Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Today is the final entry in our guest series from Unity Charter School, and it seems only fitting that we end it with thoughts from a student – Morgan Goldberg (pictured below in the middle of the photo) who is an 8th grader at Unity.

By Morgan Goldberg
8th grade student

The 2010-2011 school year is only my second at Unity, but I, like most of my classmates, feel like I have been going here for much longer. At Unity Charter School, community is something highly valued, and it is clear from walking in the door that our school is a unique place. The principles of sustainability and “positive discipline” are widely known and upheld, and this shows throughout an average day at Unity.

I am in 8th grade, in a class with 7th and 8th graders, but I regularly talk to and spend time with students of all grades, particularly in the first few minutes of the day when we all take part of what is referred to as “Morning Meeting.” Our entire school gathers in the our multi-purpose room for announcements and acknowledgments before we break apart for class meetings which are a more targeted version of our large meetings. I think this sets our day off on a positive note.

Throughout the day, we learn in new and inventive ways. The principles of sustainability – our “mission” – are enforced throughout the day when we do things such as learn about alternative energy in Science class, discuss current events in Social Studies, and help out in our newly thriving garden. As our school grows, this is expanding as well. For example, our new SmartBoard and science lab help our Educating for Sustainability (EfS) program to grow.

At Unity, we have a unique relationship with our teachers in that they value our opinions and listen to us. They are understanding, patient and approachable. We have respect for them because of who they are, not merely because we “should.”

I also love that, at Unity, there are so many ways to be involved. Democratic Governance, our Student Council, is at the heart of our school and I have been a part of it since I’ve been attending Unity. We have central officers, and representatives from each class from Kindergarten through 8th grade, and have two student council meetings a month, along with a “Democratic Governance Meeting” to share the summary with the school. There are also student-led “interest groups,” peer mediation programs and committees to be involved in. There is a big focus on finding, developing, and using students’ voices, and I think we all benefit from this.

However, I can honestly say I have fun here. Although we do focus on academics and leadership, we do things such as our highly anticipated field trips (which are approvingly frequent) both local and not, after-school events, and Middle School dances. Even throughout the day, I can work with younger students, have daily recess, and see my friends.

Though I am excited to be attending high school next year, I can honestly say I will miss Unity and all of the people who work and attend here.  From the beginning of the school day to the end, we are valued as more than just students. We have a great balance of academics, socialization and just plain fun. The relationships, the ability to speak and be heard, and community here is what keeps every day moving as smoothly as it (most of the time) does. And I can honestly say I am going to leave Unity much happier,  than I was when I came. •

Special thanks to Morgan and to all of our guest writers from Unity Charter School. In case you missed any of the previous entries in this series, you can find the links here:

Part 1 – Unity Charter School: With Room To Grow
Part 2 – Unity Charter School: A Teacher’s Perspective
Part 3 – “I feel like I died and went to school heaven”
part 4 – The Importance of Volunteering

Images: Unity Charter School

The next in our guest series from Unity Charter School: today we hear from Peter Munde, a member of Unity’s Board of Trustees, who sheds some light on complicated charter school finances and the satisfaction of volunteering in Unity’s unique lunchroom.

By Peter Munde

With our child attending Unity Charter School, volunteering affords a unique look at how Unity Charter School makes do with limited resources.

As a member of the UCS Board of Trustees, one of the things I do is chair the Finance Committee.  While charter schools are supposed to be funded at 90% of mainstream public school funding, in practice, they often receive less money than that. Unity’s students, for example, come from approximately 35 sending districts in addition to the Morris School District.  Not only does each district have different per-pupil school expenditures, the mix of sending districts varies from year to year too, which makes it difficult to plan Unity’s budget.

Moreover, facilities costs drive up a charter school’s fixed costs.  Where a mainstream school district budgets approximately two percent of its total annual expenses for facilities, 20% to 25% of a charter school’s annual budget goes toward building and maintenance.  That’s a big chunk of money that impairs our ability to pay for other necessities!  Yet, somehow each year, we manage.

Because of these financial factors, charter schools depend more on volunteers than a regular school does.  School director Carolyn Mungo functions both as school principal and as superintendent of a one-school, self-contained district.  She makes do with one administrative assistant.

To meet the school’s needs, parent volunteers help extensively.  A dedicated volunteer team located the new building at One Evergreen Place. This was more than a few phone calls on a weekday afternoon: it was countless hours of scouring the neighborhood for a suitable building; going before town planning boards; being available for meetings and building inspections, and so much more. If we had had to pay someone for this time, we could not have afforded the move.

