Dear SWS Community,
As the number of cases of COVID-19 begins to increase dramatically and with positive cases in our state, our school has made the difficult decision to move to remote learning, which we are calling Outside the Box. Starting Monday, March 16th, we will close our campus. This decision was not made lightly; it was through a great many conversations among trustees, faculty, administration and our medical advisory task force.
Although our own students are not at high risk coming to school, social distancing is imperative to protect the more vulnerable members of our wider community.
The faculty will be participating in three days of in-service March 16 - 18 to meet, plan and prepare for the work to continue over the coming weeks so that our students can keep up with the year’s curriculum or families can be supported at the early childhood level with structure, rhythm and program. As part of their planning, the faculty will need to know what your family’s technical capabilities are. Please complete the tech survey if you have not done so, so that we can support your family in accessing the information and materials.
We will begin offering our program remotely on Thursday, March 19th for all ages, and expect all students to participate fully. To mitigate the numbers of people in our school, we will be open Monday and Tuesday 12-3 for you to pick up student materials and belongings. Curriculum content will be available on Thursday, and if you need to make a single trip, you can pick up your child’s belongings as well as curriculum at that time. Parent-teacher conferences will take place over the phone at the pre-arranged times this week. Please note that this is an evolving situation and we will update you as soon as possible if our plan needs to change. Thank you for being flexible as we navigate these rapidly changing circumstances.
Through March 27, we will run the Outside the Box distance learning programs for all students. We will observe Spring Break as planned from March 30 – April 10. We will reassess the situation as time progresses and hope to resume on-site learning as soon as we can.
One of the most stressful aspects of this situation is the unknown. Whether to remain open or closed, how COVID-19 is transmitted, how to contain the spread, when we will be able to return to life as normal. We cannot give you a date when we will come together again. That is unsettling for us, and we can only imagine how it might feel for our children. Continuing to nurture our sense of community, which is one of the core values of the Sandpoint Waldorf School, will guide us and help us to meet this challenge with courage and grace.
Right now, the entire world is taking a step back – slowing down and reducing activities – for the sake of those who would be most affected by COVID-19. This is a beautiful act of selflessness that we too will embrace. We recognize the hardship this creates for all of us; this comes at a tremendous cost, inconvenience, and financial expense for the world. We are intending to navigate this time with renewed strength and a greater empathy for the beautiful world in which we live.
The verse below from Rudolf Steiner is the verse that the board and the faculty speak at the start of their meetings. May it help all of us navigate this time with courage, empathy, and strength.
We will update the SWS community as we develop plans in the coming days.
Warmly,
SWS Administration
A Verse for Our Time
We must eradicate from the soul
All fear and terror of what comes towards man out of the future.
We must acquire serenity
In all feelings and sensations about the future.
WE must look forward with absolute equanimity
To everything that may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes
IS given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom.
It is part of what we must learn in this age,
Namely, to live out of pure trust,
Without any security in existence.
Trusting in the ever present help
Of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do
If your courage is not to fail us.
And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves
Every morning and every evening.
-Rudolf Steiner