past the garden, turn around in the driveway, and return to the walnut tree, parking between the barn and the chicken coop. Now, an old 1948 Ford 8n tractor does not travel at high speeds, nor does it have anything resembling power steering. As I made the corner around the garden area, I would pass a large 1,000 gallon oak wine barrel that my grandparents procured from one of the local wineries. It was used to catch rainwater for irrigating the garden in times of drought, which was every July - September. My sister and I used to climb up to the top of the barrel and use it as a swimming hole. In order to navigate the corner, I had to swing my rear end out and pull on the steering wheel with all I had, just to get the old beast to turn. Well, this particular day I was feeling quite confident in my driving skills and wasn’t paying attention. I waited too long to turn, and planted the tractor bucket directly into the side of the barrel, releasing all 1,000 gallons of water onto the thankful melons and winter squash at the end of the garden area. I was mortified! I immediately knew I had messed up big time, and felt horrible! My grandpa was a large, broad shouldered man with massive, calloused hands from years of hard farm work. But he was a very gentle giant as they say. As I slowly walked toward the walnut tree where he awaited my arrival, I was almost in tears, wondering how he would respond. He never said a word. He didn’t have to. I learned my lesson. A man came out a couple of days later and repaired the barrel. For the next several years, the contrast between the original wood slats and the repaired ones proved a constant reminder of my error. It was also a reminder of how it is possible to correct behavior without yelling, scolding, or other forms of punishment. 

One of the favorite accusations against a Rudolf Steiner School is that there is no discipline, and one of the greatest difficulties for a new teacher is to establish orderly habits of behavior in their class.

It is natural that in any work where the old conventions are laid aside, the new forms of life take some time to develop. Yet everyone will agree that some kind of law and order is desirable. We cannot approve if children destroy beautiful materials, or if they are cruel to those weaker than themselves. We can hardly allow deliberate disobedience or pass unchallenged rude and disrespectful behavior. Punishment in itself, however rarely improves anyone, and it is well known that the child who is always being punished is bound to be always in mischief. We can condemn misbehavior, but can we inspire the culprit to do better?

In the end we can only attain the kind of conduct we desire by helping the children in our care to unfold harmoniously. This is a long and strenuous task. We must patiently allow the process to unfold, for this is the only, real solution: the culprit has to become a changed being.

My desire this year is to unite the school family with the parent community. I want to invite parents, as much as possible, to share in the school life with your children, so we can continue to strong Waldorf tradition of integrating family values with education. So here’s to a great start to the 2023-2024 school year!

Have a wonderful rest of your summer,

~Kendall Roberts

Director

kendall.roberts@madronetrail.org

From the Office

The office will be sending home registration packets for all returning students the first week of school. If you don't get one by the start of September, let Ms. Sherrie know. (sherrie.gasper@madronetrail.org / 541-842-3657)

Please DO NOT register your student using Medford School District's new online registration system. They are still working out some glitches and at this time cannot accommodate Charter School student registration. It has already caused issues with our class rosters. Thank you.

Lunch Program Update

The kitchen team has been busy developing a new fall breakfast and lunch menu – we are very excited to share with you what we’ve been cooking up later this month and can’t wait to greet the students in the fall. We miss their wonderful smiles and hungry appetites so much!

In the meantime, complete your free lunch applications now! Even if you qualified last school year and your family income has not changed, you will still need to complete an application for the new school year. 

If you currently receive SNAP benefits…

… your student(s) will automatically qualify for free meals and you do not need to complete an application. The State of Oregon provides us with access to the SNAP database – as long as your benefits are currently active, you do not need to take action. Kitchen staff will be emailing families this week to confirm that your information has been located in the database. If you do not receive notification by Monday, August 7th and you receive SNAP, please contact Evan.

If you DO NOT receive SNAP benefits…

… and would like to complete an application, please apply online here or contact Ms. Sherrie to request a paper application (sherrie.gasper@madronetrail.org / 541-842-3657).

IMPORTANT: Your student must have an active EZ app account and either funds on their account or qualify for free meals in order for them to receive breakfast/lunch. We cannot serve students until these steps are complete. Please note that it may take up to 5 business days to process your free lunch application. We highly recommend completing an application now to make sure your student(s) can receive meals starting the first day of school! 

EZ App Balances

EZ App recently launched a new version of their website. In the transition, everyone’s accounts were reset to a $0 balance. If you had a balance remaining from last school year, don’t worry! Kitchen staff are working this week to manually restore your positive credit. If you see a $0 balance but had leftover funds, please check back soon.

EZ App for New Students

If your student is new to Madrone Trail or you did not have an account last year, please reach out to Evan to schedule a brief phone consultation to set up your account. This is where you can view our menu and manage your student’s lunch account – having an account is required for participation in the program.

The kitchen team looks forward to sharing a lot more information with you in next week's Friday Update, including some very exciting news about improvements to the program. Stay tuned!

Contact evan.wilson@madronetrail.org for assistance with any of the above action items. Enjoy the rest of the summer!

Board Update

Greetings Madrone Trail community!

Summer is usually slow for school news, but the board continues to meet and ensure our various initiatives are progressing. We are evaluating the timeline and progress on the playground plans, to ensure we are successful in that area.

One area which we are monitoring is the status of Parent Council. Parent Council plays a very critical role at the school, and if you want to find ways to help the school, you start by going to Parent Council. The board usually sends a representative or two to parent council meetings, and we are sending a couple people to Monday’s meeting to ensure we’re all communicating and that we start the year off right. We look forward to seeing you on Monday at 6pm at Bella Union!

From the Athletic Director

Hi Madrone Trail families.

I am very excited about the sports and clubs we are going to be offering this year. A lot more info about the entire year will come out next Friday. However, we do have our first 2 Fall sports that we need to talk about this week in order to hit the ground running. All SOMSAC sports offered this year will be for 6th-8th graders. Welcome 6th graders to our sports programs!

Girl's Volleyball

We will be partnering with Sacred Heart once again to provide volleyball. Coach Jackie has moved on and is working in Eagle Point. Sacred Heart has found another coach, but is asking us to provide an assistant or a 2nd team head coach if the number of participants warrants a second team. If any parents are interested, please reach out to me ASAP.

Also, we have submitted 1 team to the SOMSAC coordinators. We must know by Friday, August 25th if we will have 2 teams. Please email me ASAP if your child plans on playing volleyball this year.

Cross Country

While there is not the same urgency on knowing our numbers for Cross Country as Volleyball, I would still like to know who is interested by August 30th. Cross country is coed. Practice will begin September 5th. The first meet is tentatively planned for September 14th at Ruch Community School.

For both sports, athletes will need a sports physical completed within the last 2 years, prior to the first practice. We will offer reduced price physicals on Friday morning, September 1st. More info on that to come. Paperwork for both sports will be sent home with interested 6th-8th graders the first week of school.

I look forward to hearing from interested parties. Should be a great year of athletics at Madrone!

Go Dragons,

Jeff Roberson

jeff.roberson@madronetrail.org

School Clothes and Supplies

When purchasing clothes, shoes, backpacks, and lunchboxes this summer in preparation for next school year, please keep in mind our dress code. The dress code is most easily enforced if the clothes that parents purchase align with our guidelines. Students engage in a variety of activities and vigorous play every day and thus their clothing and footwear should allow them comfort and freedom of movement. Students are also outside every day and should be dressed in appropriate outerwear that fits with our changing weather. Games class requires sneakers or the equivalent athletic support shoe and are strongly recommended for everyday use. Class teachers of the younger grades will indicate to parents whether children should bring a second pair of shoes to be worn in the classroom.

Here are the specifics:

• Shorts and skirts must be longer than knuckle length (arms held at sides with a fist) or a 3 inch inseam.
• No bare midriffs (shirts must be long enough keep midriffs covered during regular movement activities.) We are tightening up on this rule again.
• No mesh, see-through, plunging neckline, strapless, or halter top type shirts.
• Clothing, accessories, backpacks, and lunchboxes may not have any sign or promote: graffiti, alcohol/drugs, racism, gang affiliation, tobacco, profanity, sexual connotations, violence, or media images (characters or references from tv shows, movies, or video games.)
• No make-up or hair dye in the primary grades (K-5).
• No bare feet, flip flops, open toed shoes, high heels, or wedge style heels.

If the item of clothing is questionable, please error on the side of saying no to it. We really appreciate your support in this. In keeping with our Waldorf philosophy, we discourage clothing that draws more attention to the child's clothing than to the child. 

Volunteering at School

To be a volunteer in the classroom or to attend field trips, you are required to pass a background check through MSD. These expire after a few years, so if you have not filled it out in awhile, you will need to again. Fill it out today, so you are ready to go for the beginning of the school year.

Wednesday Aftercare Offering

Elements Nature School is offering a Wednesday Aftercare program for Madrone Trail students! They are offering transportation to their location, with parent pickup at 4 pm in South Medford. See their website for more information: https://elementsnatureschool.com/outdoor-explorers

Quote of the Day

Handlettered by Ms. Cori

MADRONE TRAIL PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL

www.madronetrail.org

Madrone Trail Public Charter School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or age in its programs and activities.