The Future of Learning
Very Inspiring! Here I am with legendary Harvard professor, David Perkins. He just laid out a beautiful, succinct formula for 21st Century Learning.
A New Era
Asheville’s oldest alternative school enters a time of renewal. We are transitioning our name to Rainbow Community School, but, to avoid confusion and ensure continuity we will continue to also use the name Rainbow Mountain Children’s School for a number of years. Founded as “Rainbow Mountain Children’s School” in 1977, we have a long legacy of serving families who share a vision for “developing accomplished, creative, and confident learners who are prepared to be leaders in developing a more compassionate and environmentally sustainable future.” Affectionately known as simply “Rainbow,” the school has a wide reputation for being an incredibly nurturing and magical place for children ages three through eighth grade. What some didn’t know is that the quality of the academic curriculum at Rainbow has evolved into the rigorous, top-quality program it is today – in our opinion, the most sophisticated curriculum in the southeastern region of the country. Few schools are able to strike such a poised balance between honoring the true nature of children and their natural development, while also consistently challenging them to become advanced scholars; and all the while developing them into moral, mindful humans.
This level of sophistication was the vision of the Rainbow Board when they hired Renee Owen as executive director in 2007. For the majority of the last decade Renee has been cultivating the Rainbow faculty into the brilliant team they are today – almost all with masters degrees, many with degrees or special programming from schools such as Emory, Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Duke, Elon, and NYU. What truly makes this group of individuals special, however, is their character, creativity, and passion – they are well-loved by their students and parents. With this talent, Rainbow has created the unique and high quality program it is today. With our dream team (as Renee calls it) hired and the educational program in place, the Rainbow team has entered the next phase of our renewal: vast campus renovation and expansion that includes the recent purchase of more property, an additional building, and a new, fantastical playground designed by Max Mraz, called the Gnome Village. From Haywood Road, one would never guess how large and beautiful the campus is. However, with the dramatic increase in enrollment, we are embarking on doubling the size of the campus –adding a performance hall, athletic field, and extensive green space for permaculture projects. We have already purchased the adjacent property and buildings at 60 State Street (formerly West Asheville Church of God) — making our campus 5 acres, and now we beginning fundraising and renovating to fill the new space.
So why the name conversion? During strategic planning, some parents pointed out that our name, “Rainbow Mountain Children’s School” sounded like a preschool, and didn’t indicate that we serve children through middle school. Plus, while the name captured the heart of the school, they were concerned that it didn’t properly convey what a highly credible academic institution it is. We considered changing the name completely, but after extensive research and consideration it became clear that “Rainbow” is our identity and legacy. After all, as a holistic school, our philosophy is to educate children in the Seven Domains: Spiritual, Mental, Creative, Emotional, Social, Natural, and Physical – each representing a color of the Rainbow. Plus, after 37 years, as one person said, “Your name is your name!”
While “Rainbow” describes the philosophy and spirit of the school, “Community” captures the culture of the school. Over and over children and parents cite the caring, compassionate relationships as the reason the school is such a wonderful place for children to grow up. It’s the community that makes the magic happen. Plus, the new vision for Rainbow is to integrate more with the larger community of Asheville, specifically West Asheville. Therefore, Rainbow Community School/Rainbow Mountain Children’s School now adopts a local nonprofit each year. Last year we worked with Children First/Communities in Schools. It was deeply gratifying to donate a portion of our fall and winter fundraising events proceeds to them, and all the classes did service projects with them too – everything from preschoolers conducting a mitten drive to the middle school students tutoring for after school programs in public housing programs. With Rainbow’s new facility goals, we envision further serving the community by offering various classes for Asheville families, and a performance hall and office/studio spaces available to local non-profits and artists. The vision is very exciting, and the new name captures the intent and evolution of Rainbow. As one parents said, “I feel like the best of our history is being reborn into a new school, and the new name and brand represent that!”
The team at Rainbow is grateful to Elly Wells Marketing and Mark Wilson for the energetic and visionary work they did in creating our new logo. Just like our school, the new logo does something no other logo we know of can do: It changes. Rainbow Community School embraces innovative design thinking, or a systems approach, in which adaptability is valued. Therefore, our new logo is adaptable. It is made of up tiles that can change color and can move around into different patterns, yet still be recognizable as “Rainbow Community School.” That is how we approach the education of children – each child is a unique individual, making up every color of the Rainbow, and together, we make a community. No matter which name you prefer to call us by — our legal name “Rainbow Mountain Children’s School” or “Rainbow Community School,” we are the same holistic school.
Renee Owen on Panel Discussion at UNCA, hosted by Department of Education
The film Race to Nowhere documents the ramifications of America’s achievement culture. Hosted by UNCA Department of Education, the film will be viewed in the Highsmith Student Center at UNCA at 7pm, this Thursday, April 11, with a panel discussion to follow. Click on the live link above to watch a trailer.
