11-12 AMS Report/2 cover.indd
Transcripción
11-12 AMS Report/2 cover.indd
Contact Administrative Office 5006 Sunset Trail Austin, Texas 78745 512-892-0253 (office) 512-891-9875 (fax) [email protected] Sunset Trail/Jones Road Campus 2904 & 2906 Jones Road 5006-5016 & 4910 Sunset Trail Austin, Texas 78745 Great Northern Campus 6817 & 6819 Great Northern Boulevard Austin, Texas 78757 512-323-2313 (office) 512-450-1940 (fax) Gaines Creek Campus 5677 Oak Boulevard Austin, Texas 78735 512-892-0826 Our Mission The mission of Austin Montessori School is to guide the intellectual and character development of each child along a path towards his full and unknown potential. We strive to cultivate compassion and respect, independence and belonging, and freedom and self-discipline in rich academic and social environments that are designed for each plane of development and that honor the complementary needs of the individual and the group. We value an educational setting that is inclusive, responsive to the authentic nature of the child and reverent of the organic order of the universe. Through parent and staff education, we work to develop a school and family culture that preserves and protects a healthy childhood. Our aim is to serve children possessing an ample range of temperaments and a variety of learning styles and rates. We seek to avoid labeling as pathological the normal range of children’s behaviors and differences in learning. austinmontessori.org founded in 1967 We are dedicated to Montessori’s mission of world peace through human development. OUR Staff Administrative & Support Staff Board of Directors Donald C. Goertz, PhD Clara Serrano Michelle Sweeten Christina Pesoli John Snyder, ex officio* Chris Howard, ex officio Dawn Glasgow, ex officio Donald Goertz, Executive Director Donna Bryant Goertz, Founder/Director Emerita* Dawn Glasgow, Administrative Executive Amber Miller, Director of Admissions/Parent Liaison John Snyder, Assistant to the Executive Director* Lois O’Brien, Office Manager Jerry Pippins, Maintenance Director Laura Yero, Campus Coordinator Amanda Brown, Great Northern Campus & Commons Coordinator Lori Friedman, Assistant to Director of Admisssions Sonal Bowness, Librarian/Communications Coordinator Gwen Logan, Parent Infant Education/Club Mundi* Lucinda Castillo, Shuttle Bus Driver Charlotte Kroger, Children’s House Mentor/Consultant* Leslie Grove, School Counselor/Elementary Mentor Patricia Oriti, Consultant* Jenny Höglund, Consultant* Megan Canney, Strings Lani Hamilton, Strings Brooks Whitmore, Piano Debra Groves, Piano Youngest Children’s Communities Margarita Ruiz, Guide* Gaby Molinar, Assistant* Kadie Beasley, Guide* Mary Collins, Assistant Children’s House Communities Valerie Monda, Guide* Kate Hearn, Assistant Natalie London, Guide* Megan Haley, Assistant Jesse Jahnke, Guide* Socorro Aguilar, Assistant Cheryl McGee, Guide* Mary Ann Collins, Assistant Yvonne Solorio, Guide* Jessenia Giron, Assistant Youngest Children’s Communities Ages 18 months - 3 years Butterfly & Hummingbird Gardens 23 Students Children’s House Communities Ages 3 - 6 years Cypress, Laurel, Redbud, Pomegranate & Persimmon Cottages 135 Students Early Elementary Communities Ages 6 - 9 years Juan, Francesca & Robert Tejeda, Caretakers Cleotilde Maldonado, Caretaker Guidance & Assistance our students Birdsong, Heartsong & Windsong 89 Students Upper Elementary Communities Early Elementary Communities Mary Long Geil, Guide* Sasha Marble, Assistant Erik Rivas-Rivas, Guide* Jamie Stone, Assistant Joseph Aken, Guide* Janice Kearley, Assistant* Upper Elementary Communities Johnnie Denton, Guide* Caroline Golden, Assistant Kelly Jarrell, Guide* Audie Alcorn, Assistant* Adolescent Community Thomas Logan, Instructor** Jesse Gevirtz, Instructor** Veronique Mareen, Instructor** Bill Sneed, Instructor** Sheilah Murphy, Instructor After-School Care Angela Eagle, Casita Leader* Devon Abbey, Casita Assistant Mandy Klein, Clubhouse Leader/Commons Coordinator Casey Neumann, Clubhouse Assistant *Has received an AMI diploma on at least one level **Has attended the North American Montessori Teacher’s Association Orientation to Adolescence Training Ages 9 - 12 years Nova & Terra 53 Students Adolescent Community Ages 12 - 15 years Gaines Creek 33 Students 333 Total Students in 2011-2012 346 Total Students in 2010-2011 A Message from the Executive Director Writing a retrospective letter each year for the Annual Report can be — and should be — a somewhat repetitive task. Reflected in that repetition, year after year, is the reliability, confidence, stability and faithfulness that a school such