Behind every Board President is an amazing family that makes their sacrifice possible. Many thanks to the entire Kelly (From left to right: Wren, Kearns, Valery & Daisy) family for their shared service over the years, and congratulations to Wren on her recent acceptance to College of Agriculture at CalPoly!

In Gratitude of Quiet Service: a thank you to Valery Kelly

The Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork has always been blessed by the dedication of a community of volunteers. Our strawbale walls were raised by parents,teachers, and community members, who also laid the sod on our playfield, and pioneered the festivals that have since become beloved traditions.

On a parent’s path through WSRF, some gift time and talent – to a festival or a fundraiser while their children are in the grades – while others choose to make the school their locus of dedication and service, continuing to raise up the school long after their children have graduated.

Valery Kelly falls into this latter group, having distinguished herself through 6 years as Board President, as a beloved parent leader, and finally as an artist offering her expertise in the classroom. She has worked side-by-side with staff through all the changes over the years, shepherded the completion of our latest strategic plan, all the while modelling what it means to be a human in community.

All that, and she knows the School Verse by heart!

In all her roles, from Martinmas (shhhh…) to spearheading the launch of our Endowment campaign, Valery distinguished herself by her selflessness, dedication, and willingness to ride bravely out into the darkness. Our school’s present-day success is due in no small part to her devotion, resolve, and love for WSRF.

For a school to thrive it must be a living entity, always changing to meet the needs of the child. The school we enjoy today will continue to evolve, and more dedicated volunteers will serve in new and exciting ways. It can be easy to forget those quiet volunteers who served humbly, knowing full well that their sacrifices might never be known to our community’s future generations.

The solace we take is in knowing that, thanks to Valery Kelly and a host of other dedicated souls, our school, and its ability to serve the children of the Roaring Fork Valley, grows stronger with each passing year. As WSRF carries on, serving future students and their families, it will be thanks to the sacrifice of Valery, her family, and all those who they continue to inspire.

Waldorf Curriculum Spotlight: Why do we nurture human capacities such as resilience, flexibility and compassion?

Waldorf Education emphasizes rigorous academics, dynamic artistic endeavors and the nourishment and development of human capacities. We believe in the development of both skills and capacities. The world is rapidly changing and we believe our students are best equipped with not only skills but also the capacity to adapt, show compassion and leverage inner resilience.

The whole human being is taken into consideration in every element from Parent Child to 8th Grade. The result is individuals who not only carry knowledge and skills but are self aware, internally developed and emotionally in-tune.

Human capacities such as perseverance, creativity and empathy are as much a part of Waldorf Education as academics that explore diverse perspectives and complex subject matter. We believe in nurturing graduates with capacities to engage in conversations and reflection while also having the skills to impact the world around them.

We constantly ask: in a rapidly changing world, what human capacities will our students need to thrive in the future? For a closer look at educating for the future, explore this 4 minute video from the Association of Waldorf School’s North America (AWSNA).

Welcome, New Families! Part 1

By this late in any other school year, we'd all have already spent hours together at Mayfaire, Winterfaire, or any of the other festivals that give us cause to celebrate our school community. But this year masking and social distancing has made it difficult to connect with all the friendly faces on campus.

There is solace in knowing that our children all know one another. But for those of us outside the classroom, it can be more of a challenge. Here is introduction to some of our youngest new students. Check your email two weeks from now for an introduction to our older new students.

And whether you are returning to WSRF, are a family with an older sibling, or this is your first time on campus, Welcome! It is our great joy to have you and your student on campus.

Alicia Nolfi & Dean Bacon

Marissa (Moonflower)

Marissa joined the Moonflower class this year and lives in Carbondale with her parents, Alicia and Dean. Welcome Marissa, Alicia and Dean!

Jackie & Matthew Deam

Keating (Moonflower) & Leo (Sunflower)

Keating joined the Moonflower kindergarten while his younger brother, Leo, is in the Sunflower preschool. Keating and Leo live in Basalt with their parents Matthew and Jackie. Welcome to the Deam family!

David Feinburg & Christina von Loeper

Zachary (Moonflower) & Joshua (Sunflower)

David is from Boston, Christina’s family hails from Germany and she speaks mostly German with the boys at home. David and Christina met when they were both teaching high school at St. Paul’s School in London. They moved to NYC in 2014 where Zachary attended nursery at the Rudolf Steiner School NY. They are thrilled with mountain living having moved to Carbondale in July 2020! David & Christina have two children, Zachary and Joshua who are both excited to be a part of the Early Childhood programs at WSRF! Welcome David, Christina, Zachary and Joshua!

