Hello Families,

Our School Council has welcomed its newest member, Christy O’Brien, who joins the following existing members: Deb Boshart (PTO co-chair), Stephen Carroll (Community Representative), Susan Cohen (Faculty Member), Allison Krueger (Parent Representative), Emma Kwon (Staff Member), Jill Looney (Faculty Member), Karen Rietze (PTO co-chair) and Tony Rosa (METCO Representative). Please join me in thanking them for their commitment, dedication and support for Woodland School. All are welcome to join our meetings!

If you have been at school for a parent-teacher conference or volunteering, you may have noticed benches in the hallways. Thanks to a WEEFC grant funded by your generous donations, we purchased four benches. Three of those benches are dedicated to “conversations and collaborations” amongst our school community. Now, you may find teachers collaborating with each other or students and teachers chatting about their favorite book. Another addition to our school property is the Buddy bench located on our playground. The premise of the buddy bench is If a child is seated on the bench, it signals to the other students that this friend is looking for someone to play with. Classroom teachers, in collaboration with Carrie Dyball, our adjustment counselor, have introduced this concept to the students. Our hope is that the Buddy Bench will give the students a safe place to find comfort, friendship and confidence on the playground.

Finally, through the combined efforts of Country, Woodland and Field School “Hats for Hurricane Survivors” fundraising event, we were able to donate approximately $3,000 to UNICEF and Red Cross Hurricane Relief. This was a great lesson of a community building empathy in our youngest citizens.

Sincerely,

Jennifer G. Faber