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PARENT PERSPECTIVE

from Santa Fe Waldorf Community Magazine Summer 2020

from Santa Fe Waldorf Community Magazine Summer 2020, page 6

Class of 2020

Faculty and Staff: Hellos and Goodbyes We welcome next year's grade one class teacher, Emma Maruska. She was the practical arts and upper grades support teacher for the last four years at the Cedarwood Waldorf School in Portland, Oregon. Maruska completed her Waldorf teacher training with the West Coast Institute in Vancouver, BC.

Grade 6 will be saying goodbye to Molly MacKinnon and will be welcoming Sonya Onyx as their new teacher. She will be joining us with her husband Greg Sammis and her two children from the Ithaca Waldorf School in New York. Onyx and Sammis are currently completing their Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge Institute, and Sammis will take the aftercare lead role and will help with substitution and some high school blocks.

Ruby Montoya will be joining us this fall as our new Grades 1-6 Spanish teacher. She is coming from Sedona, Arizona, where she has been a grades teacher at Running River Waldorf School.

We are also happy to announce Flavia Purpura-Pontoniere as our new Middle School and High School Office Coordinator for next year. Flavia is a graduate of St. John's College. She has been home schooled with a Waldorf curriculum, is a certified climbing-wall instructor, and a registered behavioral technician. She is thrilled to become part of our community.

Susanna Green will be departing her position of Middle School and High School Office Coordinator at the close of 2020 school year. Her incredible skills in leadership, organization, communication, and efficiency, as well as her caring attitude and willingness to help out in any and every possible situation, have made her an essential support person for the daily running of the school for the last six years. Her wide-ranging job responsibilities have included everything from office management and scheduling to assisting with wilderness trips, art classes, publications, and the sports program.

Green’s dog, Zissou, also played an important role at SFWS. When not snoozing under Green’s desk, Zissou served as an animal “therapist” for students and staff alike, visiting the first grade on a weekly basis (pictured left) and serving as a wilderness trip chaperone. He has been called down to the lower school office to comfort students, and one student regularly came to sit, hug, and sometimes even brush him. As one student put it, “It’s so much calmer here with Zissou around; it just feels better in the school.” WE WOULD DO IT ALL AGAIN By SFWS Parent and Board President Melissa Coleman Now, when I am asked if I would do this all over again—the answer is resoundingly, "Yes!". My daughter Story’s teacher, Michael Oellig, was and is the best teacher I have ever known. Reflecting back over her eight years at Waldorf, I see that Story’s education has filled her mind with knowledge, curiosity, and confidence.

This is an uncertain time, and our school year has been cut short by an unforeseeable and unimaginable event. For Story and her fellow Santa Fe Waldorf seniors, it is an especially poignant and sad time. Their educational journey has been disrupted, the rhythm of the classroom has faded, and the final ceremonies and traditions that mark the transition to young adulthood have been altered. However, I believe strongly, given this adversity, that the class of 2020 has been given the tools that will sustain their creative, strong, independent, and resilient nature through the years.

This exceptional class of seniors has climbed the tallest peaks in New Mexico, backpacked in the wilds of Southern Utah Canyons (twice), and hiked and paddled hundreds of wilderness miles. These incredible outdoor adventures are just a part of what makes them strong and independent young adults.

The school’s academic rigor and creative expectations have given Story and her class a solid foundation of critical thinking skills and compassion to help build a better world. This group is academically and mentally prepared for college, or wherever their passions may take them. Their curiosity for the world around them will make them life-long learners.

The Santa Fe Waldorf School was the best educational choice for Story. And it has filled her heart with wonder, joy, and gratitude. Story and her classmates have all the tools to begin the next journey and beyond. They are ready.