Current Needs

During the 2008-2009 school year at Woodland Star 200 children are currently enrolled in Kindergarten through Seventh Grade. In 2008-2009 the school has grown into Eight Grade. We will graduate our next Eighth Grade in June of 2009.

Charter schools are funded according to the same model as traditional public schools, and like all schools depend on fundraising and voluntary parent support to supplement inadequate state funding.

Elementary school students in California public schools earn state funding of approximately $5,000 per child per year (minus penalties for absences) while their cousins in New Jersey earn $14,000 per child. Despite the woefully inadequate relative funding for education in the Golden State, California public school educators are determined to deliver exemplary education programs, making the search for supplemental funding imperative for all public schools.

We Need Your Help

Your one-time gift or monthly pledge is greatly appreciated by all the current and future families who choose this unique and remarkable education for their children, children who will grow to be creative, independent thinkers with the capacities to be bright, inspired leaders in their communities. Please look inside your hearts and give what you can. Affordable monthly or quarterly payment plans can be created to fit your budget. As a non-profit organization, all donations will be tax-deductible. A letter acknowledging your donation will be sent upon receipt.

Capital Campaign

In keeping with the nature-oriented aspects of the Waldorf-methods curriculum, we are in the process of developing a campus that can be a model of environmental sensitivity and sustainability. We will compost our organic waste and recycle our paper, plastics and glass. It is the intention of our community of families to have Woodland Star be a model of right living for our children, and a model of an inexpensive, efficient and environmentally responsible school campus for the future, leading the way for other charter schools to solve their site challenges in a thoughtful, responsible and affordable way.

Charter schools were mandated by the California State Legislature in 1992, allowing creative, less restrictive education of public school children in California. As a Waldorf-Methods charter school, Woodland Star is at the forefront of this fastest growing movement towards alternative education. Positioned as one of the primary leaders of the Waldorf-Methods public school movement, Woodland Star is committed to disseminating our educational methods, organizational structure and community – building success with other like-minded schools and initiatives.

Site Needs

Beginning with the 2005-2006 school year, Woodland Star is housed in a facility at 17811 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, provided by our sponsoring Sonoma Valley Unified School District. The campus, due to district financial constraints, has been constructed of portable buildings, many of them relocated from other district uses.

In keeping with our environmental values and curriculum, Woodland Star hopes to adapt the campus design to include many sustainable elements, including natural lighting via sky tubes, solar energy, straw bale wall construction and recycled playground surfaces. The Woodland Star community intends for the new campus to include instructional elements – for example, a display and device explaining how the photovoltaic panels work and calculating how much energy they generate, so that the campus itself becomes a living instructional model. A central part of the campus will be devoted to curriculum gardens where students can study botany and grow food for school consumption.

Curriculum Needs

In addition to the primary teacher in each grade, the Waldorf-Method provides grades students with a complement of specialty teachers, who visit the classroom twice a week to provide special-subject instruction. In the 2008-2009 current school year, Woodland Star offers students:

• Spanish language instruction two times a week in all grades, including Kindergarten
• Handwork instruction – including knitting, crochet, sewing and cross-stitch two periods a week in grades One through Eight
• Movement Education incorporating non-competitive community-building social skills. Instruction two times a week in grades Four through Eight.
• Woodworking instruction two periods a week for grades Six, Seven and Eight.

While essential to Woodland Star's mission to bring a well-rounded holistic education to its students, these specialty subject classes bring with them a significant expense not found in traditional schools. Again, your support for this area of our program would be gratefully welcomed.