Dear Parents,

This week my son Jeff turned 32. I know, it's hard for me to believe too! It really wasn't all that long ago that he turned 11 and we went on our first Boy Scout campout together. I remember it quite well; a hike along the Tubal Cane Mine trail, feeling how heavy our packs were as we made our way up to Tull City, camping near the remains of an old miner's cabin, and even how happily tired we were when we returned home on a Sunday afternoon. Life's adventures are like that; they etch themselves in our memories and become markers that provide meaning and give us something to measure the passage of time by. I know that our school campout at Salt Creek earlier this month will be one of those markers for me. Who knew that we would be camping amongst uncounted high school cross-country runners? Or that it would be so interesting to watch their individual efforts as they competed while also cheering each other on? It was fun for me to look at them and at our own students, thinking about the ways that they were the same and simultaneously about how different they were. It helped me to realize more deeply how school and education are fluid things and that although I often find myself immersed in the moment, I always need to look to and plan for the future - even when that future seems to come much too quickly!

If you are like me then you are feeling that, although the school year has just begun, it is amazing that September is nearly over! Usually when I find that time has slipped by it is because I have been extra busy. Well, that's exactly what seems to have happened once again. So far in just these past few short weeks the board and staff have been able to prepare for the school year, firm up our overall program (including hiring and support for two new teachers in art and P.E. and a new teacher's aide in preschool), begin work on an entirely new faculty handbook (40+ pages to date), get our office fully staffed, build a strong sense of community in each of the classrooms and in the school as a whole, begin our staff study of writing instructional techniques, and get off to a great start educationally for all of our students. All of this while having the largest and likely the best student body ever. The children have also been busy meeting new friends and greeting old, finding out how their classroom works this year, getting to know some new teachers in art and P.E., and yes, learning a bit along the way.

October looks to be at least as happily busy as September has been. There will be the inaugural 5-day Pacific Northwest trip for the Adventurers' class, the 3-day Olympic Park Institute adventure for the Navigator's class, picture day on the 17th, and our annual all-school Halloween field trip to the Pumpkin Patch and Sequim pool. Of course in amongst all of this will be many enjoyable days spent in the classroom getting better at reading, writing, singing, speaking, and even thinking mathematically.

Who knows what memorable adventures await just around the corner, giving us all another interesting milepost to fondly look back upon.

Russ