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Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are adjusting smoothly to the time change - with all of you in Arizona and Hawaii happily spared this twice-a-year challenge. Spring and new growth are in the air. The steadily increasing light is lovely, and the birds are very active outside my window right now, singing, calling, carrying twigs and bits of straw to and fro for their nests. Kindergarten circles are moving into springtime songs and verses, with abundant signs of new life all around us - a gift every year, and especially needed and important during this time of great instability, turmoil, and uncertainty.
We at the Alliance are also in growth, building, and rejuvenation mode. Our work continues to expand; it is amazing to reflect that Waldorf in public education has been around for longer than many of our teachers at almost 35 years (Milwaukee Urban Waldorf School) and almost 33 years for Public Waldorf charters (the first was Yuba River, which opened in 1993 and has operated continuously since then). Our Board is engaged in review and planning. Our service mark agreements and sublicenses with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) are firmly in place and our self-study and school development process is established, significant achievements from the past several years. We currently have five schools actively completing their self-studies and four more about to commence the process. We enjoy positive, collegial relationships with AWSNA and with the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), working with them on common concerns and interests and continuing to define our unique strengths and needs.
The first years of the Alliance were very much about establishing and defending the right for Waldorf to exist in public education. Then came a phase of establishing agreements, our Core Principles, and developing support and oversight through our school self-study and peer review processes. As our work continues to grow, we have turned our attention to defining what is needed now. To support this, the Alliance Board met recently for an in-person strategic meeting, part of a broad process that will provide a roadmap for the next phase of Public Waldorf education. Our work is being facilitated by Kristin Walter and Heather Bleasdell; they ensured that our precious time together was focused, fully directed at the task at hand, and productive. Interviews and conversations before our meetings, plus the conference in January, ensured that we had a broad understanding of the impact of our work, the needs of our schools, and our current and potential role in education at this time. We are now working on assignments, including developing a 90-day “activation” list around our strategic areas. We will be exploring several key needs including school support and teacher preparation/professional development with individuals and groups, including with our regularly scheduled leadership zoom meetings (https://www.publicwaldorf.org/zoom-collaboration). We will keep you informed of progress and will share the strategic plan once it has been finalized: if you would like to have input or have questions, please reach out to let us know (president@allianceforpublicwaldorfeducation.org; info@allianceforpublicwaldorfeducation.org).
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