as Austin Montessori School provides to the children and families it serves. Yet, we are not of a mind to rest on our laurels. That we as a community of educators, parents and support staff will always be stretching, growing, and challenging ourselves individually and collectively to an even deeper understanding of our Montessori mission and practice is perhaps the most unshakable and reliable promise we renew with each other each year. Looking back over the 2011-2012 school year, our 45th year of service to children and families, I can say without hesitation that this is a promise we as a community of educators and parents kept. Our long faithfulness was of the utmost importance to the eight young people who graduated from our Adolescent Community, five of whom had been with us since Children’s House days, and one of whom is the first of our alumni to have started in the Youngest Children’s Community 12 years ago. These eight graduates confidently follow hundreds of their fellows into the larger world to live their lives with the same creativity, insight, passion, resourcefulness, and kindness they have cultivated in their school community. Faithful and hard working, too, were our guides and their assistants, daily renewing themselves to bring the best of Montessori education to the children. Continuing education is an important part of that renewal, and with 20 of our staff in attendance, Austin Montessori School had the single largest number among the nearly 2000 participants at the AMI Refresher Courses in February. Pedagogically, our guides continued to have strong and consistent support from Patricia Oriti, our whole-school consultant, Charlotte Kroger, our Children’s House mentor, and Jenny Höglund, an AMI trainer at the elementary and adolescent levels and founder of Montessoriskolan Lära för livet in Varberg, Sweden. Austin Montessori School continues to be an inspiration and model for other Montessorians around the world, as evidenced by the many keynote addresses, workshops, presentations, consultations, and articles members of our school community provided across the country and abroad. We were likewise happy to welcome professional visitations from colleagues in Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Romania and Aruba. In the revitalization and expansion of our Board of Trustees, we accomplished a key step in the strengthening of our school’s governance in preparation for a transition to new leadership once a suitable head of school can be found. In large part because of the Board’s leadership and many parent volunteers, we had a highly successful Annual Fund drive and were able to advance our goal of increased financial strength. We continue to be humbled by the trust and support we receive day after day, year after year, decade after decade from families that care and think deeply about their children’s education. It is a trust we hold sacred, and we look forward to many more fruitful years of work together. In respect and gratitude, Donald C. Goertz, Ph.D. Executive Director A Message From The Founder When I embarked, some 45 years ago, on my journey in Montessori, little could I have anticipated the growth and development of Austin Montessori School. A journey is not truly a journey without unsuspected twists and turns, meetings with both great beings and ferocious obstacles, losing and finding one’s way, and relishing the joys of serendipitous discovery. When as a young, new guide, my first mentor Nan Hanrath observed in my classroom and pronounced, to my dismay, that “this was not a Montessori classroom, but that it could become one,” I did not immediately understand how profoundly she was describing the Montessori journey as a perpetual “becoming,” as a growth toward an authentic expression of Dr. Montessori’s vision, education as an aid to human life, education as a road to peace for humanity. In meeting, speaking with or working alongside, parents, staff, children and board members this year, I have seen with what care and dedication our school community continues to strive for the most effective, authentic and expansive Montessori education. Because of the work we have all done and are doing, Austin Montessori School continues to be a model and inspiration for Montessori practitioners both here and abroad, in schools private or public, secular or parochial, AMI or otherwise affiliated. It has been my privilege and delight this year to present over a dozen parent education topics to AMS parents and staff and to share with you as well as the wider world five articles on the popular Montessori blog mariamontessori.com. One of