Sage Parent Association (SPA)
The Sage Parents Association (SPA) cultivates an inclusive community of Sage School parents that works toward the healthy growth and development of the school and its students.
SPA GOALS ARE:
- To progress the Vision, Mission, and Philosophy of The Sage School
- To create an open and inclusive community for parents
- To facilitate communication between parents, board, and staff.
- To create and support informational, volunteer, and fundraising efforts and events.
- To facilitate connections between the school and the broader community.
Please click through the below links to explore our SPA resources:
Like many schools, we seek to balance the tensions of having parents feel informed and engaged without feeling overwhelmed by obligations. We try to be cognizant of not scheduling more than 1 Sage School event in any given week. However, our community is still important, and tending to what we do to build and nurture that community is important. We offer the following structure as a way to ‘balance’ all of the tasks we juggle each year.
Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Sep |
---|---|---|---|---|
Field Studies Evening | Back to school Night | PA Meeting, with Education Topic | Parent Fun / Social Event | Book Club hosted by 10/11 |
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May |
---|---|---|---|---|
PA Meeting with Education Topic | Parent Fun / Social Event | Book Club hosted by 8/9 | PA Meeting with Education topic (Board Presentation) | Book Club hosted by 6/7 |
Like many schools, we seek to balance the tensions of having parents feel informed and engaged without feeling overwhelmed by obligations. We try to be cognizant of not scheduling more than 1 Sage School event in any given week. However, our community is still important, and tending to what we do to build and nurture that community is important. We offer the following structure as a way to ‘balance’ all of the tasks we juggle each year.
The calendar seeks to create time and space for the following sorts of events:
- Business Items: Back to School, Field Studies night, and perhaps a few others during the year.
- PA Meetings: These are open to all parents, and held at the school from 6-7:30. They start with a “pulse of the parents” introduction question to dialogue about issues going on in our lives as parents of teens. Each PA Meeting has an educational topic/speaker, so you can just come and listen if you like. Previous topics include sex ed, bullying prevention, substance abuse prevention, parenting expertise, etc.
- Fun/Social Events: We schedule a few social events during the year to get to know each other.
- Book Club: Each band hosts a book club- all ages may come- but that focuses on some key issues going on at that age. Typically held at a parent’s house, in a more casual setting. Reading is encouraged, but not necessary. Sharing of a glass of wine is encouraged, but not necessary.
There are many ways for current parents to get involved. The SPA has active committees which meet in between the larger Parents Association meetings during the year. Our FUNraising committee plans school-wide events, such as our all-school ski day or our winter carnival, and also plans a few parent social get-togethers throughout the year. There are outreach opportunities for parents to help establish a presence and volunteer in the valley- events such as hosting a booth at the Trailing of the Sheep. Certain parents have volunteered to be Band Parents, which helps communicate all of this information to their fellow band parents and helps new parents understand the context of Sage.
All of this involvement is wonderful and appreciated, however, we also want to make sure that we are a space for parents to get involved at any level- from heading a committee to just showing up to a few meetings a year. All levels of participation are welcome.
The Sage Parents Association has created a book club that meets three times per year. Each band level sponsors a book club. While each meeting is open to all parents, this allows each band to focus in on readings relevant to that specific age. We gather to read and discuss books and ideas as they relate to adolescence. We have read books on adolescent development, brain science, mindfulness, gender, parenting, environmental education, non-graded assessment, creativity, and education theory, among other themes. We typically have someone create notes on each of the books for us to discuss, as a way to boil the books down to a few pages for easy digestion. Those notes are available by clicking on the images of the books below. The book club is open to all current parents, whether or not they have read the books. Our desire is to create a space to discuss important ideas about raising adolescents and find mutual support in each other.
Visit the FORMS PAGE to find annual registration forms for new and returning students and other forms and waivers that crop up throughout the year.