by Meg Sherbatskoy, DEI Committee

Lucy Neel is the Nulhegan Education Coordinator for the Ms Neel is also a board member of the . She travels to several parts of Vermont teaching about Abenaki heritage in schools and coordinating with after-school programs. 

With the benefit of a Title IV grant we were able to ask Miss Lucy to lead a workshop for our grades program spanning three days. She began with telling the history of the Abenacki Tribe and their many Bands, starting with the Vermont Abenaki History pre-contact, when the Europeans arrived, lifestyle changes, and Abenaki citizens in Vermont today. To help tell the story she had three baskets full of Abenaki crafts and art to pass around to each student.

The final day was spent outside. Miss Lucy brought her drum to share with the students. Students sat under a pavilion spaced around the drum, each with a drum stick as Miss Lucy led them in traditional Abenaki drumming, every student having a turn. Our new Facilities person, Tom Beck of the Nulhegan Band, joined the 5-8 grades and 3/4 classes in drumming. She then had them circle out in the grass to learn a dance and the Honor Water Song. Even though it was raining a little and a bit cold everyone sang, danced and the drumming could be heard throughout the school.

Miss Lucy wanted so much to spend time with the kindergarten students that she offered to donate one morning with them. She brought her drum, dance and song to the Apple Tree and Farm & Forest students and then to The Child’s Garden. Miss Lucy told me every day she was here that our students are incredible - so creative and so smart. She loves our school. She truly appreciated the Thank You cards from the 1/2  class and can not wait to come back for another visit next year.

To learn more about Miss Lucy and the Abenaki Tribe go to .

As the vibrancy of spring unfolds, our campuses and children are overflowing with energy and excitement. Many of us are yearning for a reconnection to each other and to the gatherings, celebrations and festivals that connect us to one another, to the seasons and to our school. Springtime is always filled with possibilities and in that light, the Board of Trustees has some exciting updates to share with you as we plan for our future together.

After months of analysis and reflection, the board along with faculty and staff have decided to restructure the leadership at ŷ���������. We have posted and are interviewing candidates for a Pedagogical Director position. This person, alongside Madelief Becherer as our Administrative Director, will lead our school forward.

An ongoing inventory of our strengths and our weaknesses has brought us to the conclusion that our organization will benefit from a more robust leadership team. The Administrative Director will continue to focus on administrative leadership, operations, financial and legal matters. The Pedagogical Director will focus on the overarching pedagogy of our school and programs, faculty support and mentoring and parent education. Together, they will engage in strategic planning and holding a holistic view of our school, as well as development, human resources and outreach. It is our belief that this new structure will enable us to be more nimble in making decisions and more cohesive as an organization, across and within our programs. Our hope is that these changes will allow for a stronger holding of students, families, faculty and staff. 

This is a bittersweet time at Orchard Valley, as we say goodbye to some faculty and staff and welcome new people to our school. Cathie Ely, Jane Hill, Lindsey Benton, Kate Camilletti, Kelly Davis, Dana Cudney and Georgeanne Baker have dedicated a combined almost 60 years of tireless service to Orchard Valley. They have shared with countless children, families and colleagues their passions, expertise and love over the years and we are incredibly grateful. Each of them will live on in the soul of our school and we wish them well on their new adventures.

Hiring is underway to fill new and vacant positions, both on our administrative team and faculty. Under this new leadership structure, we will have both the Administrative Director and the Pedagogical Director in addition to a Front Office Manager, a Facilities Manager, an Admissions Director, a Marketing Director and a Registrar. We recognize that the administrative effort to run three different programs with different requirements, staffing, calendars and hours requires a more fortified team and we are very hopeful that we are putting the people in place to support our programs, and in turn, our children, families and faculty. In conjunction with administrative support, we are adding Music and Movement back into the grades program. Hiring for all of these positions is well underway and we are very excited as we welcome new faculty and staff and begin living into this new way of running our school. 

Our new Facilities Manager, Tom Beck, has been working tirelessly along with faculty, staff and volunteers to tend to the land and buildings of Orchard Valley, including the animal paddocks and pastures, farmhouse fencing and windows and general maintenance. We are dedicated to pouring love into the land and buildings that support our work, making a beautiful space for all of us to play and work. 

Please reach out to any member of the board with questions, ideas or concerns. We are always happy to hear from and connect with you. 