Others support the school’s award-winning lunch program, helping to prepare the food, serve meals and wash laundry. For the last two years, I’ve been fortunate to devote one day each week to working in the school’s kitchen.

In our house, a nice family dinner is the most important part of the day.  It’s not easy to prepare a meal from scratch after a long workday, but putting good food on the table is priceless to me.  So volunteering in the Unity kitchen was a no-brainer.

I derive visceral satisfaction in completing basic tasks like cleaning and cutting fruit and vegetables, preparing salad dressing or tomato sauce, and generally assisting our wonderful chef. Yeah sure, washing the dishes provides no satisfaction, but it’s absolutely necessary.

And I love serving my child, and all the other kids, a homemade lunch each time I work there.

This series concludes next Tuesday, after the Memorial Day holiday.

Part 1 – Unity Charter School: With Room To Grow
Part 2 – Unity Charter School: A Teacher’s Perspective
Part 3 – “I feel like I died and went to school heaven”

Images: Unity Charter School

If you are a parent of school aged children, you know that sending your kids to a school that helps them learn and thrive is one of your top priorities. Ronni Arno Blaisdell, who moved to Morristown, New Jersey from Pennsylvania in 2009, could not believe her good fortune upon discovering Unity Charter School. (Paritally) organic vegetarian lunches? Individualized instruction? World languages, a science lab and performing arts? At a public school?! Yes.

Today, we hear from Ronni – a parent’s perspective – on how her two daughters are, indeed, learning and thriving at Unity Charter School:

By Ronni Arno Blaisdell

Our family moved to Morristown in the fall of 2009, when my kids were in second and fourth grades. Coming from Bucks County, PA, Morristown was a big change for us. There were pros (we could walk to town and don’t have to drive everywhere!) and cons (when we do have to drive, the traffic is unbelievable!)

But the best part about our move, without a doubt, was enrolling at Unity Charter School.

I heard about Unity shortly after settling into the area. An acquaintance, whom knew I was vegetarian, told me about a charter school that served partially organic vegetarian lunches. My jaw dropped. She then told me that they also encouraged sustainability, and my jaw dropped further. I couldn’t believe such a school existed. I had to learn more.

I raced to my computer and googled “Unity Charter School.” Sure enough, there it was: The mission of Unity Charter School is “to teach the importance of protecting and improving the environment by educating our students on the principles of sustainability, ecology, and diversity in a way that celebrates and honors this planet and all its inhabitants.”

When I looked further, I found that Unity isn’t only about protecting the environment and healthy lunches. Unity’s small class size and close-knit community allows teachers the opportunity to identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses. Students are evaluated using various assessments, and instructors then develop individual lessons plans that suit each student’s needs. In my world, this meant that my kids wouldn’t necessarily be treated just like everyone else. They would be treated like individuals. They would be given the opportunity to soar with their strengths and improve on their weaknesses.

I felt like I died and went to school heaven.

Needless to say, we visited the school immediately and applied for the following year. We were all ecstatic for September to begin. As the school year approached, I secretly hoped that Unity would live up to my inflated expectations.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Not only did Unity live up to my expectations, it exceeded them. My children walked into a brand-new 20,000 square-foot facility, complete with a World Language room, a Science lab, a Performing Arts room, and a full commercial grade kitchen. Outside was a garden, ready for the students to start nurturing and cultivating.

The multi-age classrooms were big and bright, and the students welcomed my daughters with open arms. I think they had more true friends in the first day there than they’d had in all their previous school years. The teachers are second-to-none. Not only are they top-notch educators, but they actively involve the parents, keep us updated on progress and issues, and encourage us to become involved with our children’s education.

Academically, my children are thriving. My oldest daughter has always been an independent worker who is very academically motivated. Her teacher provides her with special assignments, and she and her classmates collaborate on creative projects such as writing plays, choreographing dance routines for the school talent show, or putting together a presentation on recycling. My youngest daughter sometimes needs to be reminded to check her work carefully, and her teacher works with her on improving those skills in addition to teaching the regular curriculum.

Lunch was everything I dreamed it would be! Not only was I comfortable that my kids were getting a nutritious lunch every day, but I didn’t have to make it every day. My cooking skills leave a little to be desired, so I was thrilled when my younger daughter told me that “Chef Judy is the best cook ever.” She even ate all her vegetables! Any food that isn’t eaten gets composted, so it goes back to the soil, which ultimately helps the garden grow. The food grown in the garden is often used as part of the lunch program, and the entire process teaches children an extremely important lesson about where their food comes from.

