Friday Folder

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.- Audre Lorde.

Today was a much smaller version of our traditional Historical Halloween. However, it was so wonderful to see the students excited about their research and participating in their classroom timeline.

Now that the Partnership Meetings are over, please remember that if you need to speak to the teachers about your child, it is best if you could make an appointment during their office hours. Each teaching pair has a time every week for those meetings. While it may seem as though a topic is just a momentary conversation, during dismissal and arrival they are attending to a myriad of other tasks as well. There are times, that they may have planned to reach out during that time to you in order to initiate a further conversation at a later date. We just want to ensure that if they are engaged in conversation during the arrival and dismissal time, they have planned for that to be the case. Thank you in advance for your help.

Have a wonderful and restful weekend.

Michelle

Eagle Peak families it’s time to hop aboard the staff appreciation train! For those who are new to this tradition, typically families would sign up in advance to bring food items for the staff to enjoy once a week (typically on Wednesdays). It has been a simple and lovely way to express our thanks and appreciation for all that they do every day. It’s also an easy way to tally up some much needed volunteer hours for all of us. Since we do need to be cautious this year with how and what we provide, here are just a few suggestions on simple and effective ways to go about showing our gratitude:

o Bring flowers in for the breakroom and/or all of the individual classrooms

o When shopping for groceries and you see a great deal on a bulk item (beverages, muffins, organic fruit, etc.) buy extra and bring it in to the break room with a little note of appreciation and where they are stashed if placed in the fridge or freezer.

o Maybe we can pool together a little money to give $5-$10 Peet’s or Starbucks gift cards for the EP staff every once in a while

o Bring a bag of your favorite individually wrapped candy or treat to let our EP staff know how special and sweet they are

Please note, for the time being we are steering clear of food prepared and cooked at home. Count your time spent driving to the store and time spent delivering your gifts to EP as volunteering. Added bonus, enjoy that heartwarming feeling of knowing that you have brightened someone’s day. Interested in getting on board? Contact Jen Slattengren ASAP.

jenslattengren@gmail.com

925.876.8984

EAGLE PEAK MONTESSORI SCHOOL

Elementary Gr 1-6: 8:30am-2:45pm (Gate closes at 8:30am and opens at 2:45pm)

Adolescent Program Gr 7&8: 8:30am-3:15pm

Wednesdays and other Early Dismissal Days- 1:40pm

Hello from CFEP!

Thank you so much for your enthusiastic support of our logo gear sales! We will be still taking orders through the WEBSITE throughout the year, for pick up in the office. From now on, when you order, you will receive a date that you can pick up in the office when they are ready.

You can order anything, including our brand new VERY comfortable branded masks. We will be wearing masks on campus all the way through 2022, so it's a great way to support our school and stay safe on campus! Our branded masks have a metal nose bridge, a pocket for an optional filter, adjustable ear loops, and are machine washable (hang dry).

Mask Pricing

Kid mask: $8 each, 2 for $15

Adult mask: $12 each, 2 for $20

2 kid, 2 adult mask bundle: $30

Please follow this LINK to order your masks and other logo gear today!!

If you have any questions, email Laura Desautels at laura@cfep.us or Megan Daoudi at megan@cfep.us. Thank you so much for your support!!

SEE's CANDY

We have a SWEET new fundraiser this year!!! We have our own See's Candy online store!

This is a great way to give gifts for the upcoming holidays, all the way until the end of the year. Every purchase sends 50% back to the school, and See's is a locally run business! You can even order for yourself to bring to a holiday party, or the office. If you share the link to your friends and family, they can order and it will benefit the school too. This is an AMAZING opportunity to support Eagle Peak!!

Follow this link to go directly to our store: https://tinyurl.com/js78vsae

Hi everyone we will be starting our painting session next week. I will be providing small art kits for any child that would like paint. I am also willing to refill paint. Kits will be distributed Tuesday afternoon. Have a safe Halloween.

Please help us help you. We ask that you speak to your child about coming to the office for being ill. While we want anyone who is feeling ill to let us know, we want to also help the students be able to know when a stomach ache might just be a bit of homesickness instead. We are not medical professionals and as such must err on the side of caution. Every time a child comes to the office and says that they have any of the potential symptoms of covid, they must be picked up within 30 minutes and be tested for covid. Thank you for your cooperation.

On Wednesdays we encourage students to bring little to no waste such as wrappers or anything that goes in to the trash bin. Instead we encourage you to bring reusable, recyclable and compostable containers. Participating in waste free Wednesday will ensure our school is a cleaner place.

