Dear Maharishi School Parents,
The last few weeks have been jammed with special activities, with more approaching.
It began with the seminar organized by the MUM Education Department, featuring our own Jamie Vollmer. Jamie is a nationally acclaimed author and speaker on school-community relations, Fairfield-based and parent of two Maharishi School alumni. The title of Jamie’s book, Schools Cannot Do It Alone, says it all. He describes the radically different landscape of today’s world and how schools and their communities must work together to meet the challenges ahead.
At the same time, our Parents Association was working with our School Council to develop more efficient channels of communication—for just that kind of collaboration. If you have an idea or issue you’d like to share, you can visit our website (http://www.maharishischooliowa.org) and click on the “Parents” link at the top. Then look for “Communicating with the School.” You’ll find a form that walks you through the process. We hope this will enhance the connection with our parents and support our school-wide goal of continuous improvement.
A few days later, I was in Chicago for the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) annual Heads of School conference. Over 100 ISACS schools were represented, a great opportunity to network and get ideas. One school described its “Great Thinking Teams,” groups that meet regularly to research a particular topic and to advise the school leadership. We’re considering this for some topics we want to consider more deeply: social skills development, online learning, sustainability, community mentoring.
The following Monday and Tuesday we had the annual legislative meeting in Des Moines. Governor Brandstad’s Educational Improvement Bill has many elements, including changes to the charter school law that we are tracking as it passes through the legislative process. It’s an exciting time in every part of the education world.
I hope you will come out this week to support our students.
Basketball. The basketball season is coming to a close with the last home games:
Speech. Our speech (drama) department, led by Brendan Thomas and assisted by Jan Thatcher, has worked since November with 48 of our students preparing 12 entries: one act play, acting ensemble, choral reading, readers theatre, group mime, and improvisation. They’ve competed at District in Keokuk and State in Cedar Rapids.
Now it’s time to share their brilliance with us in Fairfield! Please join us at Spayde Theatre this weekend for their showcase performances:
Lastly, my thanks to all of you for taking an active role in support of our School. As Jamie emphasizes, we can’t do it without you!
Have a great week,
Richard