I love looking back on everything that happened here at SYC. The teachers are offering their view of the year from the classes. Watching from the office windows, Adele, Holly and I often leapt from our seats with the camera to capture the unbelievable events happening around the school. It\’s hard to concentrate on budget spreadsheets when children are creating a brand new cardboard city right outside your window. And not that the weather is warm and our windows are open, we have regular window visitors stopping by to chat.
It always reminds me that the reason we have all come together in this special community of families is to provide a natural, safe environment for the children to explore, learn and develop in their own unique ways and in their own time. We adults feel honored to be present to watch all these personalities as they bloom, to offer a hand here and there as needed but more often to just stand back in awe.
For our staff, the year was also consumed with documenting how children learn at SYC to meet the standards of the National Association for Young Children in order to become re-accredited. For me, the whole reason to go through this process was to prove that our child-centered, free-play curriculum provides the basics in all areas of growth and development as well as in the social and emotional areas.
It was also the year of the \”SYC Book\” by Heather Shumaker, the new climber on the 3\’s playground and Ann Rigney receiving the \”Ohio Teacher of the Year\” award. All in all, it was a stellar year.
We had a really active and dedicated group of parents on the SYC committees who took on lots of hard projects – our silent auction was a wonderful event, but some of the other important duties of the committees are not visible but critical for keeping SYC going – the budget advisers, the fundraising and tuition assistance decisions, the maintenance and communication projects, the delicious treats from hospitality chair efforts and all the other details that come up and need attention. Thank you all so much for all your work this year. It\’s so important to the running of the school that we have your perspective and support.
The end of the year is always bittersweet. If your family is graduating on into the next exciting stage in the world, please stop in for hugs and to let us know how things are going for you now and then. We will miss you.
-Stephanie Rottmayer, Director