My kids participate in Student Council, so they have a voice in school. In fact, all the teachers at Unity concur that students are part of the process of learning. The children are treated as partners, and that partnership empowers the students to be more invested in their educations. What’s more, the sense of inclusion at Unity means that the students don’t tease each other for their strengths or weaknesses. They students understand that they all work at different levels, and they are taught to help each other in the learning process.

Unity Charter School is one of the best decisions my family has made. I’m grateful that my children have the opportunity to attend Unity. And I’m grateful that I get to be part of such a caring community, where people take responsibility not only for themselves, but also for the world around them. •

This series continues next Monday.

Part 1 – Unity Charter School: With Room To Grow
Part 2 – Unity Charter School: A Teacher’s Perspective

Images: Unity Charter School

Happy Monday! We welcome back our friends from Unity Charter School, a tuition-free, public K – 8 charter school in Morris Township. In case you missed last week’s post, Unity is unique because it combines New Jersey core curriculum requirements with a focus on teaching students the principles of sustainability, ecology and diversity to celebrate and protect the planet and all its inhabitants.

What’s it like to be a teacher at this remarkable little school? Julia Kelly weighs in with her perpective today:

By Julia Kelly

I have been teaching the multi-age third and fourth grade learning group at Unity Charter school since 2002. While the previous building on Speedwell Avenue was quaint and homey, as we grew larger it became a cramped and challenging environment in which to teach and learn. It was particularly challenging to teach in a room with only a sky light and no windows. Now that we have moved to the new location, my classroom has six wonderful windows! Not only is the space much bigger, but it is wonderful and bright. The students are growing plants in every window. We have some great old hardwood and pine trees right outside, and we have hung many bird feeders. It was thrilling watching the birds all winter long.

One of the most important aspects of Unity is to teach the importance of protecting and improving the environment by educating our students on the principles of sustainability. There are many reasons why teaching at Unity has been such a wonderful experience for me these past nine years. Unity is a place that I have been able to share my passion for protecting the earth with young minds and this has impacted my life in many positive ways. I like the way we look at the whole child and are able to teach with a hands-on approach.

From a young age I have felt very connected to the earth. At the age of sixteen I designed my own herb garden in the back yard of our house in Califon, N.J. It was a successful first attempt at gardening. I have had a vegetable or flower garden just about every year since then. I love to share my passion for gardening with my students.

I have written many Education for Sustainability curriculum units with the help of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education. There are two units that I am particularly proud of having written. The first is an Efs unit on Endangered Species of New Jersey. With a combination of science, language arts, technology and art the students produce wonderful final projects around this subject area. They make their own book and sculptures of their chosen endangered species. We invite the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey come to our school to deepen the knowledge that students gain through their research of endangered species. The class then raises money for the foundation, and we adopt an endangered species with our donation.

Another curriculum unit that I am proud of is the Native and Invasive Plant Species of New Jersey. This unit is also multi-disciplinary; bringing together art, science, technology and language arts throughout the lesson plan. I also take the students on a field trip to the Tourne Park to see the native plant species garden. We finalize this unit with a power point presentation and class book that serves as a legacy project for future third and fourth grade classes.

Unity is an ideal place for me to share my love of the planet with young students. The mission is very close to my heart, and I think that makes it more genuine for the students as well. I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of this very special learning environment. •

This series continues next Monday

Images: Unity School students and their garden

Today we welcome a new guest blog series from Dodge grantee Unity Charter School, a tuition-free, public K – 8 charter school in Morris Township. Unity is unique because it combines New Jersey core curriculum requirements with a focus on teaching students the principles of sustainability, ecology and diversity to celebrate and protect the planet and all its inhabitants.

Founded in 1998,  it was among the second cohort of schools to be granted a charter in New Jersey. In the fall of 2010, the school expanded enrollment and relocated to a larger facility at One Evergreen Place in Morris Township.

In the coming weeks, we will hear from a number of perspectives – a parent, a teacher, a student, and a Board Member – and learn about the community this school has built and the remarkable practices it has put into place. Today’s blog post comes from Tanya Seaward, a member of the Board, a parent of three Unity students, and a member of the commUnity since 2007, about the tremendous effort behind their recent move to a much larger space, where they now have room to grow.

