Dear LCWS Community,
We have had a glorious start to the 2024-25 school year! On September 3, 2024 we welcomed 19 first graders into our Lower School and 47 new students from preschool to twelfth grade. We began the school year with 228 students enrolled, up from 200 last year at this time. Our new students have transitioned beautifully into our school community and we are so grateful to welcome so many new faces this year.
This past month our students have delved into their studies both in and out of the classroom: Our senior class spent a week at Hermit Island in Maine studying Zoology with senior classes from eight Waldorf schools across the Northeast and 96 fellow Waldorf seniors; our 6th Grade went caving last week in Schoharie New York in connection with their study of Geology; our 5th grade spent a day canoeing at Camp Pok-O-Maccready; and our 7th and 9th grade classes head out Monday for rowing adventures on Lake Champlain! Our classrooms are brimming with engaged learners engrossed in blocks on World Migration, Norse Mythology, Botany, Poetry, Farming and more. It has truly been a wonderful start to the school year and our new mission seems to already be at work in our classrooms: We are dedicated to a transformative, empowering education, rooted in love for the world.
At our Bostwick campus, we are thrilled to have completed construction on a multi-purpose sport court! We have dreamed of having an outdoor movement and athletic facility at Bostwick for many years and it has been so rewarding to see this come to fruition. The court is set up for Volleyball, PickleBall and Basketball and our students quickly filled it last week during recess, movement and after school activities. I am grateful to so many for their work to make this possible but wanted to send a shout out to Chris Smith, who chairs our Building and Grounds committee and spent hours and hours on this project, Steve and Ana-Klara Anderson who chaired our sport court task force, Gloria Irons who managed the permitting process and construction, Gary Daluisio who worked alongside Gloria to manage the project, Amanda Herzberger and Christina Bell who carried this dream to reality with us, and Tyler Macdonald, who, day in and day out, keeps our students moving in their bodies with high spirits and full hearts. We are grateful!
This fall, our school is launching an in-depth self-study as we begin a two-year re-accreditation process. LCWS is fully accredited by New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and is an associate member of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA). Every 10 years we renew our accreditation through this extensive self-reflection and evaluation in partnership with our accrediting agencies. We will complete a complex and thorough self-study and assessment, examining our policies, practices and programs. The process will consist of two program visits focusing on operational, administrative, and financial aspects of LCWS in 2025 and subsequent visits in 2026 on pedagogy and programming. We are excited to begin this aspirational and visionary self-study work now. We invite our parent and alumni community to join in this work over the next two years, and we welcome your input!
English classes across all grades have begun the school-wide study of Braiding Sweetgrass. I have been listening to the book on Audible, read beautifully by the author Robin Wall Kimmerer, and I highly recommend that you join us in this inspiring and important work. Themes from the book will be highlighted at our upcoming Fall Harvest Festival, this Friday, October 4. I look forward to seeing you there!
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions, thoughts, or concerns. Please join Board President Amanda Herzberger and me for coffee and treats after drop off on October 10 at our Turtle Lane Campus.
I remain ever so grateful to be in community with all of you,
Emily Bayer-Pacht
Head of School
Lake Champlain Waldorf School
The Courage to Look Within, the Confidence to Venture Out