Photo credit: Michael Tracey, Public Domain
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My Hero
There she is: Ina May Gaskin with me at AB Tech, where she spoke last night. Many of us who had our children at home wouldn’t have had the courage to do so without Ina May’s book, Spiritual Midwifery. Spiritual Midwifery introduced me to the concept of the “sacrament of birth.” Life is sacred, therefore, birth is sacred. It doesn’t stop with childbirth. Education is also a sacred practice — a “calling” for those of us who teach. Whether we are dealing with birthing children or educating them, an extremely high level of expertise is required (such as an MA in teaching), but that is only the beginning. Providing a child with a truly rich education goes far beyond training and technique — it requires a respect for the child that we sometimes call “namaste” — a recognition and nurturing of each child’s individual spirit.
April Kaleidoscope: Scopes out the many colorful things happening from the Executive Director’s point of view.
Introducing New Faculty Members!
Great News! Sue Ford has agreed to be our new music teacher, beginning with the 2013-14 school year. She has also begun working with a few Rainbow grades this year — conducting a music residency with preschool, kindergarten, first grade, and 5/6 for Imagine. Sue used to teach music at Rainbow, but left to pursue a full time position as Evergreen’s music teacher for the last seven years. She is well known for the children’s marimba band she leads in Asheville. Sue has decided to retire early from full time teaching, so she was really excited to accept our part-time music position. Sue is wonderful with children, has a vast repertoire, and will be really fun to collaborate with. We are grateful to Joy Black for coordinating the music program for the second half of this year, in-between permanent music teachers. Joy has brought in diverse music styles for the kids and she has brought “joy” into music class. Thank you so much!
By now, you should have received an email introduction to Melissa Scott, Rainbow’s Sixth Grade teacher for next year. This is a new position because 5th and 6th will not be combined. Melissa has an MA in teaching from Brown University and some incredible experience as an environmental educator, literacy coach, and curriculum coordinator. We are excited to welcome another amazing educator onto our prestigious faculty!
Also, please introduce yourself to Jessica Bachar and Mary Yacovelli, who are the interim preschool teachers while Teddy Humpert and Kate Couture have their babies. Jessica and Mary are very accomplished educators at both the preschool and elementary levels. Some of you already know Jessica, who is mother of Jaggar in kindergarten. The faculty held a Blessingway ceremony and gift-giving party for Teddy, Kate and their partners in March. It is beautiful to watch our family grow! The next addition to the Rainbow family will be Jessy Decker’s baby who is due in July. Wow! What is in the water in the preschool?
The Saga of “What shall we call ourselves?” continues…
Okay, I heard some of you loud and clear. On the Rainbow name survey, a few people said, “Enough, Already! Either keep the name, or choose a new one, but get on with it!” We have let this process linger for almost a year now. There have been long periods of time that we have simply let it sit, as it didn’t seem prudent to move too quickly since the decision we make will be very permanent. Nonetheless, our goal was to make a decision by the end of this school year, and it looks like we will meet that goal. Elly Wells Marketing held a listening session in March, where they listened to a group of people comprised of two parents, two board members, two administrators, two teachers, and one alumni parent. They were also given the results of the survey we sent out. Over 70 of you responded – a higher response rate than we have had on any previous survey! Despite the great response and lots of good feedback, which were very helpful, the surveys did not provide any clear direction. In fact, the largest number of respondents were neutral about the name with about an even number liking or not liking it on each side of neutral. The only crystal clear aspect was that if we keep Rainbow and/or Mountain, the word “Children’s” can be eliminated. A few people pointed out that if the point of changing the name is to broaden the appeal of Rainbow Mountain for marketing purposes, then maybe we should consider that admissions is busier than ever before. Good point!
There were a couple of valid concerns expressed in the name survey comments that deserve a response. One was that we should focus our resources on the classroom and not on marketing. Please be assured that is always what we do. In fact, we used to spend less than 1% of our budget on marketing. In the past two years, we increased our marketing spending to 1.6% of the budget. Even though that is still a very small slice, it allowed us the funds to make a beautiful video about the school, improve the website, develop our Facebook page, and increase the quality of our advertising. We are reaping the rewards of our increased investment with the vast increase in admissions, which will quickly trickle down to improving the programming for every child. When enrollment is up, everyone benefits, especially the children. Fortunately, Elly Wells, who is sympathetic to the needs of non-profit organizations, is giving us a great deal on the branding work she is doing.
Another concern was a question about if we were looking at changing the name because of confusion with the LGBQT movement. Personally, I believe the biggest concerns about our name are that it is perceived as a preschool (only), and that the name has some cliché elements to it that perhaps keep people from regarding it has a credible educational institution. In addition to that, a much smaller issue is that Rainbow is a brand that has been used by several businesses and movements, including South Africa’s Rainbow Nation, the Rainbow Gathering, and the Gay and Lesbian movement. While these are all movements that Rainbow Mountain is sympathetic to and/or aligned with, we don’t want people to confuse us as being synonymous. That is what branding is all about – defining yourself as you, not to be confused with others– even others with whom we have a lot in common. Rainbow Mountain will always be an open and affirming community for all types of families, no matter what our name.