With gratitude, 

ŷ��������� Board of Trustees,

Anna Rankin
Paule Bezaire
Don Haddox
Brian Basor
Michael Chartrand
Evan Premo
Jada Berg
Michelle Gullage
Christa Therrien
Madelief Becherer

by Stephanie Hoelscher, Child’s Garden Early Childhood teacher

Open up any social media site, and one will find images of the outdoor classrooms put up by schools as a response to the pandemic.  Tents and pavilions, folding desks and movable chalkboards, whatever is required in order to bring an indoor academic curriculum outside.   

Young children do not need such “outdoor classroom” for this purpose.  The needs of a developing child before the start of formal academic learning are different.  Indeed, the pandemic has brought this to the attention of early childhood educators in a potent way.  Across the country teachers have been forced outdoors.  This has brought a unique opportunity for reflection.  What is truly essential?  What is truly needed to nurture the growth and development of young children? 

I teach at the Child’s Garden where I have for a good many years.  (You may not know that what we now call the ŷ��������� began over twenty-five years ago at the Child’s Garden.) In the fall a big white tent greeted the children. This was our outdoor classroom.  In practice, it served as a protective space for our morning wellness check and the children’s cubbies with extra gear.  We now have a repurposed garage which serves the same purposes.  While children and teachers need protection from the elements in extreme weather, these “outdoor classrooms” is not where the real learning takes place at the Child’s Garden.  Blessed as we are with meadow, hillside, forest, and trails, and given the gifts of time, space, and social relationships, the children discover for themselves the ever-changing landscape for learning in the natural world. 

by Lindsey Benton, 5/6 Grades Teacher

Throughout much of February, the 5/6 grades has been diving into physics experiments related to sound and light. This has led to a variety of engaging experiences, and the students took up their work with curiosity and glee. For example, when experimenting with how well sound travels through solids, students wrapped silverware with string, wrapped the string around their fingers, plugged their fingers in their ears, and then banged the silverware on their desks and chairs. The result? A lot of joyous astonishment at the beautiful metallic sound that was produced- and some laughter at how silly they all looked performing the experiment! They also really loved experimenting with the tonal sounds that wine glasses produce when they were filled with water and rubbed on the rim.

Each day carried a very lively experiment like this. We spent the next day recalling what materials we used, what procedure we followed, and what observations were made. We then drew conclusions. In the example above, students concluded that sound traveled well through the metal silverware and string. We then compared the rate that sound travels through air (343 m/s) versus metals like steel (5,960 m/s) or silver (3,650 m/s). Because of last month's math unit on the metric system, the 5/6 graders had a concept of the "meters per second" labels listed above.

A clearly written lab report was then produced. Students used precise language to describe all the components of the experiment. This exercise allowed students to slow down and objectively record what they observed. Oftentimes, at this age, students like to jump straight to a judgement about their experience ("That was so cool!") or a conclusion ("I know why that happened!"). Recalling the experiments in detail and going through the process of recording their findings in these lab reports gives students the chance to hone their observation skills, and from there, arrive at informed conclusions.

This is the underlying developmental touchstone in the middle school physics block. At an age where it is all too easy to rush to snap judgements and big feelings, students are given the opportunity to step back, accurately assess what happened, and reach solid discernment.

Our physics block coincided with Black History month, so a portrait of Louis Armstrong graced our classroom chalkboard. This has been an incredible opportunity to tie together our studies of acoustics with the history of jazz music. In language arts classes, students read articles about different styles of jazz and how they came to be. They have listened to sound clips of key musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald. The 5/6th grades used information from the articles and sound clips to compose a written piece about the history of jazz. Together as a class, they have also composed and performed percussive rhythms that highlight solo improvisation that is featured in jazz music.

Our studies of jazz expanded to look at the greater time period of the Harlem Renaissance. We talked about the Great Migration, why it happened, and how such compelling art, music, and poetry arose during this time. The class read poetry by Langston Hughes and composed a poem in his style. As a collective art piece, the class listened to a poem by Langston Hughes called "Dream Variations" and created artwork for Orchard Valley's hallway bulletin board. They used their knowledge of chalk pastels to create an inspired image of the poem, and each student completed an artistic rendering of a couple lines of the poem. The result was a composite piece of art that beautifully showcased these beautiful words by Langston Hughes.

by Marianne Perchlik, Child’s Garden Early Childhood teacher

Martin’s Dream Family Summer Camp and Inclusion work at Orchard Valley

Over the last several months, ŷ��������� faculty have been deeply examining ourselves, our organization and recommitting ourselves to becoming allies to our black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) community.  We are grateful to be working with members of the Nulhegan band of the Abenaki Community.  In the coming weeks we will be hosting Miss Lucy, Abenaki Community Elder in our classrooms, and exploring ways we can actively make reparations on the lands of Grace Farm. 