Students at the new Unity Charter School

By Tanya Seaward

I was a late joiner to the expansion effort. A doubting Thomas, if you will. In the three years that our family had been part of Unity, I had heard much talk of “expansion,” but nothing more than that. Just idle parking lot chatter. No real action. And the school continued on as always, doing wonderful things in the classroom, but in a cramped facility that it had long outgrown.

In the summer of 2009, a group of parents and Board members formed a new expansion committee. This group was energized, and they gave themselves a goal of one year to find a new location. I knew that previous expansion efforts had not been successful (high cost of real estate in Morristown and the Township, our limited start-up funds, restrictive charter school financing regulations), and I really didn’t expect the current effort to be any different.

My perspective changed in November 2009. The Expansion Committee had made a presentation to the Board of Trustees, in which they had identified the “target” – One Evergreen Place. The building, although located in an urban/industrial area, had a few key things going for it. First, it was zoned for school use, which would save months—years even—and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to change the zoning use.

Second, about half of the building had been used previously as a preschool. We thought we could use a significant portion of the existing layout, which would save time and renovation costs, which fit our budget (miniscule) and our mission perfectly. And while the existing room configurations were not always ideal, (our architect described some rooms as “bowling alleys”), we were used to making compromises. After all, in the old school, students ate lunch in the hallway, and we conducted our school-wide morning meetings outside!

The Expansion presentation was a turning point for me as a Trustee, as a parent, and as a volunteer. It was the first time that I really felt that expansion was actually possible. It wasn’t just idle chatter anymore, and  I couldn’t wait to see the facility.

Unity’s Spanish language classroom

The building itself was in a slightly shabby state of disuse. But to me, it was full of promise at every turn. Crumbling ceiling tiles on the floor? I saw a lovely small group learning classroom. (Current small groups were taking place behind a curtained off section of the hallway.) Water stained carpet from a leaky roof? I saw a bright kindergarten classroom with windows on two sides. (My daughter was currently in a classroom with no windows at all – only a skylight.) Forlorn playground full of waist-high weeds? I could already hear the happy squeals of children playing tag, and the bounce of the four-square ball.

Walking the halls, and peering into the rooms, I imagined the children filing from classroom to classroom, eating lunch in a real cafeteria, learning in a real school. It was a like a dream, and the building was vacant to boot! And finally, the last good portent: the children of one of our Trustees had actually attended the YMCA preschool in that very building ten years ago. He knew the building like the back of his hand. It all just “felt” right.

Unity students playing outside (plans to build a playground are in the works)

I got so excited about the prospects for the school, I immediately joined the Expansion Committee. I knew that there was an incredible amount of work to be done, and I wanted to help. The Expansion Committee was an amazing and dedicated group of volunteers with the perfect mix of talents for this mission—Architect! Lawyer! Fundraiser! Sustainability Expert! Accountant! and even a Nurse! It was an expansion “dream team.”

Little did I know that the next ten months would prove to be an intense, grueling, emotional roller-coaster of planning, strategizing, endless meetings, presentations, negotiations, frustration, perseverance, tears, drama and great memories too.

I’m chuckling as I write this, remembering some of the more hilarious and downright ludicrous moments: Conference calling banks inquiring about bond financing from our “office”—the backseat of a committee members’ car that had conference call technology! Another committee member, sending expansion emails from the floor of the closet of her hotel room during her family holiday, so that the light from the computer screen wouldn’t wake her children. Our husbands, texting each other, and commiserating as self-described “Expansion Widowers.” Our maternal fears that our children would suffer malnutrition from endless meals of mac and cheese. Sneaking downstairs in the wee hours of the morning to work on financial projections, so that my family wouldn’t see how much time I was spending on “expansion,” which had now become a dirty word in our household. Final lease negotiations, held in my laundry room, while the other committee members’ collective nine children stampeded throughout the house.

But finally, success! We opened the doors for the start of the school year at 8 am on Monday, September 13, 2010, right on schedule (barely!).

I feel immensely proud to have been part of the expansion effort, and the fact that Unity can now bring quality sustainability education to so many more children and their parents. I also feel fortunate to have been able to work with such an incredibly talented group of women, whose intelligence, perseverance and commitment to education and sustainability are awe-inspiring. But most of all, I feel amazed. Amazed every single time I walk in the building. Amazed that we did it despite our limited finances and that we did it in such a short time period. Amazed … and immensely thankful. •

This series continues next Monday.

Images: Unity Charter School