Playground Update
Once the roofs for the gnome village are completed and the structure poles cemented in, progress will be quick. I estimate the project will be done shortly after May 1. Then, the beautiful new preschool playground will be built this summer. Landscaping will also begin this summer, which will dramatically improve the aesthetics of the playground. We are still almost $15,000 short of our fundraising goal. We’ve raised 82% of the goal for the playground, so we may have to decide if we need to cut back on the plans. We would all like (especially the children) to build 100% of the fabulous plans, rather than 82% of them. I think there is lots of hope that a few final donations will roll in to make it happen! Any donations turned in before June 30 will be applied to this year’s campaign – there is still a chance to have your family’s name on the gnome village structure along with other donors. It’s going to be really special. Many thanks to the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and students that helped us fund this project through monetary donations, donating materials, and their precious time!
Sheila is very busy!
Last year we had two tours in the month of March. To give you an idea of how different and busy admissions is: Lately, we average close to two tours a day! It is people like you, who believe in holistic education, and have seen the quality of our teachers and the results for your children, who are recommending Rainbow to new families. Many of you will be receiving a $300 discount on your tuition for next year, thanks to a family you referred who is enrolling. We can’t wait for you to meet the many wonderful new families and children who will be here next year. Thanks for all the great referrals!
The Biggest News of All
Taking into the consideration our busy admissions and our need for classroom space, the board is considering the most affordable and appropriate ways to reach our goal of having enough classrooms for each grade to hold 15 -20 kids per class. At the board’s March meeting, they voted to develop a master facilities plan for Rainbow that will include a round Deltec structure, large enough for four new classrooms! Jeff McGahee, an Asheville-based site planner who has done a lot of great work around town (including most recently, the site planning for Wicked Weed Brewery), will be doing a preliminary master facilities plan, based on physical needs and feedback received from parents and other stakeholders during strategic planning last year. This is very exciting and very challenging, as we have a huge number of factors to consider, including working around our many large and beautiful trees, run-off considerations, sustainability, and more. The goal is to have a plan by mid-May. If our enrollment grows sufficiently, and we can conduct a successful capital campaign, we may be able to build as soon as the summer of 2014!!!
Summer Fun:
Three artists (and Rainbow moms) are offering three separate weeks of arts programming (and lots of other activities, with academics integrated in as well). SOAR – Summer Of Art at Rainbow – is definitely going to be a memorable experience for your rising 1st , 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grader.
Also, Elana Kann, another Rainbow mom, is organizing a permaculture program for Omega students, and alumni. This will be taught be permaculture expert, Chuck Marsh, founder of Earthhaven. Chuck is a pretty dynamic guy!
Springtime is busy and creative
The main focus for the staff over that last several weeks was preparing for conferences. Just writing the narratives alone requires 20 – 50 hours that each teacher finds outside of class time to complete – and they work so diligently on making thorough and thoughtful reports.
Therefore, for our February training, we did a mandala-making workshop that was an opportunity for spiritual fellowship with each other, inner guidance as individuals, and enjoyable. Our March training was with Donovan Zimmerman, our main Imagine artist. Along with some hard-working parents, they began designing and assembling some large puppets to be used in our Imagine celebration of the arts. Donovan of Paperhand Puppets out of Chapel Hill (similar to Bread and Puppets), will be working with many of the elementary level classes from April 29 – May 3 as our main Imagine artist-in-residence. (By the way, Donovan will spend that week in Asheville with his wife and 1 year old daughter. We are looking for a Rainbow family who is willing to host the family. Donovan is fun, friendly, and will be a wonderful house guest!) This promises to be the most intriguing, fun, and creative Imagine yet. The big Imagine performance will be on Friday, May 17 in the afternoon. The Imagine committee has yet to narrow down the exact time, but it will be approximately from noon – 4pm. Please mark your calendars, and set that afternoon aside in order to see the performance.
More Spring busy-ness: I won’t list all of the events coming up in detail, as you have Rainbow Reminders for that, but some of the highlights are Grandparents Tea, staff appreciation day, the student talent show (many peoples’ favorite event of the year), May Day, and of course Imagine. There is also an open house on April 10, and you may have friends you want to refer for that event. This is a great opportunity to meet your child’s teacher for next year, ask questions, and find out a little about next year. Of course, friends and neighbors are always welcome to come to any Rainbow events.
Spring is always a time for blossoming!
How creative are you?
“The actual meaning of the word ‘original’ doesn’t mean trying to be different. It means being connected to the origen. You can’t be original by trying to be original. You become original by staying true to what your heart sees.” ~Cynthia Bourgeault.
It has often been noted that Rainbow students are highly creative. Perhaps their ability to stay true to their hearts is due to our contemplative/spiritual practices as much as anything else. As we launch into spring break, I hope your family has time to slow down and connect with the origin, and with one another.