Our ŷ��������� Land Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge that ŷ���������’s Grace Farm, Child’s Garden, and Sweet Clover Nursery all sit upon the unceded traditional lands of the Abenaki people. The Abenaki, who are members of the Wabanaki Confederacy, are indigenous to this land they call Wabanahkik, or “Dawnland.” We at Orchard Valley honor the continued resilience and resistance of the Abenaki people in the face of historical and ongoing oppression. As a school community, we are grateful for the privilege to learn, play, and grow on Abenaki land and recognize the responsibility we have to care for it with reverence and learn from it with respect

Our revised and updated Inclusion statement for our organization.  

Yet we know that our words must be represented by whole hearted action. If you would like to become involved in supporting these efforts please join our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion group at the ŷ���������.  Please contact: georgeanne.b@ovws.org.

~ ~ ~

Recently our Early Childhood Staff from all campuses attended the Waldorf Early Childhood Conference: Toward a Kinder, More Compassionate Society: Black Lives Matter in Waldorf Early Childhood Classrooms and Communities.  We are aware that we are blessed and endowed with amazing resources in our school and lands, and wish to grow our capacity as an organization to extend a wider welcome as allies to families in the BIPOC community.

In these last several months we have witnessed extreme historic events too numerous to list.  Our own organization also overcame many historic challenges.  We celebrate the generosity that has kept our children in school, supported our employees, transformed our learning environments with ventilation systems and outdoor classrooms.  We stand in the care and keeping of an unusual wealth of educational resources.  2019 marked 100 years of Waldorf Education which was initiated as a healing education in the aftermath of the Great War.  

The arts rich pedagogy of Waldorf Education provides daily practice with self-initiated expression of the soul life through art and movement. Daily artistic practice integrated with academic study,  supports the development of an internal moral compass in our students.  This is the foundation of our healing education.

Please join us in endeavoring to become an ambassador for greater inclusion, healing  and support of our BIPOC community.  

~ ~ ~

This summer we will offer Martin’s Dream Family Summer Camp:

A family camp experience for healing through story, song and nature.  We wish to support and develop an environment of greater diversity, inclusion and equity on both of our campuses.  The camp includes a component for parents as well as a mixed-age offering for children age 6-12, and mentor opportunities for students age 13-17.

Students will share in eurythmy as well as songs and poems from the African American experience. We will create a silk marionnette presentation of the story of Araminta to be shared with early childhood students and parents at the end of the week.  Araminta is the original name of Harriet Tubman.  Harriet had to rely on all kinds of inner resources to recognize friends and supporters, to navigate her way to freedom and to bring others to freedom.  Students will also share in talking circles about how they recognize friendship and create shared agreements about how to be a friend.

Younger children may attend the puppet presentation and sharing of parent stories to end the week.

Parents will share an opening meeting and eurythmy, participate in 2-3 brief readings or podcasts, prepare a brief story, participate in a parent evening and attend the closing presentation.

July 19-23 at The Child’s Garden

July 26-30 at ŷ���������

8:30 am to 3:00 pm

$325 per child

Please consider participating as a family in our camp or sponsor a family from the local community.
For more information contact: cathie.e@ovws.org

The last several months reveal many challenges ahead of us, many of which fall on the shoulders of our children.  We embrace and celebrate the principles of Black Lives Matter in offering an intergenerational summer camp environment for the development of skills to be stronger allies in these difficult times, and to grow a school environment where BIPOC community members feel supported and welcomed.

by Cathie Ely, ŷ��������� Enrollment Director

Beginning in early June a new committee was formed at Orchard Valley -  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Its membership consists of parents, teachers, and staff with the purpose of taking a close look at the school’s commitment and work with racism and White privilege. 

DEI began by studying and editing our original diversity statement, but words alone were not going to move our school forward in this crucial work! 

The “30 Day Anti-Racism Challenge” was issued, asking faculty and staff to engage in reading books, articles, viewing videos, and holding discussions around race and racism. The group formed an adult and a children’s library with content that challenges outdated beliefs. 

