Welcome

Wow! We’re already a month into the New Year. It’s flying by so quickly. Now if we could get some warm weather for our bones, we’d know Spring will be here soon.

February is a time of sporadic sunshine, a time to show our love and caring for one another. In this crazy, hectic world we all need a little more love. It is truly a wonderful treat to share special ties and times with your children. February is a good time to be reminded of our commitment to be the best we can be to our children, and in doing so we should be the best we can to each other as well. Peace and love all start at home. Slow down, take time to enjoy the little things.  Have a wonderful month.

Classroom Notes

This month we will be doing lots of glittery and glitzy art projects (we apologize ahead of time for the glitter you will find in your cars). We will be using a huge amount of glitter, stickers, stampers, and red, purple and pink “everything”.  If you have any stickers, doilies, cancelled stamps, old notepaper, glitter, etc. that you would like to donate to our creativity, bring them in!!

Every year at Valentine’s Day parents ask us about Valentine exchanges. We do not do a whole class Valentine exchange. The reason for this is that not all families want to participate and it makes the children feel bad if they are not part of it. There will be many years to exchange Valentine’s in grade school. We also ask that you do NOT bring any candy to put in the files or the cubbies. Many parents really appreciate our no candy policy and we want to make sure you know this extends to Valentine’s Day as well. We will celebrate in class with a festive snack, colorful napkins, etc.  Thanks for your support.

Notice: We will be closed on Monday, February 11 and Monday February 18 for the two President’s holidays. No respite has been charged for these days. Happy long weekends!

EIP is coming...May 16th, 2008

Things are really moving along for Evening in Paradise. The classes will be starting their group projects soon, the committees are hard at work soliciting and picking up items.  Check this out and see how you can get involved to make this the best fundraiser ever. All the proceeds directly benefit our kids and our program.  We need everyone’s help to make this event a success.

Waiting List for Fall 2009

The waiting list for Fall 2009 begins on May 1, 2008 at 8 a.m. sharp for “new to Brush Creek families”.  The last two years the volume of calls has been quite high, so it is important to get on the list as soon as possible to ensure more class choices.  Please tell your friends.
If you are a returning Brush Creek Family (with a two year old sibling of an alumni) your waiting list begins on April 1st. This is a new thing so please note. If you know of other former BC families, please tell them about the April 1st date. Start time for the waiting list will be 8am also.

Upcoming news: We will be closed on Friday, April 4th for a teacher staff development day. The staff will be attending the California State Association for the Education of Young Children conference in Long Beach. No respite will be charge for that day. Thanks for supporting on-going educational opportunities for our staff.

Enrollment/Registration

Back class parents will find attached to this newsletter an enrollment sheet for next year. This is for continuing students only.

New students will receive their information in about a month. Please be aware of the registration deadline, attach a check and return to the office.

Front class parents who are considering keeping their child here another year instead of moving on to kindergarten should let the staff know. We will need you to fill out a form and put down a deposit to hold a space for the 07/08 school year.

Summer school flyers will be coming soon so watch for that. Our summer program is done on a first come, first served basis and you won’t want to miss out.

TAX ID NUMBER

Our tax id number is 94-2297008.

Summer school

It’s almost time to start thinking about what your children will be doing this summer. Our own summer program will begin on June 23 and we will have four two week sessions that run consecutively. Our flyer will be ready to distribute in the second week of February. The sign ups will be first come, first served (with a deposit) so look for your flyer! Our “kindergarten readiness” session is always popular and many other sessions fill pretty quickly.

Profile Employee — Cynara Martin

Our newest staff member Cynara Martin was born in San Diego. She is the oldest of five children, each being two years apart. Her siblings are stretched out from San Diego to Oregon and they enjoy times they are able to be together. Cynara is closest to her sister who is 6 years her junior and lives in Oregon. They speak regularly and visit as often as they can.

Cynara went to San Diego State where she earned a BA. She then went to Sonoma State for her teaching credential. In 1977 Cynara made the big decision to move to Santa Rosa and she has stayed ever since. She continued her education in ECE at Sonoma State and SRJC.

Cynara is Mom to three children, two daughters and a son. Her oldest daughter is 26 and lives in Washington. She is studying for “the bar”.  Her middle child, a daughter, is a Southern California girl, 22 years of age and studying at UCSD. Her youngest, Zac is 15 and living at home. He goes to Montgomery High School and is currently into sports.

In her spare time Cynara enjoys reading. She belongs to two bookclubs and says, “There’s no combination like good friends and good books”. She loves to walk and enjoys spending time with her family.

In her career, Cynara has worked at a center for at-risk children, a parent co-op and a private nursery school. Cynara and Julie forged a friendship many years ago as there was a common bond through work. Cynara was the Director at Live Oak Preschool in Healdsburg for 20 years. Feeling “it was time”,  Cynara started looking for a change. She parted from Live Oak on good terms with no job to go to. She experimented with career changes by taking some paralegal classes, working in public school and even thought about teaching kindergarten.  The field of Early Childhood pulled at her heartstrings.

Through a surprising turn of events (substituting for Birte and Noreen moving to Colorado) a job opening appeared at Brush Creek. It was an exciting opportunity on both sides, and Cynara was hired on.

Cynara is very happy to be working in a quality ECE program here at Brush Creek. She believes our children deserve quality and the staff readily provides that.  She has felt welcomed and she notes the staff has been extremely friendly.

“An added bonus is all the celebrating that goes on among staff.  It was a great holiday season at BC, plus birthdays and Julie’s anniversary month. I plan on being around for a lot more of BC celebrations”.

We welcome Cynara and look forward to many more years with her on staff.