Brie & Greg Fitzsimmons

Duke (Willow Forest)

Brie, born and raised in Carbondale and Greg, from Northern California, met one summer waiting tables. Fast forward to today: After hearing about Waldorf and attending an enrollment event, Brie and Greg enrolled their son, Duke, who joined WSRF in January. They are excited to settle in and develop roots, especially through the Waldorf community. Boon is Duke’s little brother and starts at WSRF in the fall! Welcome to the Fitzsimmons!

Stacey and Amanda Garrett

Ash (Sunflower) & Bo (Moonflower)

Bo is in Ms. Heidi’s Moonflower kindergarten and turns 6 in June. Ash is in Ms. Sigrid’s Sunflower Preschool class and turned 4 in April. They live in Carbondale with their parents Stacey and Amanda. As a family they love to hike, bike, camp, and make new friends. Welcome to the Garret family!

Ben & Kristin Johnston

Teddy (Sunflower)

Ben and Kristin are originally from Missouri. They moved to Colorado 6 years ago and currently live in Carbondale. They have two children, Teddy (3), who recently joined the WSRF Moonflower class, and a littler one, Sawyer (1.5, at home). They love camping, hiking, and skiing. Their favorite family activity is river rafting. Welcome to the Johnston family!

Joshua Margolis & Meghan Brosnan

Henrietta (Moonflower)

Meghan and Joshua met while working together at a television station in Aspen. They spent time on Nantucket and in Chicago before returning to The Roaring Fork Valley. Meghan is a professional photographer and Joshua works in the Integrated Therapies department at Valley View. Together they are also owners and operators, along with another valley family, of Peyton’s Potion, a nontoxic multipurpose surface cleaner. Their daughter, Henrietta recently joined the Kinderhaus. Her parents say “She is thriving beyond what we could have imagined!” Their younger daughter, Lulie (2), will start in the Kinderhaus in fall of 2021. Welcome to the Margolis-Brosnan family!

Patrick & Kathleen McAfee

George (Sunflower)

George McAfee is in the Sunflower preschool class and lives in Glenwood with his parents, Patrick and Kathleen. Welcome to the McAfee family!

Tom & Mary McDonald

Henry (Moonflower)

Henry is in The Moonflower Kindergarten with Ms. Heidi and lives in Carbondale with his parents, Tom and Mary. Welcome to the McDonald family!

Mary Ann & Chris Neumann:

Alice (Moon), Nora (3rd) & Sadie (6th )

The Neumann family has three daughters, Sadie (12), Nora (9) and Alice (5) who have joined the 6th grade, 3rd grade and Moonflower kindergarten respectfully. The Nuemann’s are a mountain-loving Midwestern-Californian hybrid family who is thrilled to have relocated to the Roaring Fork Valley after coming here for many years to ski. The Neumann’s shared: “We feel confident that all of our children will thrive from this thoughtful, developmentally-appropriate and holistic approach to education. We are extremely grateful to be part of this community and to all of those who sustain it.” Welcome to the Neumann family!

Scott Powell & Leah O'Donnell

Karli (5th) & Phoebe (Moonflower)

Phoebe joined Ms. Heidi in the Moonflower Kindergarten and Karli returned to her classmates in the 5th grade after having been with them in Kindergarten. Phoebe and Karli live in Carbondale with their parents Scott and Leah. Welcome Scott, Leah, Karli and Phoebe!

Tim and Marina O’Keefe

Noah (Sunflower)

Noah O’Keefe, the youngest of the O’Keefe clan, got to join his four older siblings (Drew 6th, Abigail 5th, Joshua 3rd and Catherine 1st) at WSRF after Christmas break. He is so excited to be going to school with all “the school kids” and loves his days in Ms. Sigrid’s class. The O’Keefes live in Glenwood Springs and have a long history with the Waldorf School. Noah’s mom, Marina, was the first graduate of the school and his grandparents, Stephen and CP Kanipe were one of the founding families. We as a family are so grateful to be a part of this school and community and look forward to meeting all the other families that have joined over this past year. Welcome, to the O’Keefes!