DEI invited Corazon Swanberg, a Wadorf alumni and a young woman of color, to speak with the faculty during their August work week. Cora shared her history, daily experiences, and challenges related to race. She encouraged teachers to examine the Waldorf pedagogy. How can we bring these important lessons to our students within a Waldorf curriculum?

 Connections have been made with a Vermont organization called Building Fearless Futures, a group of activists who carry  the mission to mitigate racial stress in our schools and communities. On October 9th, four people from Building Fearless Futures spent the morning at Grace Farm sharing information and deepening the faculty’s understanding of racism, white supremacy and how we can stand up to what we are seeing today. There was another workshop with Building Fearless Futures on the afternoon of  November 5th. 

Most recently a land acknowledgement statement is being crafted. Orchard Valley  recognizes that their beautiful 55-acre campus does not have an honorable past. This land was taken from the Indigenous people of this region, the Abenaki.

DEI is committed to keeping this work alive with the faculty, staff, and administration of Orchard Valley and upholding the diversity statement and putting into action the required steps needed to ensure the community is adopting an anti-oppression lens and committing to justice for all.

Orchard Valley’s Diversity Statement, revised June 2020

ŷ��������� commits to creating an educational and social environment in which families, faculty, and staff of diverse backgrounds feel welcomed, respected, and expressly valued. We define diversity as the broad spectrum of cultures, races, ethnicities, language speakers, genders, sexual orientations, religions and creeds, socioeconomic backgrounds, and abilities that together make up our communities, country, and world. 

As a Waldorf school committed to the evolution and growth of our philosophy and our educational approach, we do not condone, and pledge not to perpetuate any of Rudolf Steiner’s work that subtly or overtly suggests discrimination or judgement toward any race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or socio-economic group. 

We are committed to deepening our understanding of how the privilege of dominant culture affects and shapes both our pedagogy and our society, and to engaging in the personal and collective self-reflection and inner work necessary to actively dismantle systems of oppression within ourselves, our school, and our communities. 

by Lottie Maker, ŷ��������� 3/4 Grades Teacher

This year has brought a myriad of changes to all of our lives. The routines of daily life have been tipped upside down and all that we know and expect is shaken by an ever-shifting landscape of information and expectations.

In the midst of that background of uncertainty I have cherished the opportunity to be a part of creating an environment where children can be together in person, in communion with the natural world. As we’ve moved our programs outside, I have watched as the children lived into the experience of immersing themselves in the landscape, developing a sense of place and connection that has deepened my understanding of what it means to educate the whole human being. 

Each morning we watch the mist rise over the mountains to the East. Over the first weeks of school, we bore witness as summer green turned to the fiery orange and rusty red of October. As the leaves fell we noticed the contours of the distant roads curving up the hills. Houses tucked away in the trees gave away their presence with thin wisps of smoke rising from chimneys. 

The gift of this year has been finding those places where the curriculum is deepened and lifted up by the connection and integration with the land. Our outdoor classroom sits in the midst of a beautiful meadow at the top of a path down to the woods. During our animal study, this made it a perfect launching point for forays into the fields and forest in search of habitats to explore and creatures to observe. 

As part of a measurement study, the class built a simple board balance to measure and compare weights. By attaching a pivot point at the center of a board, the class could measure the approximate weight of items by placing them on one end of the board and adding known weights to the opposite side. 

This in itself was an activity well-suited to our outdoor setting. By simply stepping outside our tent to the grassy yard beyond, we more than doubled the size of our “classroom.” There was room for taking turns in the construction of the balance and then weighing various items. Students cycled between this hands-on, practical work and moving to their desks to record their findings in their notebooks. 

The real beauty of the experience came later during recess. A group of students wanted to use the board balance to weigh a field stone we’d recently excavated from the cattail patch where students like to play and build forts. It was fairly large and difficult to maneuver. The excavation had required several students taking turns slowly rolling and lifting the stone out of the play yard. 

The group of students positioned the stone on one end of the balance and set to work adding counterweights. They added a 20 lb weight. The stone end of the balance sat firmly on the ground. They added a second 20 lb weight -- still no movement. They added one 5lb weight and then another -- still no movement. They added a 2lb stone, and then a 1 lb stone. At 53 lbs, they still didn’t have enough counter weight. Having used all our known weights, the group was temporarily stymied, unsure of how to proceed. Then one student looked over at the neatly stacked pile of tree stumps recently gathered as future seating around a fire ring in our forest classroom. 

