08/20/2020
LETTER from the SDDS SCHOOL BOARD
August 18, 2020
Dear SDDS Parents,
Our staff and board of directors are continuing to work to ensure that Saint David's Day School is ready to welcome our preschool students the week after Labor Day.
Today, we have two important updates to share with you.
First, please note that we are changing our email address. This message is the first to come to you from our new address, [email protected]. We will make the transition to regularly using this address over the next few weeks, after which time our former Gmail address will be disabled. Please save this new address, as you will be able to use it to communicate with our Head Teacher as well as our Registrar and Administration. If you add it to your address book and "safe senders" list, you will ensure that you are able to receive important communications from us
Second, we are very pleased to announce our teaching staff for this year.
We are excited that Jamie Mountford will be joining our staff as Head Teacher this year. Jamie may already be familiar to you as the music director for many youth musical theater productions at San Juan Community Theater. Jamie is a BS degree holder whose Early Childhood Education preparation includes STARS training, post-baccalaureate studies at Clark College in Vancouver, WA, and workshops with the Opal School in Portland, OR. She has many years of Pre-K experience in a variety of roles, and is also the mother of Anabelle, our excellent Teacher’s Aide. We are looking forward to an excellent school year with Jamie leading our program.
Kim Erickson will once again be our Assistant Teacher. Kim has been working with San Juan Island children as a substitute teacher, classroom assistant, and preschool teacher, for two decades. She has been a highly regarded member of our teaching team, and a consistent presence in the lives of our students, for many years. We are very pleased that she will be with us again this year.
Rounding out our staff, Anabelle Mountford will be returning as our Teachers' Aide. The daughter and granddaughter of Pre-K professionals, she seems to have inherited a predisposition for the field, as she was such a valuable addition to our staff last year. We are delighted that she will be back to work with our teachers and students again this year.
SDDS Founder Margaret Barker, although now retired from the classroom, continues to be deeply involved with the governance of the school, and serves as a supervisor and mentor to our teaching staff. Margaret has lately been joined in that role by Board of Directors member Ebie Mountford, long-time owner of Country Friends Child Care in Brush Prairie, WA, who together with Margaret has been instrumental in guiding the evolution of our program and managing the move to our new quarters on the St. David's Church campus.
We are currently finalizing the details of the health and safety protocols that we will be operating under this year, and will communicate that information to you very soon.
Although much is still unknown about what the coming year will bring, when we open our doors in September, we expect to be as prepared as we can possibly be to negotiate whatever may come our way. As always, we are grateful to you for the confidence you have shown in us by entrusting us with your children's education.
With blessings to you and yours,
The Rev. Doug Simonsen
Chair, SDDS Board of Directors