Jeff & Lindsay Patterson

Brooklyn (Sunflower) & Emory (1st)

Jeff and Lindsay moved to the valley in 2009 from Santa Monica, California. They originally settled in Glenwood Springs, but are now in Carbondale, just a few miles from Waldorf. Both Emory and Brooklyn were born in Glenwood Springs and as a family they love to bike, ski and play on the river. Welcome to the Patterson Family!

Yole & Whitney Reyes

Yuniper (Sunflower)

Holly and her traveling Musical Storytime

Roped us in with her song and rhyme.

Our family was nourished as carrots and peas

Now a tall Sunflower, pretty as you please.

Peach Valley, New Castle is where we call home,

Aspen and Mexico is from where we did roam.

Chickens and Cherries and Gardens galore!

But for school education we wanted more.

WSRF is now the place that we thrive,

One Sunflower moving on, another arrives.

We are so grateful to come to a place that's so cool,

And appreciate the community at the Waldorf School!

Welcome to the Reyes Family!

Shaun & Christy Spencer

Shaunti (Moonflower) & Shyla (Sunflower)

Shaunti and Shyla live in Glenwood Springs with their parents, Shaun and Christy. Shaunti is in the Moonflower Kindergarten with Ms. Heidi and Shyla is in the Sunflower preschool with Ms. Sigrid. Welcome to the Spencer family!

Matt and Andi Talarico

Orlin (Moonflower)

Orlin joined the Moonflower kindergarten this year and lives in Glenwood Springs with his parents Matt and Andi. Welcome to the Talarico family!

Drew & Natalia Taylor

Thomas (Sunflower)

The Taylor family, Drew is a dermatologist and Natalia is a veterinarian. They have 2 boys Thomas (3yr) who recently joined the WSRF Sunflower and Damian (1yr). They are originally from Florida and have been in The Valley for 4 years. They love the outdoors, traveling and good food! Welcome to the Taylor Family!

Charlie Wertheim & Veronica Whitney

Mevion (Sunflower)

Mevion joined the Sunflower classroom in the fall. He lives in Carbondale with his parents Charlie and Veronica. Welcome Charlie, Veronica and Mevion!

Sherman & Katie Workman

Addi Jade (Sunflower)

The Workman family, Sherman - 4th grade, Nolan - 1st grade, Addi Jade - Sunflower, and baby Landon - 6 months old, Katie & Sherman - mom and dad have lived in the Roaring Fork Valley since 2007. They moved here from the Chicago area. They enjoy all the valley has to offer - the skiing, hiking, rafting, soaking, camping, and biking. “The Waldorf community has been so connecting & enriching for us!” In the summers you'll find the Workman’s vending and selling their Greek food at farmers markets and festivals. Many of you may know Katie as ‘Ms. Katie’ and the assistant in the Moonflower kindergarten. Ms. Katie will be changing roles in the kinderhaus next school year taking on the role of lead teacher for the sunflower preschool classroom. Welcome to the Workman Family!

CDC and Covid News

As you may have heard, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), issued some changes last week that are significant to that of Covid protocols around the country and for us at school.

We understand that the State of Colorado officials are examining the words of the CDC and will be providing guidance to local municipalities. We anticipate information will be released from Garfield County. We plan to remain living into our protocols until directives from the County may indicate otherwise.

Please know that we will keep you posted on any changes that may be forthcoming.

Administrative Council

Faculty News

Many of you know 4th and 5th grade strings teacher Heather Kendrick. Heather is actually an employee of the Aspen Music Festival and we contract with them to provide music services to the school. Heather’s actual title is Manager of Education and Community Programming at AMF.

Just recently, Heather was accepted as a student at the prestigious Harvard Graduate School of Education where she will focus her studies in Education, Leadership, Organizations and Entrepreneurship. We shan’t be losing her, though, as most of the coursework is remote and she along with Roberto, Julie and Jeanette will continue to lead and teach our 4th – 8th grades students in their orchestral studies.

Keeping in “tune” with musical topics, Roberto Arundale who leads the 6th – 8th grade program, will be performing next weekend at three different venues in the valley where he will be offering a solo performance of Joseph Haydn’s 2nd Cello Concerto in D major, which is widely considered one of the most beautiful (and difficult) works for cello. Accompanied by the wonderful musicians of High-Country Sinfonia (a volunteer string orchestra made up of local musicians). The three performances are on May 21 at 5:30 @ the Basalt Methodist Church; May 22 @ 5:30 @ Sopris Park and May 23 @ 11:00 at the Aspen Art Museum.