these articles, “Owner’s Manual for a Child,” has now been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian for republication in various Montessori forums worldwide. We have heard from administrators around the country who are using our book, Children Who Are Not Yet Peaceful, for staff development and that it is now required reading for all Montessori teacher trainees in Austria. Don and I traveled to Tulsa, Denver, Dallas and South Bend, Indiana, as I presented to and consulted with Montessori guides, parents and administrators in those cities, sharing the Montessori experience and wisdom that has been mined and refined at our school. These consultations, though sometimes daunting, were ultimately refreshing and revitalizing as again and again i was witness to the beauty of Maria Montessori’s universal vision taking root and beginning to flower in schools whose demographics, resources, and challenges were often so very different from our own. On one of our trips, we met Rose, a little Haitian girl of eleven who had lost her parents and both of her legs in the 2010 earthquake. Rose had been adopted by a family at Good Shepherd Montessori School in South Bend, where she was welcomed into their loving and peaceful community. I watched one day as the children of the elementary were preparing to go to recess. In her usual high-spirited way, Rose was spinning on the floor with both prosthetic limbs in the air, when a bolt flew off one of them. Seeing that Rose was upset over the prospect of not getting to run and play, the children searched vigorously for the missing bolt, but to no avail. Finally, an older and larger boy consoled Rose, promising to carry her from place to place and help her onto and off the playground equipment. It strikes me that this same spirit of compassionate community is the foundation for all our success as a school — past, present, and future — that it must continue to be our anchor and our compass as together we write new chapters to the history of this great and confirmed experiment. Donna Bryant Goertz FOUNDER Introducing The Board of Directors Austin Montessori School was founded in 1967 and incorporated as a non-profit educational organization in 1994. Since that time, it has operated under the close direction of a small board led by Don and Donna Goertz. To insure a strong, stable future, Don has worked with the administrative team to rewrite the bylaws of the school to provide for a larger, more active Board of Trustees. This new Board met for the first time in November 2011, and has already begun to provide invaluable service and advice to the school on issues of finance, fundraising, governance and planning. The bylaws provide for a Board of up to nine members, not parents with children currently in the school. The bylaws also reserve a seat on the Board for a member of the Goertz extended family and provide for ex officio members to serve on committees of the Board. Voting members of the Board serve renewable three-year terms; ex officio members serve renewable one-year terms. Board members volunteer their time and efforts and are not compensated for their service. There are three standing committees: The Executive Committee Don Goertz (President) Clara Serrano (Vice-President) John Snyder (Secretary, ex officio) Chris Howard (Treasurer, ex officio) The Finance Committee Chris Howard (Chair, ex officio) Don Goertz Michele Sweeten Dawn Glasgow (ex officio) The Fundraising Committee Clara Serrano (Chair) Christina Pesoli DONALD C. GOERTZ, PhD, is the Executive Director of Austin Montessori School, a former Upper Elementary guide, the founder of our school’s Adolescent Community some 20 years ago, and husband of founder Donna Bryant Goertz. Prior to his work in Montessori, Don was a professor of classics at Hollins College in Virginia, professor and head of classics at Ball State University in Indiana, and associate academic dean at a local university. He holds three degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, did graduate work at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany, published three books (all of them now out of print), and is an avid student of history, especially Ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and pre- and postWWII Germany. Don has led many groups of our adolescents on a legendary trip to Rome that he developed over a span of 10 years. CLARA SERRANO is former parent of three daughters attending the school through the Adolescent level. Clara has been working at Freescale Semiconductor for 28 years, managing global technical documentation teams and driving cross-functional