School News and Updates

We hosted Goldy Day, our annual all-school picnic, for new and returning families on August 28. It was fun for all ages, with food, music, and a range of activities including Olympic games, face painting, limbo, a cake walk, a balloon artist, and a hula hoop contest. It was wonderful to see everyone back on campus and celebrating together!

We hosted our 69th annual Community Book Show on October 12-14. Students were thrilled to visit with their loved ones as they stocked up on books from our partner bookstore, The Novel Neighbor. They also enjoyed meeting authors Sharon M. Draper and Peter H. Reynolds via Zoom. Thanks to the generosity of our families and special friends, nearly 400 books will be distributed to the Discovery Center and classroom libraries for our children to enjoy. We also raised $2,500 for The Noble Neighbor, which will sponsor an author visit to an underserved school in the St. Louis area.

Community School’s curriculum weaves service learning and leadership opportunities together and provides students with a strong foundation in character development. Different grade levels partner with one or more nonprofit organizations each year for a service learning project that relates to their areas of study. Over the course of the project, teachers emphasize good citizenship, an understanding of needs in the St. Louis area, and the giving of one’s time and energy, not just monetary donations. Beginning in Senior Kindergarten, students can help lead service learning projects by joining Community’s Service Learning Student Council (SLSC). Jessica Hendricks, a Second Grade teacher, facilitates the council, and each grade has up to three representatives who serve for two years. Representatives meet to discuss what is happening in each class, and they organize bigger initiatives. “Students have the opportunity to investigate issues, plan ways they can help and develop important problem-solving skills,” Hendricks shared. Last year, Nursery students collected towels and newspapers for the Animal Protective Association, and older students created projects to benefit organizations like SouthSide Early Childhood Center, St. Louis Area Foodbank, and The Little Bit Foundation. Additionally, 2020-2021 SLSC representatives assisted the Parent Diversity Group with Community’s virtual MLK Day of Service and decided on “Community Gardens” as an all-school project. Representatives polled peers about what they’d like to grow in our school gardens, and after spring break, each homeroom met with Second Grade teacher Jered Gruszka for a mini lesson on gardening as he began the planting process. Jered taught students about soil preparation and the plants we are growing, and many students helped with maintaining the gardens. We have sixteen SLSC representatives this year, and they've selected climate change as a theme. Students will meet with guest speakers and read appropriate articles to learn more about climate change and its impacts, as well as work being done to mitigate these impacts in the St. Louis region. After completing their factfinding mission, they'll think about how to translate needs into actions that we can take as a school.