Announced earlier this year, The Aspen Times and the Glenwood Springs Post Independent partnered with Summit 54, a nonprofit in Aspen focusing on Kindergarten through 5th grade education assistance, to help acknowledge the hard work of educators who have gone above and beyond during COVID-19 in the lower valley through Outstanding Teacher Awards. The finalists are to be announced this week and our own 2nd grade teacher, Clay Allen, and 1st grade teacher, Patti Connolly, are in consideration for some level of recognition. Also, to be recognized are pre-School teacher, Sigrid Fischbacher and 6th grade teacher, Samara Noll. While the Sigrid and Samara will be recognized, they cannot be considered in the final awards due to the fact that they are not K-5th grade teachers which is the focus of Summit 54. We pass on a hearty congratulations to these four!

Lastly, it has been known that Matt Johnson will be returnong next year in his role of Middle School Support Teacher and we could not be more pleased as a result. With that, Mr. Johnson will be away from school for the first two months of next year so that he may continue a life dream that includes travel and we wish to support him in doing so.

With that, Tim Connolly, will sub for Matt during September and October. Mr. Johnson will return to continue his duties on November 1. In addition, Tim will also be teaching 5th grade math next year along with working in Student Support to serve students with math needs.

Theater in the time of Covid

The following is an excerpt of a letter that Kirsten Frazee recently forwarded to the parents of her 4th grade class on the topic of taking videos of school plays and activities and how the students respond to such:

We typically video-tape all class plays, but for archival purposes, not as something to offer parents right away. It is a school tradition to present the 8th grade graduates with a collection of videos of their class plays from 1-8th grades. We have found that videos given to parents right after a play inevitably arrive in front of children's eyes, despite everyone's best efforts to keep it from doing so. There is a greater discussion here, but in brief, we have found it to be disrupting and even damaging to the children's internal experience of the play if they then watch it from an external representation. (*See more in-depth explanation below)

We are walking through a very strange time with many creative solutions for unprecedented circumstances. Many things have been offered in video format that normally have not been. We want to offer parents to see their children's efforts and successes and to offer them a window into the joy we see at school during special events and on a regular basis. With so many class plays happening this spring, the faculty has reviewed this conundrum in a recent faculty meeting. We settled on that, although it's difficult (not all classes will have outside plays open for parents to view), we are not going to offer videos of the class plays. We have shared and will share videos of other things here and there - as you've seen through the school website or in emails from teachers - but the class play has a different experiential quality for the students which is given a disservice by video viewing.

*In a world that often relives experiences through the external lens of a camera, this 'after-watching' can feel very normal in our culture. However, if you can recall an experience when you heard your own voice played back on a recording, perhaps for the first time when you were young, you may recall feeling surprised by how it sounded or thought something like: 'whoa - that's how I sound?' Listening or watching the 'play-back' of ourselves through an external mechanical device can be a very strange, and sometimes disturbing experience. We are often very critical and dissatisfied by what we see and hear. Unfortunately, this then alters our memories, our impressions, and our feelings we had about the initial experience.

When we do a class play at the Waldorf school, we bring stories and characters and moods to life in a very pedagogically intentional way. Perhaps someone who is ordinarily shy is willing to step out of their shell while under the guise of a humorous character; perhaps two classmates who struggle to connect with each other are asked to be the first mate and the captain and they experience a new version of teamwork and connection that has otherwise eluded them; perhaps someone who is typically a strong leader of the class is asked to be in a supporting role and learns to really celebrate the spotlight that shines on a classmate. To each, their own internal 'video' memory goes deeply into their soul and the ripples that move them may not be revealed for years to come. If they watch it played back too quickly after the experience, their 'soul-stewing' time is cut short. The external view cannot live up to the depth of their internal experience. They stepped out of their comfort zone and stretched themselves, which is a very tender and vulnerable thing to do in front of others, and unfortunately the playback will spark their critical eye and may prevent them from stretching as far when the next opportunity arises.

We thank you for your understanding and patience as we continually strive to include everyone to share in joy and wonder of our school traditions. We know how incredible it is to have the direct experience of witnessing your children striving and stretching themselves to greater heights. We see that they are bolstered by your support at home, which gives them strength and resilience to stretch and meet new challenges. Thank you.

May 17th News