I want to thank the parents, faculty, and staff for attending the Head of School Book Club on Wednesday, January 18^th, to discuss Dr. Dan Siegel’s The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive.  The conversation was lively and insightful, and the company was delightful.

We are very fortunate to host such acclaimed speakers (first Dr. John Medina, now Dan, and we are hopeful to announce our 2013 speaker soon) and to be able to offer parents and educators in the Santa Cruz community the benefit of these speakers’ ground-breaking brain research.  Our speaker series distinguishes Gateway School as an educational leader in the community.
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On Saturday morning I will board a plane to New York City to begin a two-week fellowship at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.  This award, granted to just twenty heads of school annually, provides independent school leaders with an opportunity for focused professional enrichment, renewal, and reflection. The 2012 cohort includes Heads from all areas of the United States in addition to participants from the Czech Republic, Canada, South Africa, Croatia, Latvia, Venezuela and France.  For more on the Klingenstein HOS Fellowship see http://klingenstein.org/content/heads-schools-program.

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Dear Parents,

Happy New Year!

By all accounts any anxiety and trepidation your children may have felt as you tucked them into bed on Sunday night was quickly erased early Monday morning as teams of eager young children ran boisterously to the yard to greet their friends and exchange stories of gifts, meals, and experiences shared with family and friends over the winter break. I am often amazed and impressed by how effortlessly the breach of time and distance is wiped away when children spy their peers in class or on the yard – it was almost as if no time had passed.

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Gateway School raised over 8,000 pounds of food for 2nd Harvest Food Bank’s Grind Out Hunger Holiday Food Drive! Thank you to the 6th graders for organizing this community service effort, and to all in our community who donated cans of food and money to such an important cause!

grindouthunger.org

Gateway School has become the first school in the City of Santa Cruz to become a green certified business. Head of School, Percy Abram accepted our certificate from Mayor Coonerty at the City Council meeting on November 22nd. 12 local businesses were awarded certificates including Penny Ice Creamery, Nourish, and Well Within. Special thanks to Jeremy King and the EAP for working diligently to complete all the requirements for certification.

Gateway Students delivered 200 coats to Classic Cleaners for the “Coats For Kids” coat drive. The student council efforts were featured on KION TV. See the link below for the video footage. Thank you to all the families who donated coats this year! Click here to see the link to the KION TV News clip.

Happy December! At today’s First Friday Assembly, 3rd grade teacher Julie spoke about the importance of poetry, and encouraged all the students to write poetry throughout their lives.

As I prepare for my flight to Philadelphia tomorrow for The National Association of Independent School’s annual People of Color Conference (PoCC), I am reminded of an experience I had while serving as the Dean of Students at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, two years removed from having received my doctorate from Stanford University.  I was walking to an all-school assembly Read more…

Gateway admin members volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank today packing 500 bags of fresh produce for hungry families in SC County.

Gateway student alumni and alumni parents came to speak at Gateway Middle School Information Night. Thank you to all who attended this fantastic event!