Please check the Lost and Found rack. We are getting quite the collection. We also have a few water bottles. So please check it out. It is currently located in between Room 201 and the Office. And for those smaller items, we have a small wooden bowl in the office on the counter. Please check that out as well. Thank you.

A Few Reminders:

Covid Testing- Please note that we must receive the results of a Covid- 19 PCR test. We cannot accept the results of a rapid test. Thank you for your help with this.

We cannot allow childcare pick up between 3p-3:30p. Amy and Leslie are not in the office due to carpool pick up.

As you have noticed, we now have Upper El students assisting with afternoon carpool. It would be helpful to have your childs name printed on an 8 1/2 inch X 11 inch paper so the Upper El students can see the name they need to call. (EPMS Handbook for Parents and Students/Section 2.D.2.) The paper can be placed on the dashboard. If you already do this, thank you so much.

Attached below is the November Breakfast Calendar if you wish to participate. Please download the form, select the days for breakfast and return to the office or email to Admin@eaglepeakmontessori.org.

Childcare is still looking for yarn donations. If you have any yarn cluttering your house, our childcare would really like to have it as a donation. Thank you.

Attached are the forms for November Childcare and the Calendar. Please complete both the Childcare form and the Calendar and return to the office or email to Admin@eaglepeakmontessori.org.

The vision of Eagle Peak Montessori challenges us as a school community to believe that a better world can be built by helping all children develop to their fullest human potential. We state that our students will become socially aware, responsible members of the global community. Our Mission is to provide public Montessori education in an environment that supports diversity in all its forms, including socioeconomic and cultural diversity.

The Montessori Educational Philosophy profoundly respects and supports each individual’s unique development. In this spirit, we seek to do the same and to respect and support the background and structure of each family. Therefore, it is our intent that our school community will seek to become culturally competent. Cultural competency is the intent to understand and build on the culture and customs of a diverse community.

Cultural competency does not imply that we are without bias, but that we seek to find our biases and work to overcome them. We as a staff and school leadership team (Board, PTLG, CCC, CFEP) will engage in self-reflection and professional development to build our self-awareness. This will allow for our blind-spots to become clearer. Our goal is that our community will continuously work towards and improve upon our ability to understand and support all students and families from a variety of perspectives. Through increased and ever-improving community-wide cultural competency, Eagle Peak will be able to act in the pursuit of dignity, equity, and acceptance of all community members.

This is an intense time, experienced differently for each individual, yet, we are all seeing a shift in our society. This moment in time does not exist in isolation; it is the culmination of millions of moments taking place during a 400 year-long struggle for a racially equitable country.

When European immigrants colonized the indigenous lands we now live and forced African people into chattel slavery, they did so while promulgating ideals such as “freedom of speech" and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Though this country and the world has changed dramatically, those with power and privilege continue to inflict, justify, or ignore the suffering of others when it is beneficial to them. Racism and anti-blackness is in the water we are ALL swimming in, and despite our best intentions, we may unintentionally reinforce it with our unexamined actions and unconscious biases.

As Montessorians, we understand the importance Dr. Montessori placed on developing a pluralistic community and working to create a more just world.

Despite all the challenges we are coping with right now, from pandemic scares to financial hardships and social isolation, we must stay in community and in conversation. Peace cannot be achieved merely through an absence of conflict, it can only be reached after we have worked hard, together, for real JUSTICE.

EPMS is committed to being in partnership with all of our students and their families as we build capacity to "be part of the change we wish to see in the world". The staff will engage in ongoing professional development, ensure a culturally relevant and responsive curriculum, and foster spaces for reflection and dialogue with the adult community. We encourage you to explore suggested books and readings, share posts on social media, and join us for a speaker series where we can look deeper, ask hard questions, and build our comfort in talking to our children about race and diversity. Like we hope our children will do, we can also learn by DOING to lead us and our children toward a future we can all be proud of.

● Created by the EPMS Community Connection Committee in conjunction with Dr. Lizette Dolan, who has worked with the Eagle Peak Montessori Community in Anti Bias training.

Remember to gather your Box Tops for Education.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS: Buy participating products and use the Box Tops mobile app to scan your store receipt within 14 days of purchase. The app identifies eligible products and automatically adds Box Tops to Eagle Peak's earnings online. Even if you’re shopping online or doing grocery pickup, you can still submit your e-receipts and earn Box Tops. Your earnings may seem small, but they really do add up. The more people that participate, the bigger the impact we can make. Learn more about how Box Tops works at BTFE.com.

Email: Admin@Eaglepeakmontessori.org
Website: eaglepeakmontessori.org
Location: 800 Hutchinson Road, Walnut Creek, CA, USA
Phone: (925)946-0994