2022-2023

Academic Calendar

The Board and faculty have approved the key dates for the 2022-2023 Academic Calendar. Those key dates are listed below. The fuller calendar with additional event dates will be made available later in May. Please take a close look at these dates as some breaks have shifted.

Spring Break Scheduling

Each year there is much discussion at our school about where to put Spring Break. We have families who work at UC Davis and/or have children attending DJUSD schools, and we have families who have students at the Sacramento Waldorf School, which have different break schedules. For the 2021-2022 school year, we decided to align with the DJUSD and UC Davis calendar. After experiencing this alignment, the DWS administration and faculty have determined this schedule does not work for our school.

Waldorf teachers in our region reserve the week of President’s Day to attend regional conferences. These conferences serve as a time for teachers who are completing their Waldorf certification to attend required training and a time for experienced teachers to renew or gain a deeper understanding of the pedagogy or child developmental stages. If we align our Spring Break with the UC Davis/DJUSD spring break, the time between this February Teachers' Conference week and Spring Break is reduced to only three weeks. This year we found the short three week time frame was disruptive to the rhythms of our blocks, teachers, and students. This initiated a productive conversation about what works for our school. The DWS administration and faculty decided that having a consistent, rhythmical Spring Break was beneficial as it supports appropriately spaced block planning and instruction.

We have decided to bring consistency to our Spring Break by always having 8 weeks from when we return from Spring Break to the end of the year. We hope this will provide consistency for teachers, staff, and students as well as allow folks to plan well in advance. 

Winter Break Scheduling

For the 2022-2023 school year, New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday. As such, Monday January 2 will be a federal holiday to observe the new year.

In order to best accommodate this date and maintain our typical number of instruction days, the last day of school before Winter Break will be Wednesday, December 21, and the first day back will be Wednesday, January 4. Please take a close look at these dates as this is a shift from our past Winter Breaks.

Volunteering

Many hands make light work is the mantra of Waldorf schools all over! We are so thankful to all our parent volunteers who pitch in to make our school a special and beautiful place to be. 

We ask each family to volunteer 30 hours a year. While we do not track each family’s volunteer hours, we do hope each family takes on this responsibility. Below are a couple of volunteer opportunities that we wanted to highlight. 

Gardening & Irrigation

With spring blossoms come spring weeds! Help us work on weeding a couple of spaces on campus. We would love your help on April 23rd from 9 AM - 12 PM on the designated campus clean up date - or if you’re early at pick up or have some extra time after drop off to pull a few weeds. Areas that especially need care are:

• Outside of the campus fence along North Davis Farms Rd
• Outside of the office by the ramp,
• Along the wall in the front circle
• The back of the office
• By the whisper bench.

Thank you everyone for your help! We would also like to specially thank Greg Neuburger and Jim Hickey for helping with our irrigation system! 

Front of School Landscape

Design Committee

Thank you to everyone who donated to this year’s Fund-A-Need to help beautify the front of our school. If you are interested in joining the committee organizing this project, please email Jennifer Slater at [email protected].

Watch the video about our Fund-A-Need below. We are still under our $25,000 goal, which, once reached, will support us in adding more lighting and security measures.

Click HERE to donate! 

Graphic Design & School Flyers

Do you have a knack for design? Are you interested in donating computer time? DWS is developing some brochures and flyers and would love a parent helper to support this task.

Please email Eden Tomich at [email protected] if you’re interested in sharing your design skills.

May Faire 2022

Saturday May 7, 9 AM

Throughout human history, the burgeoning abundance of spring has been celebrated in many ways. Our May Faire is a festive celebration of Spring filled with flowers, community, and music. May Faire is held on the first Saturday in May and features festive music, arts and crafts, games and activities, food, a puppet show, a petting zoo and vendors offering unique items. Kindergarten students search for and find the members of the Royal Court (DWS alumni), and all students participate in the May Faire processional to their throne. The 8th grade students, clothed in all white, perform traditional May Pole dances with colorful ribbons. They are accompanied by live, traditional music performed by the 7th grade students and other musicians. Attended by as many as 500 community members, it is a beautiful way to welcome in Spring. This year's May Faire celebration will begin at 9 AM on Saturday May 7, 2022. We need the whole community to help to make this event a success. Please visit the event's sign up genius to view tasks we need help with. 

We are looking for 2-3 parents to lead Archery at the May Faire. Training will occur ahead of time. Please email Jennifer at [email protected] if you’re able to help with this. 



SPRING SESSION:

May 21 & 28;

June 4, 18 & 25

SUMMER SESSION

July 23 & 30;

August 6, 13 & 27

16-23 Months Old

Sat.10:30 - 11:45 am

$185

UPDATE: Summergarden 2022

Our summer camp offerings for students in rising 2nd through 6th grade are in the final planning stages. More information about fees and registration will be shared next week after we finalize the program information.

Want to be a junior counselor?

For 7th grade+ DWS students and alumni, we would like to extend the opportunity to act as a volunteer junior counselor for the summer. If your child is interested in signing on for a week of work experience in a fun and familiar environment, please contact Eden Tomich in the office at: [email protected].

April might be the busiest month of the whole year at DWS!

Students, staff, and parents have all been busy bringing the Auction, May Faire, play performances, and final projects come to life. We've been as busy as the bees currently buzzing around the many beautiful blooms on campus.

Elmwood Street Mural: Painting Help Wanted

April 29 - May 1

DWS community members are invited to participate in the Elmwood Street Mural event celebrating art, nature, and community with the creation of a colorful street mural. The Elmwood neighborhood worked together to create a beautiful tree design for the street, and they need your help to bring it to life. The painting is going to be just outside Anya’s house (DWS 8th grade)! Come join in the fun! Visit the sign up page below to see what slots still need to be filled:

Refer a Family &

Earn Tuition Credit

Share the magic of DWS with friends and earn tuition credits for YOUR family! Available only to currently enrolled DWS families, this program allows you to earn tuition credit by referring families to our school. If you refer a new family to the school and their children enroll in our grades program (1st-8th grade), you will receive a $500 tuition credit! For each and every new child who enrolls in our Grades program from a family you referred, you will receive a $500 credit. In order to receive this credit, please read and submit this application: Tuition Credit Referral Application

Only enrollments processed after April 20, 2022 are eligible for the program. Your family's name must be mentioned as the referring family on the enrolled student's application.