Eagerly, students realized they could find the weight of a stump and use that weight as another “known” weight to find the weight of the stone. Together they removed the stone and set to work. The interconnected nature of their play, their classwork, and their growing intuitive understanding of the landscape has brought new meaning and purpose to the children’s studies. 

As the weather has shifted and cold winds sweep through our valley, we continue to spend the majority of our day out on the land. Over the last few weeks we’ve started each morning of our local geography study with exploratory walks through the fields and forests surrounding the school. Students marvel as we emerge from a pine stand into the well-known field below our forest classroom. They ask each other, how did we get here from there? Did we just go in a circle? Through these questions and the pondering of the answers, their sense of place broadens and deepens. When we return to our desks we draw maps of all we’ve seen and explored.

In the last week of our study, students started each morning by studying a hand-drawn map of the landscape around our school. The view stretched from our outdoor classroom in the northwest corner to the Kingsbury branch of the Winooski river to the east. Each morning a new point was marked on the map and students mused over what area it represented and how best to get there: 

“We could start by going down the path and then cut into the woods by the fence and head to the mossy spot,” suggests one. Another student chimes in “Or we could head to Kingsbury Clearing and cut back along the river like we did last week.”&�Բ�����;

They discuss which route is most direct, which covers difficult terrain, which might offer a glimpse of unexplored regions. After coming to a consensus, we set off. When they find the spot each morning they fan out searching for a sign that they’ve found the right location. A shout goes up and all the students gather around the tree where the latest clue hangs from a purple ribbon - a piece to add to the growing puzzle back in our classroom. They’re fairly certain the puzzle is a map of our indoor classroom but they’ll have to wait for the final pieces to be sure and to see what comes next! 

As I reflect on where we are as a school, I am incredibly grateful for the gift of the last three months. Though it was the pandemic that necessitated the shift to the land, I am continually awed by the lessons I have gained as a teacher. Our immersion in the outdoors has created for us all a more intimate relationship with the land, the creatures we share it with, and the seasonal rhythms of the natural world.

We are excited to announce that we have officially launched our Annual Campaign for ŷ���������. This is a thrilling time for the school as we witness our little learners demonstrate what resiliency and optimism looks like despite the new context we all find ourselves in. The children are invigorated to be together, are learning and actively engaged with one another, their teachers and the natural world around them. The dynamics of operating a school with multiple programs and campuses in the time of COVID is forcing us to confront some very challenging realities. Many of those realities are directly impacting the financial health of our organization. Specifically, in order to ensure that all members of our community are as safe as possible, we reduced class sizes and enrollment. This step enables us to provide our students and teachers with enough space to allow for physical distancing inside the buildings and out. We also spent money on modifying our facilities to accommodate outdoor learning (brrrr!) through the construction of semi permanent classrooms.

The compounded result of lower tuition income and increased expense has, as can be expected, forced us to eat heavily into our reserves from the Payroll Protection Loan we obtained during the Spring lockdown. We are forecasting a budget deficit of approximately $240,000 for the school year ending in June. Every year we extend a hand to our community of friends and family to help support ŷ��������� and this year, while the ask is greater, we are doing the same. But we are not stopping there! We are presently seeking financial support from the State of Vermont and are researching grant opportunities from private and public Foundations that support organizations like ours.  

Looking forward, the Board believes that if we can overcome this year’s funding shortfall amidst the COVID pandemic, then we will be in a position to move forward with intention and sustainability. The rise in interest in Vermont is very real, as new families move to the state everyday. Orchard Valley is a unique organization amongst the other educational options for families that live in the surrounding counties. We believe our model - of supporting families regardless of financial means, of supporting teachers and staff with a liveable wage and of utilizing our precious campuses to maximize appreciation and knowledge of the land - will differentiate ŷ��������� and attract new families to our community. 

It is critical that in this unprecedented time, members of our community come together and support the school by making a donation before the end of the year. We need to secure the present of ŷ���������, while also developing a sustainable financial model for the future. This model is based on the core tenets of what launched ŷ��������� from the very beginning. At the same time, we also must ensure that we can continue to invest in the programs and services of the future to serve the core needs and values of our growing community. We look forward to doing this with you and with your support, will embark on a path of growth and financial stability for years to come. 

With much gratitude and respect, 

The Board of Trustees