Kaleidoscope – September 2014

by Webmaster | Sep 21, 2014 | CEO's Kaleidoscope, Director's Blog, Home Page News

Here we are – together – at Rainbow Community School, 2014.

I would love to hear about your experience and impressions so far this year. What has intrigued your child? What have you learned? What has the staff learned? I think the most important thing I have learned (again) is to simply be myself. After all, who else would I be?

We open the 2014-15 school year with many landmarks.

Campus is twice as big as it was this time last year, and our enrollment has ballooned. There are 195 students enrolled at Rainbow Community School. That’s 50% growth since two years ago! 46 students are in preschool; and 149 are enrolled in K-8. There are 164 families, and over 60 of you are new. We met our goal to have every class full, with 16-20 students and two home-room teachers.

Life-long learning, as demonstrated by one of our founders.

Rainbow’s first Executive Director, Aostre Johnson, called me just before school started. She teaches education at St. Michaels in Vermont, and though she is well into her 60’s she just completed a Fulbright trip to Ireland last year to research contemplative/mindfulness education. She sent us a copy of her latest book, Education from the Heart. It is in the office.

We are IN!

Just in the nick of time, we finally received our temporary Certificate of Occupancy for the new Omega classroom and the auditorium.

Our hard-working contractor, Christopher Fox, probably spent 40 hours in the last few weeks meeting with people at the city offices and dealing with inspectors in order to make that happen. Max has been incredibly patient and diligent.

They definitely have a few stories to tell about the whole experience. (One of many examples: How fair is it for an inspector to say you don’t need a Van Accessible sign, and then a week later at the final inspection the same inspector tells you he won’t pass you because you don’t have a Van Accessible sign?!)

Anyway, we won’t have access to the bottom floor of the main building until the next round of construction (as planned), but the auditorium is now open. Yay! Thanks again to Jeff Dalton of RowHouse Architects. You are brilliant. Thanks to EVERYONE who made the campus expansion possible through donations, guidance, and positivity. You know who you are!!

There is an official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on September 10, from 4:30 – 6:00 pm that the Chamber of Commerce and the West Asheville Business Association are hosting. Wicked Weed is sponsoring and serving beer, so this is an event to leave your children in after school care. Businesses from all around Asheville are attending.

Much Gratitude
You are one dedicated, loyal, and enthusiastic group of parents! Despite being less than half the size of the other schools who won awards, you voted Rainbow Community School as the BEST SCHOOL in WNC. We tied for first place.

You also gave preschool a first place award for Best Preschool, and voted Sue Ford as the best music teacher.

Rainbow’s Art Program won second place! You showed up to vote, and it made a difference. THANK YOU! (As a tangential note: I hope you also show up for this November’s North Carolina’s elections, because you folks know how to make things happen. If you are new to town, be sure to register early and HAVE YOUR ID.)

Another Rainbow Alumnus Makes a Difference

Last night, at a Chamber of Commerce event I met Rick Fornoff, whose kids went to Rainbow Mountain Children’s School in the 1980’s. I always want to know what interesting things our alumni are doing, so I was astounded when he told me that his daughter, Erin, is an award-winning spoken word poet who works for a non-profit organization called Ashoka, and her job is to find social entrepreneurs around the world. (A social entrepreneur is a term for someone who uses entrepreneurial skills to help others.)

What an amazing coincidence! I explained to him that Rainbow just became an Ashoka Changemaker School, and that recognition distinguishes us as a school that teaches kids to become social entrepreneurs – just like his daughter!

Read all about it
We were published in two national/international publications this last month.

Part 1 and Part 2 of the Innovation Generation articles I wrote were published by the Ashoka Changemaker Foundation in August, and they are publishing Parts 3 and 4 next month. This is quite an honor.

Triple Pundit published an article about our cutting edge organizational system, called Dynamic Governance. The article titled, “What Can a School Teach Us About Organizational Agility?” can be accessed here.

Did you know…

…Rainbow’s webpage receives over 4,000 unique hits a month? That means that far more people than our parents or even prospective parents must be accessing our webpage to read the content.

Family to Family

The holistic clinic, Family to Family, which was founded by Rainbow parents, is going to be one of Rainbow’s partners this year. Dr. Susan will be offering an advice column for parents and will be onsite a couple times this year offering classes for parents. Thanks, Family to Family!

Partnering with the Police

We are fortunate to have a good relationship with our local police officers, who keep a special protective eye on our campus. After school started, I called Officer Jones, who is our assigned community resource officer, and let him know school was open and that we were concerned about cars not stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk in front of the school. He said they would spend a few mornings parked there and give out warnings or tickets to help send the message that pedestrian safety in front of our school is essential.

Rise Up to the Summit! Climb the Peak! Be There, or Be Square!

I hope it is an indelible event in your calendar by now: The Parent Summit is September 29 from 5:30 – 8:30. It is a required event, meaning at least one parent from every family is requested to attend. Why it is so important? Why is it so long? At the last summit (three years ago) everyone was asked “What are we called to do?” Almost every answer that came out of that summit has since come to fruition, including expanding our campus. You are an inspiration.

“I believe that education is the fundamental method for social progress and reform.” ~John Dewey.

Education is a powerful tool, so please attend the summit to help guide us in the right direction.

Have you thanked a teacher today?

I bet you have.

Our teachers are blessed to be in a community that understands and appreciates how hard they work and how special they are.

The outpouring of love you have showed your teachers already this year is overwhelming and appreciated. Love is a circle: It comes right back to your child.

Thank you for making it go ‘round.