Welcome to spring at Rainbow Community School! It’s a time of joyful activity, like overnight field trips and lots of celebrations and feasts. For teachers this can be a bitter sweet time. Last night, one teacher reflected that by this time of year her class is so cohesive and productive, and she has gotten to know them so well, that she gets sad to think the year will be ending soon. It’s a time to capture as much learning as possible, while the children are in top-notch learning mode.

What I learned about emotions
Our most recent celebration, Annual Domain Day, took place on St. Patrick’s Day this year. Students chose one domain to explore and then spent the whole day playing games, working through challenges, and diving into discussions that brought out the essence of that particular domain. One very unique aspect about Domain Day is how students spend their day learning, problem-solving, and creating in multi-age groups. Separated from many of their usual cohorts, students open up to connecting with children of different grades, forging friendships while doing Qigong, making up skits, and tracing pinecones. By the end of the day children have a sense of their position along the Rainbow path. The change in routine acts as a change in perspective, and many children are more willing to try new things and to stretch their limits than usual.

What does it mean to be an organization that promotes social justice?
I encourage you to click here to view my interpretation of the board’s Ends Policy, which reads, “To promote social justice.” As a parent do you agree that the ambitious ends and ongoing goals listed in this document are worthwhile endeavors? For example, how do you feel about integrating social justice into our curriculum and culture so deeply that age-appropriate conversations about class privilege and racial injustice become comfortable? I am also curious if you think it is possible for an organization to remain politically neutral, while simultaneously promoting social justice? Personally, I think the answer to this question is to focus on positions, not people. For example, if we were to discuss an anti-immigration law in the context of social justice, we would focus on the law itself, and not on the politicians making the law. We actually already teach this technique to our students as part of a conflict mediation process and it works to help choose accountability over blame. How do you navigate questions of politics and justice with your children?

Speaking of immigration…
Like virtually every school community and organization in the country, we have people who are undocumented immigrant parents who have a child, or children, who were born as legal US citizens. 66% of all undocumented immigrants have lived in the United States for over 10 years, becoming embedded parts of the fabric of our communities. These parents are terrified that they will be arrested and that their child will be taken by DSS to be turned over to foster care while at school. Can you imagine having such a fear while dropping off your child at school every day? In April CIMA (Compañeros Inmigrantes de las Montañas en Acción) will be holding a training for local teachers to understand how they can provide sanctuary for their immigrant students and support their families in times of immense uncertainty. Some of our Rainbow teachers will be in attendance, so they can learn to protect our students and families. I hope this information is helpful. By supporting those who are most vulnerable, we become stronger as a united community.

Thank You for showing up to support those in need!
I am so excited to share that the first year of the Voluntary Equitable Tuition (VET) program got off to a great start! So far, 48 people(families?) signed up to participate, raising more than $17,000 that will go towards financial aid, helping to make Rainbow a more equitable and inclusive organization. That is a great start. Those of you who participated not only gave other families the opportunity to experience a great education, but you also made those of us who work here feel so incredibly grateful to be a part of such a wonderful community. THANK YOU!

Meet the neighbors
As you know, Rainbow purchased the house and ½ acre at 29 Allen St with plans to rent it out until needed for school use. I am pleased to announce that a Rainbow family is now our tenant. Scott and Becca Hardin-Nieri, and their children Olivia (7th grade) and Nicholas (4th grade) moved in on March 1. Welcome! If your child forgets something on the playground, now you know who to call. (Just kidding.) But that’s not it. 29 Allen Street has another “renter” too. Sunil Patel of Patchwork Urban Farms (PUF) will be organically farming the land on that property. PUF is a brilliant project aimed at creating sustainable local food sources. Sunil’s “farm” is made up of a patchwork of lots located all around town which he farms with the various land owners’ permission. Having PUF at Rainbow will be educational for the children and good for our community. In addition, it will save us on the fossil fuels and noise pollution mowing that lot would have required in the first place! PUF is another example of how great ideas (and a lot of love and hard work) really can save the Earth.

I am becoming a four-legged, and also more hip
During spring break, I am having arthroscopy surgery on my left hip. It is not a hip replacement. However, it can actually be a more difficult recovery than a hip replacement. I will not be able to return to work until about April 11, and I will still be on crutches by the end of April. I apologize for any inconvenience that may occur due to my absence and limited mobility. Our campus is very challenging for those with mobility issues, so this will be a good opportunity for me to experience that first-hand. It’s always good to develop empathy for one another! Good thing I learned so much from those children on Domain Day and now understand my emotions better than I used to!

The theme for spring: everything changes! I hope your spring provides plenty of exploration for you and your children, including plenty of time in the glorious outdoors to experience the physical changes all around. When you have a minute, I invite you to save a special moment to talk about internal changes with your families too. We all grow. We all change. But our children do so at an alarming and magnificent rate with a magic and exuberance all their own.