initiatives at the corporate level. She has volunteered her time on numerous school-related activities and also served on the board of the Austin Waldorf School for 2.5 years (one year as secretary of the board). She holds a BS Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. CHRISTINA PESOLI has long been associated with the school, first as a student and later as a parent. A native Austinite, she is a graduate of St. Edward’s University and Notre Dame Law School. Christina has a weekly column in Culture Map and her essays have also appeared in a variety of other publications, including the Austin American Statesman’s Raising Austin, Notre Dame Magazine and KUT’s O’ Dark Thirty. Christina is the founder of Emotional Hard Body, LLC, which provides behavioral coaching for people who are going through divorce. Christina is the daughter of founder Donna Bryant Goertz. MICHELE SWEETEN, the owner of a local CPA firm specializing in small-business and non-profit accounting, has been the school’s accountant since 2004. She also serves on the board of Badgerdog Literary Publishing, Inc., a local organization that fosters young writers through education and publishing, and was for a number of years an instructor in accounting at Austin Community College. Michele is a graduate of the University of Maryland. CHRIS HOWARD (EX OFFICIO) is former parent at the school, having had three daughters attend through the Adolescent level. He has 18 years of experience in various levels of management at Motorola and had operational responsibility for the network processor division there. He has also worked on several high-tech projects as an independent consultant and is a certified tax advisor. He holds a BS Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Chris is an avid traveler, and when he’s not in Board meetings, you can often find him hiking the Appalachian Trail. DAWN GLASGOW (EX OFFICIO) has been the Administrative Executive at Austin Montessori School since 2002. Prior to that she worked in various engineering, product and program management positions at W.L. Gore and Associates and Dell, Inc. Dawn has been instrumental in bringing AMS into the world of modern information technology. Dawn is the mother of three daughters and one son, two of them AMS alumni, one in the Nova Community and one in the Adolescent Community. Dawn is a member of the Montessori Administrator’s Association. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. JOHN R. SNYDER (EX OFFICIO), a member of the administrative team at Austin Montessori School, has been a Montessori parent since 1995 and a member of the school community since 1998. He holds the AMI Elementary Diploma from the Washington Montessori Institute. John writes a regular column for Public School Montessorian newspaper and is a popular keynoter and workshop leader in the states and abroad. He currently serves on the Board of AMI-EAA, the professional organization for AMI-trained elementary guides. Before his Montessori career, John worked in academia and industry as a computer science researcher and educator, software engineer, technical manager and management consultant. He holds degrees from the U. of Houston School of Music, the U. of Kansas and the U. of Washington-Seattle. Alumni Spotlight Tate Deskins, son of Andy and Janet Deskins and brother of Bryce Deskins, came to Austin Montessori School from First Montessori School in Atlanta, completing Upper Elementary and the Adolescent Community at AMS. He graduated from St. Andrew’s Episcopal High School in 2009. Tate is currently a senior at Kenyon College, majoring in physics, with a special interest in computational cosmology. He has discovered a love of teaching and aspires to someday teach at a liberal arts college, where he can have the sort of close working relationship with students that he has experienced in Montessori and at Kenyon. Tate writes of his Montessori experience, “I have had conversations with many people about my Montessori education. It is without a doubt what has allowed me to enjoy my schooling and be as successful as I have been. My curiosity, my passion for learning, my approach to problem solving and my desire to master something and teach others - all have their roots in my days with the bead frame, the pink tower and the binomial cube. “Recently, I was able to use my tactile knowledge of the binomial cube to help with my honors research. I was trying to figure out how to solve a coding problem in my research dealing with the initialization of the momentum modes of a gauge field. I realized that if I divided the momentum space like one would the binomial cube [a key Montessori material in both primary and elementary], the initialization problem became trivial. It is amazing how much my Montessori education has made me who I am.