GrandFriends Circle Back – Fall 2020

NOVEMBER 2020

FRIENDS SCHOOL

CIRCLE BACK SPECIAL GRANDFRIENDS EDITION

A NOTE FROM OUR HEAD OF SCHOOL COMING SOON FOR THE LOVE OF READING WHO WE ARE AT SFFS ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK THIS YEAR’S TESTIMONY: COMMUNITY

A NOTE FROM OUR HEAD OF SCHOOL While our values and connections remain strong, we also see opportunities for growth.

BY MIKE HANAS HEAD OF SCHOOL

Dear GrandFriends, So much has happened since I wrote to you last fall, it’s hard to know where to begin—I think I can safely say, and I’m sure you can relate—that our community has gone through numerous seismic shifts over the course of the past several months.

And yet, so many of the pillars of our community—our shared values, our mission as a Quaker school operating in the Mission District of San Francisco, and our connection with one another— have remained unchanged and, in many respects, have been strengthened in ways I do not think any of us could have imagined in February.

GRANDFRIENDS CIRCLE BACK 2020

From the inspiring TLLC Program (which you can read more about in the following pages of this publication); to the creative ways in which our professional community banded together to keep traditions like our Year-End Celebration and Graduation alive for our students; to the innovations that have kept our community engagement work ongoing (including writing postcards and creating artwork for seniors and baking dozens of loaves of homemade bread for GLIDE Church in downtown San Francisco)—those pillars that make us uniquely Friends continue to stand strong.

And as our shared values and mission remained steady through our implemen

tation of distance learning in the spring and the quieter summer months, we also realized a need—indeed, an opportunity—to evolve our facilities and campus in the age of COVID so that we could welcome back our students and staff safely and thoughtfully.

To this end, we installed more than a dozen outdoor sinks and nearly 100 hand sanitizing stations around our campus, and we re-mapped our hallways and classrooms to accomodate safe and distanced learning throughout the building. We also established a health office and a number of new positions, including a full-time health coordinator and flexible teaching aides. We’ve invested in technology to bridge in-

person and remote learning and have adopted a new app that enables each of our families to complete a health screening each day before bringing their student(s) to campus.

It’s been a long journey to get back to Valencia Street, but to say we are thrilled to once again hear our young Friends’ excited voices spilling out of their classrooms or laughing joyfully on the Front Yard would be an understatement.

It is a gift I don’t think any of us at San Francisco Friends School will ever take for granted again, and we are grateful.

We are also grateful and humbled that, in times like this, our community, including you, our GrandFriends, have continued to support us and cheer us on. Thank you for everything you do for Friends. Though GrandFriends Day will look different this year, we are determined to find a way to make the day special and to celebrate all the ways you contribute to SFFS.

miss you, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

Thinking SFFS,

mike

Please be on the look-out for more information on a virtual GrandFriends celebration later in the year, and in the meantime, stay safe and be well. We

coming soon...

A VIRTUAL GRANDFRIENDS DAY: WINTER / SPRING 2021 More information, including date and program, is on the way!

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FOR THE LOVE OF READING Though it’s been a challenging few months, our school librarians were ready with ideas.

Though the global COVID-19 pandemic has certainly thrown some curveballs our way this year, so many at San Francisco Friends School have met the challenges we’ve faced head-on, doing what they can to preserve the wholeness of our community and maintain our close connections.

One inspiring example of this is the ongoing work of our Lower School Librarian, Suzanne Geller, in partnership with the director of our Middle School Library and Learning Commons, Jason Stone. After a long spring of shelteringin-place and distance learning via our Friends@Home program, Suzanne and Jason were determined to bring some fun and community into the summer days of our families, sending an email in mid-June that began:

GRANDFRIENDS CIRCLE BACK 2020

“This summer we are honoring your children’s love of books by bringing you some TLLC: Take-Out from the Library Learning Commons!”

In order to support their vision of summertime community connection and the magic of reading, Suzanne and

emailed Suzanne and Jason with their “orders.”

And if a student saw something they were interested in, only to realize that it had already been checked out? Suzanne and Jason were ready to put it on hold once it came back into circulation. For

“Suzanne and Jason were determined to bring some fun and community into the summer days of our families...”

Jason set up an online catalog in which students (and parents or guardians, if they were interested) were able to search for books they wanted to read from our San Francisco Friends School Library and Learning Commons. Families then

families with a voracious reader in the house? Suzanne and Jason packed bags of up to 10 books for a single Friends family for curbside pick-up—plenty to get everyone through till the next Friday!

In addition to the TLLC Program, the two industrious Friends librarians also helped to develop an online book swap system for families to trade in one of their old titles for something new from others in the school community.

Both programs proved to be a great success for kids hungry for new books to read during the long summer days, as

well as parents in search of constructive ways to occupy their Friends at home.

Kalani (2nd Grade) noted that the program was a win for both her and her parents: “I love to read everything, and my mom wanted me to be ready for 2nd Grade, so I took out lots of books this summer—I liked it, and she did, too! ”

WHO WE ARE AT SFFS A Closer Look at Our School and Community

WITH HELP FROM THE ADMISSIONS & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENTS As valued members of our community, we would like to share a few fun facts, both about the newest members of our school, as well as the 2019–2020 Annual Fund, which makes what we do at SFFS possible. As tuition only covers 85% of our annual operating costs, the Annual Fund helps make up the difference, and GrandFriends play an important role, contributing generously to the fund every year.

This year in Kindergarten, we have 45 new students, including 19 siblings and three faculty/staff children. Our new families include parents who are environmental lawyers, preschool and public school teachers, doctors, venture capitalists, a young adult novelist, and scientists who work at Genentech. Our Kindergartners came from 24 different preschools and 50% are students of color. We added students in almost every grade this year, including 19 new students to our Middle School, of which three are siblings. A few parents have grown up attending Quaker meetings, and one of our new parents is a graduate of Friends Academy. Two of our new Middle-Schoolers are Friends Community Scholars, bringing the total number of Community Scholars to nine as the program has continued to expand.

We are so excited to welcome our new students to Friends! Thank you to all of you who made an Annual Fund gift last year or have already made one this year. If you’d like to make a gift to SFFS this year, please visit www.sffriendsschool.org/supportfriends. We are so grateful to you for your ongoing support!

THE GENEROSITY OF OUR FRIENDS There were 706 donors to the 2019–2020 Annual Fund

197 of those donors were GrandFriends!

We raised $977,932 for the 2019–2020 Annual Fund Our incredible GrandFriends contributed $74,952 of this total!

As Suzanne and Jason said in their initial kick-off email to the community, in challenging times, through both the good and the bad: “Let’s keep our Friends reading!”

SFFS

BY THE NUMBERS 441 students 223 in Lower School 218 in Middle School 55% students of color 6% of students from LGBTQ families

33 zip codes represented 88 faculty and staff 30% faculty of color 52% of teachers hold advanced degrees

24% of students receive tuition adjustments

82,000 square feet

of indoor space, including STEAM room, black box theater, music and art studios, and more

10,000 square feet of outdoor space

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Three Questions for SFFS Alums Olivia and Kate, Founders of the Olivia & Kate nonprofit, which makes masks to benefit Black Lives Matter and COVID aid organizations.

1) What was the genesis of the idea for your mask-making nonprofit? How did you come up with the idea, and how did it grow into what it is now?

Olivia & Kate started off very simply: just us making masks for our family members in our spare time during shelter-in-place. Olivia was the one who initially started making masks, and she eventually taught Katie how to sew them. At that point we both were just sewing a few masks at a time, and then had the hopes of donating some to a couple of local organizations, such as Family House at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital...

Then on May 25th, George Floyd was killed and a civil rights movement erupted across the country. We realized we needed to shift our focus and add to our mission; we came up with the idea for our Black Lives Matter masks and bought all the supplies/fabric we needed to make as many of them as we could... We are very proud that we are making a difference by keeping people safe through donating/selling masks and contributing money towards impactful organizations. The organizations we have chosen to support include: Family House, Fresh Lifelines for Youth, Campaign Zero, and The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank.

–––––––––– 2) How has founding Olivia & Kate been rewarding and/or challenging?

This project has been very rewarding because we have provided people with GRANDFRIENDS CIRCLE BACK 2020

masks who need them to stay safe...

[And our] donations can help organizations continue their great work.

This project is definitely labor-intensive and educational in a number of ways. We really didn’t expect that this many people would want to buy our masks, and it’s only the two of us making them for right now. However, we have also learned a lot about running a business, designing a website, packaging and delivering the product, and needing to keep the ideas fresh so that we can keep attracting business... We’ve had a lot of demand for our Black Lives Matter masks that we’re trying to keep up with—but it’s a good problem to have, and we’re really pleased that so many people are supporting us.

––––––––––

3) What message would you like to send to people who are wondering what they can do to help, or who want to help but are unsure of where to start?

To start, we think it’s a disappointment that wearing a mask has been politicized, as the numbers of COVID-19 infections rise and the hard science supports protecting others and yourself through wearing a mask. What we really want to say is: Wear a mask!

Regarding helping out with communities in need right now due to COVID-19, we recommend volunteering at a local food bank or donating money/ resources to organizations in your personal community. Bottom line: any step in the right direction is important, and any small act of kindness can make a bigger difference than you might think.

testimony for the new year

COMMUNITY Every year our school community explores queries that lift up a particular testimony to help guide thinking and acting during the year ahead. These queries are created by our Quaker Life Committee, along with help from the faculty and students. Teachers use these as conversation starters with students, the professional community spends time unpacking them during retreats and meetings, and our entire community is invited to engage with them throughout the year. The 2020–21 testimony is Community, accompanied by the following queries: • How am I taking care of myself so I can better help others in my communities?

• How do we nurture and expand the diversity of our communities?

• How am I called to action by my communities—great and small?

The first day of Kindergarten and 1st Grade on campus—Monday, October 26—involved a whole lot of hand-washing, sanitizing, social distancing— and, of course, that undefinable Friends magic.

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SPECIAL GRANDFRIENDS EDITION