- Head of Realm School - Victor Diaz
- new Head of BPC's Upper School - Bill Webb
- new Development Director - John Ormsby
- News from the Heads of School
- New Hardware & Infrastructure - Randi Lee
- Volunteering at BPC gets refreshed- with fewer tasks and some new service opportunities
- Changes to the Room Parent Role
- Planning for the Picnic
Realm
The air was a bit charged as Victor Diaz, the head of BPC's new neighbor, Realm Charter School, began to address the 25 room parents and admin team gathered in the library, but Victor is very charming and it's rather inspiring what they're trying to do over there- cutting edge educational approaches for a traditionally underserved population. He apologized for not reaching out sooner, and expressed a sincere desire to be a good neighbor. <more about Realm>
We heard from Bill Webb and John Ormsby. We heard about BPC through Bill's fresh eyes and it reminded many of why we chose BPC... he said BPC is known for involved parents and kids who are kind to each other... that this was an attraction for him, and he was already seeing it. John Carlstroem added that the committee of faculty, parents and staff were unanimous in selecting Bill.
We met John Ormsby (formerly Bay Area representative to Barbara Boxer for 10 yrs). He's a competitive cyclist with a 4 yr old, a taste for Mexican Coca-cola, and an easygoing demeanor that belies a keen intellect. He sees his role as raising awareness and resources, human and financial, to benefit the school. He also had this to say about volunteering:
Volunteerism is the heartbeat of many worthwhile endeavors. Reminds me of parenting itself. Your work is absolutely essentially to the functioning and character of BPC. It conserves resources, it fosters community, it sets a proper example, and it makes a difference. And darn it, if done with spirit of "Explore More" it can even be fun. Who doesn't enjoy a good lice check?
So thank you again for investing your time, talents, energy and patience. If you don't consider yourself leaders, you should, because you are. So here's to working together with on behalf of your school, your children and your fellow families. - john
Other Admin highlights
- The new 1st grade assistant is a credentialed teacher in her own right.
- Last year's small kindergarten is now at 18, and the whole school enrollment is at 242, which is "full" and a few more than last year. It's also a boon considering the troubles experienced by many of our peer schools.
- The physical plant improvements, on both sides of the street, were spent to have the campus "better reflect the quality of our school". Check out the bleachers, hardscaping, cabinetry and new fixtures at the upper school and new flooring at the lower school, which were designed and built by BPC parents (Erin Gilett, Scott Bretall, Vit Salvo, Robert Bell, Bruce, Ben, and Camille Carter). Another example of BPC community coming together with a barn-raising spirit!
Back to School Picnic
Sunday Oct 2nd, 12-3pm in Tilden (Padre site)
We did some super efficient event planning... this year's theme is farm-to-table, back-to-the-land, DIY food... we're looking into butter-churning, making ice cream with liquid nitrogen, and more. A Donkey & Goat Winery is bringing the vino. Laura Wolff's husband Steve is bringing suds from Pacific Brewing Company in Oakland. Got an idea of some way you could add to the good times? Reach out.
As part of the school's strategic plan, the Board has allocated funds to address the deferred maintenance in the area of school technology. The school now has a totally upgraded network, to serve a set of new laptops for faculty and chromebooks (netbooks) for student use, which means that the computer lab can now come to the kids instead of vice versa. The faculty are particularly jazzed about new document projectors, which eliminate transparencies (a waste of time and $) and make it instantaneous to project anything on the wall and large: great for kids who respond more to visuals. The money came from an advantageous refinancing of the modest debt BPC incurred when building the library some years ago. Kudos to parent & board member Randi Lee and IT guru Menna Stern for conducting a thoughtful review. There will be more about this in coming months.
Volunteering Changes
Most of our peer schools have made volunteer service mandatory (is that an oxymoron?) at 20+ hours, and offered a financial opt-out, but BPC's Parents Circle is skipping the bureaucratic hassle and maintaining BPC's tradition of modest but meaningful parent participation. A team of parents met over the summer and managed to reduce what's expected of every family. The new sign up list also highlights some tasks that require a greater commitment of time, or not so much time but more responsibility. Sign Up Today!
Room Parenting
In previous years, it was one of the main responsibilities of a room parent to send reminders to volunteer prior to each event involving parent volunteers. That's a thankless task we are happy to change. After a limited experiment last year, room parents are now each taking on ONE event as the volunteer coordinator. That means that you will be receiving volunteering reminders from a variety of parents you may not know. Room parents also took on coordinator roles related to the Back-to-School Picnic, which will have a Farm-to-Table, Slow Food, DIY theme. Got an idea to make it awesome? Reach out.
If you're new to the school & wondering what's involved in being a room parent, here's a thumbnail sketch
Aside from the reminders and helping run the Back-to-School Picnic (Oct 2), room parents also coordinate teacher appreciation also act as information clearinghouses for their classes- receiving more information about what's going on, through monthly meetings and messages from the Chairs, and then passing on some distilled version to their classes. One of the purposes of this blog is to relieve the burden of trying to summarize everything that is communicated in those meetings. But it's no substitute for the monthly meetings, where room parents & other interested parents get a better sense of the administration, get the inside scoop on what's happening in the school on an institutional level, and get the chance to voice their opinions about matters of import. Room parenting is a role that counts for most of a family's volunteering, too.