“ Tate working with cubing material in Nova 2012 Gaines Creek Commencement Ceremony High Schools of 2012 Gaines Creek Graduates McCallum Fine Arts Academy (3 students) St. Andrew’s Episcopal School Liberal Arts & Sciences Academy Anderson High School (2 students) Austin High School Global Studies St. Michael’s Catholic Academy Bowie High School Colleges & Occupations of Some 2012 High School Graduates Austin Community College; Austin, TX McNally Smith College of Music; St. Paul, MN Mount Holyoke College; South Hadley, MA Texas State University; San Marcos, TX US Naval Academy; Annapolis, MD Living in the community of children, parents, guides and staff is both our joy and our work as we educate for peace. Here are just a few of the memorable community events that served to knit us together. The Great Northern Family Picnics brought families together to enjoy each other’s company. Families and staff loved working together at our Outdoor Environment Days, renewing and beautifying the gardens and play areas. Side by side we cared for the land that is our home. The Terra/Nova Candlelight Poetry Night continued the long tradition of giving and receiving poetry as a community of adults and children. Bluegrass Night at the Center for Adolescent Work and Study at Gaines Creek continued to be a hugely popular whole-family event, full of good food, fun activities, and entertainment, all hosted by the adolescents in our community. Community Building The Terra/Nova Geography Fair allowed the older children to showcase dozens of displays of their geographical research. Fall Festival brought us together for fun, fellowship, food and fundraising, as each classroom community sponsored a healthy activity or cultural presentation. In addition to much-loved story times from guides, the Annual Book Drive prompted the donation of 284 new books for our library and classrooms. education for staff, facility improvements and tuition assistance for families. Parent and staff participation raised $86,000 toward providing for these needs. We hosted a full slate of Parent Education Events, including over 100 Parent Gatherings, Open Houses and other meetings, several Conversations with Donna Bryant Goertz, GNPA presentations, the How to Talk So Kids Will Listen workshop, and many parenting classes with Sandy Blackard. First Friday materials making sessions brought us together for informal community time to make or refresh materials for the classroom communities. Our gala Fiesta silent and live auction was a night to remember, netting $39,000 for our school. The school’s Annual Fund directly affects all of our communities by providing funding for things like continuing Statement of Financial Activities The Board of Trustees of Austin Montessori School is the custodian for the financial stability of the school and ensures operations with predictable revenue and well-managed expenses, all to a board approved budget. Revenue for the year ending July 2012 totaled $3.12 million, down slightly from $3.31 million in 2011. Fiscal Year 2011-2012 operating expenses increased slightly to $3.09 million. In addition to its core operating expenses, the school made principal payments of $193K on debt of $1.5 million. The focus for Fiscal Year 2012-13 is to continue building our reserve fund up to the equivalent of 4 months of expenses (currently the reserves average about 1.5 months of expenses), to exceed enrollment goals and plan for a significant decrease in debt over the next 3 years. As a non-profit school, our future success depends on maintaining a strong financial foundation, and philanthropy plays a significant role. A strong Annual Fund combined with a disciplined operating budget helps keep tuition affordable for our families. Revenue % of Revenue /Expenses (2011-12) Tuition & Fees Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Fiscal Year 2010-2011 95.2% $2,966,159$3,142,601 Fundraising & Grants 4.4% $136,622$157,060 Other Income 0.4% $13,669$9,350 TOTAL100% $3,116,450$3,309,011 Expenses Salaries, Benefits, Staff Development 71.6% $2,215,341$2,107,227 Building Expenses, Repairs & Maintenance 13.4% $414,043$417,569 Utilities, Insurance & Operations 6.1% $190,109$205,895 Classroom Supplies 5.0% $155,887$132,046 Tuition Assistance 3.8% $117,923$133,948 TOTAL100% $3,093,303$2,996,685 Net Increase/(Decrease) in Unresticed Net Assets $23,147 $312,326
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