Monthly Newsletter

Brave and true I will be,

Each good deed sets me free,

Each kind word makes me strong.

I will fight for the right!

I will conquer the wrong!

Greetings, WCCS community! This is the first issue of a regular newsletter going out to the whole community, to keep us all in touch and apprised of the latest activities at the school. School is finishing up for the year in a few weeks! Class plays are in rehearsal. New families are joining for next year. And lots of work is happening in all domains of the school.

Contents of this issue:

• First Sunday Work Day, June 6
• Seeking Teachers
• Circles Seeking new members: Circle of Belonging, Restorative Justice/Conflict Transformation Circle, Community and Resource Development Circle, and Sprint Marketing Circle
• Waldorf School of the Peninsula Community Work Project at WCCS
• Shuumi Land Tax
• Squirrel's Nest Store is back open, online!
• Plant Sale Every Day through the end of the year in front office

Please join in to help maintain and beautify the campus. Our last work day drew 50 people, weed whacking, cleaning, meeting new families--a wonderful gathering. Children are welcome if they are able to keep a mask on. Please bring a lunch, water, a weed-whacker if you have one.

If anyone is willing to come who has the following specialized skills, we can accomplish more! We are looking for people with experience in plumbing, irrigation, and HVAC.

Please help spread the word: we are seeking grades and subject teachers for the fall, as well as assistants and a lead preschool teacher. Details can be found at https://wildcatcanyon.org/employment/, or email jobs@wildcatcanyon.org with a resume, cover letter, and three references.

The following circles are seeking new members. Do you have an interest in social, racial, and land justice? In conflict transformation? In helping the school to market, fundraise, and plan events? New members are welcomed in all circles, and the circles below are especially seeking members.

Circle of Belonging: meets Thursdays at 7:30pm. This circle is welcoming community members to join the important work of uplifting cultural responsiveness, diverse ethnic and racial representation and a social justice lens across our school culture, climate, community, curriculum, systems and structures.

Restorative Justice/Conflict Transformation Circle: meeting time TBA. This circle is just forming, and will hold trainings in affirmative conflict transformation, restorative justice practices, healing from and breaking with past harm in all domains of the school, in consultation with a trained specialist. Nominations are greatly appreciated from across our community.

CaRD Circle: meets Wednesdays 11-12. The Community and Resource Development Circle stewards fundraising and event planning for the school, and is working on exciting events for the summer!

Circle of Trustees: meets the first Monday of the month, 8-9:30pm. This is the legal "board" of the school. The Trustees are seeking nominations from the broader community.

Ad Hoc Sprint Marketing Circle: meeting time TBA. The Communications Circle is seeking on-fire marketing people with specialties in social media and search engine optimization, to spread the word about Wildcat Canyon Community School.

Please contact stacey@wildcatcanyon.org for more information or to submit nominations. Feel free to nominate yourself!

During the week of May 10, the 10th grade students from the Waldorf School of the Peninsula came and spent a week on campus, camping in the upper field and doing work on the garden. They fertilized beds and mulched pathways, created a huge compost pile, and prepared the garden for summer planting. The week was a rewarding interaction benefiting both schools in a challenging time, and hopefully the beginning of an ongoing collaboration and interchange. Thank you to Waldorf School of the Peninsula 10th grade students, teachers Kelly McKeown, Phil Dwyer, and Tyler Haughness, and Audrey Lee for suggesting and coordinating the exchange.

Kelly writes: "Can you please thank the Community from our students and school for the chance to finally be on a field trip and working together in such a beautiful and welcoming place. Over the years, I have witnessed that there are always positive lasting effects of the social bonding that occurs during a multi-day service immersion trip! This class seemed to generate their own energy from the experience of camping together on the edge of the Wildcat Canyon. Their collaborative garden work in the bright sunshine, wild wind and cleansing fog on your expansive campus was most certainly an antidote for a pandemic year!"

In order to authentically enact the principals of land-based justice with which our new school stands, the Circle of Belonging and the Restart Council feel it is core to our healing and reconciliation of past harms to pay tribute both in spirit and in fact. These circles have consented to a $1200 annual payment by the school of the Shuumi Land Tax, as a small first step toward acknowledging and supporting the Ohlone and the Bay Area Indigenous community.

For more information, please see the Sogorea Te' website's explanation of the Shuumi Land Tax. We encourage families attending the school to consider making individual contributions as well, if you feel moved to do so.

From the Sogorea Te' website:

The Shuumi Land Tax is a voluntary annual contribution that non-Indigenous people living on traditional Lisjan Ohlone territory make to support the critical work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. Shuumi means “gift” in the Ohlone language Chochenyo. Today, the Ohlone community in the East Bay has no land base. They are not federally recognized and have been politically and economically marginalized. Their traditional territory is now one of the most inflated real estate markets on Turtle Island.

The Shuumi Land Tax was not created by Ohlone people. Rather, it was created by non-Indigenous accomplices living on colonized Lisjan Ohlone land, in close consultation with the leadership of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, in an effort to recognize and support their work to rematriate land in the East Bay and transform all of our communities’ relationship to the land we live on.

The Squirrel's Nest Store, the school's store which sells crafting supplies, Waldorf-oriented school supplies, and homemade items by artisan parents, is reopening! Items can be purchased online at https://squirrels-nest-store.square.site/ and picked up in person at the school.

Vegetable starts, succulents, seeds and homegrown bouquets are on sale every day in the front office from 9am to 1pm. Beautify your garden and support the school!

Email: info@wildcatcanyon.org
Website: wildcatcanyon.org
Location: 3800 Clark Road, El Sobrante, CA, USA
Phone: 510-815-9332
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildcatCanyonCommunitySchool