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ABS Thursday Notes- May 30, 2024

Published for the Arts Based School Community

May 30, 2024


How We Do It and Why

by Mary Siebert


“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”  

— Liberty Hyde Bailey, American Horticulturist


For over two decades, I’ve been sharing perspectives about how we do things at The Arts Based School, and this is my final installment. The last day for students next week will also be my last day, as I begin retirement. It has been a privilege and a joy to help create and develop this lovely, growing school. I’ve learned more than I’ve given, and I woke each morning knowing that I was about to spend the day doing something that mattered. Thanks to my colleagues, the wonderful teachers, board members, and our families for this great opportunity. You have made it rich and fulfilling.


When we moved into our MLK building 21 years ago, there were no gardens, trees, or flowers. There were muddy parking lots resting over a foot of gravel. We built our gardens with grant money for plants and garden artists, with volunteer sweat, and with generous donations of time and expertise from gardening experts. And when I say “we” built them, I mean us. My husband and I, Charter Director Robin Hollis and her husband, parents, and students and teachers. We swarmed in on the weekends and built the frames for the sidewalk, laid the pipe for the fountain, built the raised beds, laid the stone, planted the plants. It took at least two hours to dig down through the gravel enough to plant a single tree. Our pay-off: a beautiful garden to enjoy and to learn from, shade, a curving walkway, habitat for birds and butterflies, and delicious figs in summer.


My personal wish was for an apple tree. I wanted our students to see the seasons there: the fragrant budding and blossoming, the swelling fruits, the harvest, the silent winter branches. After much nurturing, we finally harvested one single apple…before our only apple tree died. At the time of the great one-apple harvest, we had about 150 students. I took that apple home, and baked an apple crisp, augmenting it with more apples. I divided the crisp into enough little samples for every child and staff member to taste a bite. As I wheeled my pastry cart into each classroom, I explained to the students that some of them would swallow a little of our Arts Based Apple. They would recognize it if they felt a warm bit of magic in their tummy.


Later that day, all of the students gathered for Friday Sing. Before we sang an apple song, I asked how many of them suspected that they had eaten a bit of the ABS Apple. Every student and many teachers stretched a hand toward the rafters. These little sparkling pips of magic are what we hope will burrow and unfurl inside each student: curiosity, creativity, self-expression, an open mind, compassion, community, humor.


The magic of this school is well represented by the garden. It flourishes and nourishes us when all of us help to tend it. Over the years, we have welcomed garden gurus and stars (Matt Mayers and John Newman, Ian Byers, Leah Lavin, Jan Detter and Kristen Haaf, I’m thinking of you…) and generous volunteers, parents, grandparents, teachers, board members and local artists, who contributed to the overall ABS culture as if they were master gardeners. 


After Covid, our gardens were like the thorns surrounding Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Volunteers fell away, our spirits strained. We used to welcome scores of helpers, when we hosted a gardening Saturday. Bit by bit, the numbers fell back, until we stopped hosting those gardening days, and the weeds rejoiced.


And this is where I enter a love note to Robin Hollis. Ms. Hollis is finishing her second year as our Charter Director, and was Principal of the school for the twenty years before, beginning year one. Leaning heavily into the metaphor, she is the master gardener and the absolute backbone of this school, and her dedication and vision and sweat equity have made it possible. Not a single dream of mine would have become reality without her. Many of my most creative ideas were actually her ideas. She never leaves the work to others, but it is often left to her. 


You can find Ms. Hollis literally in the garden nearly every weekend. She routinely pulls weeds for the first half of her Saturday, usually by herself. She befriends neighbors who stroll or bike through the parking lot; they know her by name. I have marveled, countless times, as she gently and skillfully coaxed an anguished or furious child back to their center, to confidence, to laughter, ready to focus and learn again. It is not at all uncommon for her to leap in a twinkling from writing an important federal report to pulling on her tap shoes and joining the kindergarteners in a rollicking shuffle-step. These are the acts of a truly nurturing gardener. Much of the goodness you see at our school is rooted in Ms. Hollis and her fierce dedication. 


As people have regained their strength, we have again sensed a flourishing of volunteers, and a fresh uprising of support flowing from families. Just yesterday, parents on social media enthusiastically shared information about the gardens at the North campus, suggesting that they themselves would like to lead an afterschool gardening club. The book fair, the January Jam, the tap shoe donations, were all signs of strengthening and recovery. I believe that the coming year will bring a tumbling in of help and good will. I envision Saturday mornings when Ms. Hollis will be surrounded again by families and staff who delight in leaning into the next flowering of this unique school. This is truly the answer to how we do it and why…we do it with the help of everyone here, because there is a richly emotional reward from this kind of generosity, and its greatest beneficiaries are our children. 


We did it!

   Congrats to ABS!  We were notified yesterday that we were selected to receive a new electric bus rebate.  Big thanks to Board member Jay Kumar who worked tirelessly on this initiative to replace one of our diesel buses with an electric bus!  The process will take some time, but we're excited to get the bus rolling!


Here is an excerpt from the press release: 

Today, the U.S. EPA announced that The Arts Based School in Winston-Salem will be awarded $345,000 for the purchase of an all-electric school bus and associated charging infrastructure, via the Clean School Bus Program. This groundbreaking investment in zero-emission transportation will support cleaner air for our children, produce immediate and long-term cost-savings for the school, and further grow our region’s clean energy economy. 


In response to this news, leaders from The Arts Based School and Piedmont Environmental Alliance (PEA) released the following statements:


“We're excited to use our new electric bus as both a learning tool and a means to get from here to there,” says Robin Hollis, Charter Director of The Arts Based School. “Our students will get to learn about the environmental benefits of an electric vehicle.  We hope to inspire other schools to take action toward environmental stewardship, even with small steps, one bus at a time.  We are especially grateful to the EPA for making this possible for our school.”


“As both an environmental advocate and a parent of two Arts Based School students, I am doubly proud today,” says Jamie Maier, Executive Director of Piedmont Environmental Alliance. “All of our children and educators deserve the very best, especially when it comes to safe, healthy rides to and from school. We are grateful to The Arts Based School, our community, and the Biden-Harris Administration for their collective support.“ 


Staffing Announcements:

We have exciting news as we welcome some familiar faces back to ABS.

  

Ashley McKenzie will be returning to ABS as EC coordinator/Lead Teacher.  Her role will round out the EC team working with Justi and Anne and EC students.  Ashley has completed her Master's degree and now steps into a leadership role for our EC dept.  

 

Vanessa Giraldo will be returning to ABS as a teaching assistant for Mr. Greene's kindergarten class.  

 

Liz Green will increase her hours and her role on the administrative team as our full-time Curriculum & Arts Director. She will continue to focus on supporting and strengthening core instruction, while also ensuring quality instruction in the arts.  


Builders Club Officers Elected

Builders Club is happy to announce our 2024-25 Builders Club officers. We thank you for your support this year and we are looking forward to serving the Arts Based community next school year. 

President- Aliyah Whitley

Vice President- Reaghan Russell

Secretary- J.D. Robbins

Treasurer- Kwesi Covington

Ceremonial Officer- Noah Mickey


 

Testing Schedule, continued

May 31  EOG/EOC Math Make Up Tests

June 3 EOG Science Make Up Tests

 

EOG results will be shared with parents at the third trimester conferences- June 5-7.

 

Videos of Performances

You can find videos of this year’s performances at the Family Portal on our website.  We’ve just posted:

 

1st Grade: Great Dragon and the Pearl of Wisdom 2024

Password: Pearl

 

7th Grade: Brundibar

Password: Terezin


6th Grade: Mansa Musa Password: Timbuktu

6th Grade: Joan of Arc  Password: Bacon

6th Grade: Genghis Kkan Password: Temujin


Field Day Reminders-June 4

  • No Pizza Lunch on the last day of school.  The hot lunch box scheduled for Tuesday, June 4 is a cheeseburger. 
  • Due to time constraints, students cannot change out of wet clothes after field day.  Students will need to prepare accordingly.  
  • Volunteers for the station should not bring older and younger siblings.  
  • Sunscreen should be applied at home.  Teachers can not apply sunscreen.

 

Fourth Grade Fly Ups

Our fourth grader students take a special tour of the middle school building, called 4th Grade Fly Ups each year.  Ms. Leab guides each fourth grade class through their new building showing them the classrooms, the drama room, the band room, and art.  They get to meet know what will feel the same and what will feel a bit different as they move into 5th grade.  Exciting times!  Don’t worry parents, you’ll get a chance to have middle school orientation in August.

 

The Mary Siebert Legacy Fund

To honor Mary Siebert’s outstanding legacy, her friends are collecting gifts large and small to ensure that Mary’s influence will be felt for years to come in the place where she dedicated so much of herself. All gifts made to the Mary Siebert Legacy Fund will support the resident artist program that bring learning to life at ABS. For more details and to make a gift, please visit this page. 

 

ABS 8th Grade Graduation

Let’s celebrate our 8th graders! Graduation is scheduled for Monday, June 3 at 12 noon in the ABS Alex Ewing Theater. Seating is limited to 4 seats per graduate. Thanks to MIXXER for allowing the use of their parking lot for overflowing parking during our graduation ceremony.


End of Year Checklist

  • Pick up medications from the front office.
  • Be sure all fees and lunch balances are paid. (Reach out to Ms. Garner to check your balance.)
  • Let us know if you will not be returning to ABS next year. If your child is transferring to another school, please let us know where to send your child’s records by emailing Director Hollis [email protected]
  • Tuesday, June 4th is the last day of school, with early dismissal. K-4 dismisses at 11:45. 5-8 dismisses at 12pm.

Ways to get involved and learn more about ABS:


 

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