Emergency COVID-19 Assistance Fund

Dear Sandpoint Waldorf School Parents,

The Board of Trustees recently met to discuss the potential hardships the COVID-19 pandemic is posing for our employees and families. Considering the possible loss of employment and/or the added expense of childcare with the closing of the school, the Board is offering an expedited Tuition Adjustment Program (TAP) process to all families, nursery through eighth grade. This offer will remain in effect for the duration of distance learning. Additionally, all contracted Extended Day charges will be ended as of March 16, 2020.

Along with the commitment to support our families during this unprecedented situation, the school remains committed to paying our employees and maintaining the campus for as long as we possibly can. Therefore, we ask that parents take these considerations to heart when deciding how much of an adjustment they will need and when they will need it.

The expedited process will include answering a few questions regarding your specific hardship, how much of an adjustment you expect you will need, and when you expect to need it. These questions can be answered by email or phone. The TAP committee will review your submission and attempt to respond within 24 hours of receiving your information. Please see the questions below.

Please trust that the school recognizes and appreciates the ordeal we are all facing at present. The teachers, administration, and Board have been working tirelessly to meet these challenges in creative and sustainable ways. As always, we are grateful for your support and understanding.

On Behalf of the Board,

Ann Neal
Director of Admissions
TAP Coordinator
 
Tuition Adjustment Questions

Please answer these questions in the body of an email (preferred) and send to aneal@sandpointwaldorf.org If email is not an option for you, call Ann Neal at 208.265.2683 (school) or 360.224.1426 (home). Thank you.

1. Please list your name and the names and grades of your children.

2. Are you presently receiving TAP?

3. What is your present tuition payment?

4. Please describe the hardship you are facing.

5. What is the amount of adjustment you feel you would need?

6. Is anything you would like to add?

This week's craft: Pom Poms!

This week’s craft idea is making pom poms. You can make any size of pom poms you like. To make mini pom poms, use a fork from the kitchen. To make different size pom poms, experiment with cardboard and your fingers.

Many, many fun things can be made with pom poms big and small!

String pom poms to make a necklace or garland, mini ice cream cones, imaginary critters or little animals like baby chicks or bunnies. Visit Pinterest and search pom pom crafts for endless ideas and inspiration.

Tips:
1. Make a very tight knot
2. One way to make a tight knot is to have someone else push the string down hard while you tie the knot.
3.  Use a surgical knot to tie the pom pom.  Instead of looping the string once like you normally do to tie a knot, loop it three times before pulling it tight.

Our love is best measured from six feet away

Written by SWS parent, Ammi Midstokke

I was heading to a friend’s house to go for a run — one of the few socially sanctioned outings we can still cling to without guilt. “Okay,” she said, “but I’ll meet you on the porch. We’re not letting anyone inside anymore.”

I am not anyone, I thought. Because I like to believe that I am always the exception to the rule. My feelings were hurt. Was I not in the Circle of Trust?

We were like best friends! I regularly expose my rear end to this human as I squat behind a tree. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t get more intimate than that. Now I was being excluded. I could be a cootie carrier. The rejection and shame were palpable.

The reality of epidemiology is that the rules of “innocent until proven guilty” are simply not applicable. By then, it’s too late. The fact that one owns and operates a human body means they could be carrying, unbeknownst and against best intentions, an infectious disease that we as a globe are combating. We can all be accidental lethal weapons these days, and wouldn’t we just feel awful if we were the demise of Nana?

I catch myself saying selfish things like, “We’re not an at-risk family,” when I try to calm the hysteria. But this is an embarrassment and makes me part of the problem. It’s not an Ammidemic. It’s a pandemic.

Being socially responsible does not make us socialists. Conversely, behaving as if we as individuals are exceptions to the rules, or as though our liberties are being infringed upon, makes us narcissists. As far as I can tell, that doesn’t get us an ICU bed any faster than anyone else.

On my way home, another friend called me, choking back tears. “I am not invited to my niece’s birthday party. I thought I was family.”

The emotional and mental impacts of this experience are unforeseen. We cannot confuse social distancing with rejection. When our families, our dearest friends, our colleagues — seemingly healthy or otherwise — set boundaries around their homes and activities, it’s not because we’re naive petri dishes. It’s not because we are personally seen as a threat or because we didn’t make the cut.

These are measures of love and accountability, doled out in six foot increments.

I hear my friends conditioning their carefully explained protocols with apologies. It’s because my mom’s health is fragile, or, We have a young baby. No personal explanation is necessary. Those of us who can social distance are doing it because it’s how each of us can contribute to the solution rather than exacerbate the problem.

If we are feeling excluded, or as though we’ve been marked with a scarlet letter, let’s reframe our thoughts and support each other in these efforts. They are ultimately born, not of fear, but of the best intentions to keep each other safe. When this all passes, we’ll be invited to Pictionary Night again.

In the mean time, let’s thank each other for setting boundaries, encourage them with understanding, and pick up the phone to remind our friends and family that they are dear to us, even from six feet away.

Gardening with Children

Gardening with Children
Last night on my walk I heard a chorus of scores of voices, the chorus of frogs in a marsh, reminding us that spring is coming!  It was such a reassuring sound, as are the other signs of springs, the trill of the redwing blackbird, the crocuses blooming, and the garlic sprouts pushing their way up through the mulch in the school garden.  In this time of uncertainty and crisis, it is vital that we find tangible ways to bring hope and reassurance to our children--gardening is a wonderful way to bring that message. I will offer gardening tips as a regular feature in the Trellis.

In the third grade classroom, I water daily the trays of seedlings planted by the third graders just before we implemented distance learning.  I wish the children were here to watch the sprouts emerge and  unfurl their  second leaves.  Since the children cannot witness this growth at school, I urge you to have your children plant seeds indoors, while we wait for the earth to warm up enough to plant outside.

Some of you are already gardeners, but here are a few simple directions for those of you who are not:

1. You can create planting trays with supplies you have at home.  Cut  paper milk carton or soup boxes to create plant containers or use paper cups.  Fill with  soil from you yard or potting soil and place on a cookie sheet or other tray that will make for easy transport into a sunny window

2. Plant one to two seeds per container (I plant two seeds if the package of seeds is a year old or more). Do not plant squash or cucumbers or beans yet.  They grow very quickly and need to be put outside within three weeks of germinating, so wait to plant those at the beginning of May or directly outside once we are past the danger of frost.  It is fine to plant  indoors tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, any of the cabbage family, parsley, basil, and flowers now.

3. Do not bury the seeds deeply.  In fact, for tiny seeds, just lay them on top.  Once all the seeds are planted, lay a piece of dark plastic over the top for two – three days to keep the moisture in until the seeds germinate.

4.  Once the first sprouts are pulling themselves out of the soil, remove the plastic and set the tray in a sunny window.  You may need to move the tray from one sunny window to another as the sun shifts from one side of the house to the other during the course of the day.

5. Watering the plants and moving them to follow the sunlight can be a daily task for the children.  If you end up with more than one seed per container, help them to carefully pull out the extra plants.

After spring break, I will have seeds available for the children if you do not have any. Here are some sources for seeds if you want to order biodynamic seed:
https://turtletreeseed.org/  or  https://www.meadowlarkhearth.org/
Let me know what you want any seeds, and I can have some small seed packets with the school packets that you pick up on Monday, April 13. If you or your children  have gardening questions, please contact me via email (jmccallan@sandpointwaldorf.org) or phone at the school, 208-265-2683.