This was a big year at West Marin-Inverness School. Our community is facing daunting realities deeply affecting our families, faculty and staff—namely the ranch and dairy closures and fear related to ICE activity. Not a day goes by when these concerns are not present, and we applaud our leadership for continuing to provide families with supportive information about legal rights and resources.
Despite these formidable challenges, we write to share some of the very good news coming out of our campuses. There is so much good to be shared—and we could all use a little of that shouted from these golden hills. In particular, we want to highlight the work of so many in our broader community who show up to support our students’ experiences. We will miss many by name, and for that we apologize. We are also grateful for all the support and energy provided by those within the school community. We see you, faculty and staff!
This note focuses on the beautiful support provided by the fabulous community beyond our campuses, including volunteers and nonprofits. We are humbled by and grateful for you. Here are a few reasons why.
This year, our school implemented community-supported enrichment programming on Wednesday afternoons to support students and families while our faculty and staff participate in additional professional development. Community providers included the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, the Dance Palace Community Center, the Marin County Free Library, In Place and the Inverness Garden Club. These folks showed up every Wednesday to share their passions with our students.
Among other things, students were offered a chance to experience free programming involving nature art, creative movement, theater, ceramics, environmental education, herbalism, poetry, gardening, local history and reading support. While these groups provided new programming, our longtime partner, West Marin Community Services, extended its programming to support older students through its youth center.
Dewey Livingston taught a weekly afternoon local history class and contributed many hours for projects across multiple grades, supported by family and parent volunteers. Dewey and his team led a site-specific treasure hunt for kindergarteners; in third grade, students built 3D maps of the surrounding landscape (you should see these—they’re awesome!); and fourth graders undertook a surveying project that brought them into the field with alidades and ranging rods, collecting data to create their own topographic maps.
Fibershed taught several community members ecological arts and shared locally grown dye plants and California-grown cotton with our students. Then, art teacher Colleen Conley collaborated with volunteers to bring these special dye projects to her art classes, offering hands-on experience with indigo leaves and flowers from cotton, coreopsis and marigold. Similarly, many, many community members took needle and thread, felt and roving, and a whole lot of heart to our first and third graders to teach various sewing projects, including a stuffed felt bird.
Point Blue’s STRAW program walked many classes to Heidrun Meadery to engage in a full day of wetland restoration with the nonprofit’s most excellent biologists. Audubon Canyon Ranch hosted students at their Bolinas location for an overnight and took students tide pooling at Agate Beach.
Our Shoreline Unified School District forged the way for all four school districts in West Marin to hire a new food services director to advance a shared goal of farm-to-table eating. Sharron Drake Community Arts brought classical music lessons to West Marin and Inverness Schools, assembling a youth string ensemble and a trumpet player for a vibrant production of “Peter and the Wolf” performed at the Dance Palace and on campus. A full 21-piece orchestra conducted by maestro Alexander Kahn joined our students, with bilingual narration by Maica Folch and whimsical puppetry by local artists. The result was a joyful fusion of music education, site-specific performance and creative collaboration.
Retired urchin diver-turned-underwater shark naturalist Ron Elliott spent time with our youngsters. WildCare did more of the same. Katie Jay continues to regularly share yoga with our littles at Inverness School. And Gallery Route One continued to provide excellent programming in our art room, including collaborations with artists such as Bruce Mitchell, Meryl Juniper, Travis Meinolf, Rob Corder and James Reynolds.
And that’s just a sampling. Volunteers, some of whom had never set foot on our campuses, reported that being in the classrooms with students was “as good as therapy.” Students see us, wave and say, “When are you coming back?” And “Will you do more sewing next year?” Others report that indigo dyeing and playing with marigold and coreopsis flowers were among the highlights of their year.
Sigh. We are so lucky to live here, and we are grateful for those who have shared their time, passions and expertise, and for those behind the scenes, such as the West Marin Fund and West Marin Food Systems.
Marianne Recher, Richard Vallejos and Celine Underwood are parent representatives on the 2024-25 West Marin-Inverness School Site Council. They all live in Inverness.