Hello! For those of you who do not know me, my name is Kristina Styren, and I am honored to have been chosen as your Woodside Board of Directors Chair for this school year. I have decided to write and send out a monthly newsletter this year (in collaboration with the other board members) in order to shed more light on what it is that we do, recognize the amazing work completed by these members, highlight members of our staff regularly, and encourage more members of the community to apply to become board members so that we can continue this work in the years to come.

The Woodside School Board of Directors is a group of volunteers (all currently parents of children enrolled at Woodside, though any member of the community is welcome) and we need your help.

We are required to have a minimum of 5 board members in order to operate. We will be losing several of our current members over the next few months and will only have 5 remaining in November.

It is vital that we continue to add more members.

As a board, we work to support the operations of the Woodside School while also representing your interests as parents, staff, and members of the community. I have also included more details about what we specifically do later in this email. Whether you have just 3 hours per month to give or 10 hours, we encourage you to reach out to learn more. If you are at all interested in joining or just occasionally helping, we would love to have you!

We also encourage you to reach out to us with any ideas, suggestions, concerns, and questions you have. The easiest way to do this is to email us at boardofdirectorswoodside@gmail.com. Our site directors can also work to put you in touch with me or another member of the board, and all are always welcome at our monthly meetings (see below).

Thank you for all your support toward Woodside School and we look forward to a great year!

Kristina

We are a group of volunteers! All current board members/directors are parents of currently-enrolled children at Woodside, though any member of the community is welcome to apply to be a director. Here are the names of each current member, the dates of their term and which location their children attend. Below, you'll find a link to the page of our Woodside School website where you can access this list and helpful documents, including our June 2024 Annual Report, which shares more about each of the directors and the accomplishments of the Board of Directors over the previous year.

• Kristina Styren, Chair - June 2022-2025 - St. Paul's Site Parent
• Kristi Johnson, Treasurer - June 2023-2026 - St. Paul's Site Parent
• Emily Schwartz, Secretary - June 2022-2025 - St. Paul's Site Parent
• Keith Cassettari - November 2022-2025 - St. Paul's & South Fruit Street Parent
• Jimmy Karas - September 2021-2024** - South Fruit Street Parent
• Fritz Moeckel - September 2021-2024** - St. Paul's Parent
• Meagan Phelan - October 2021-2024** - South Fruit Street Parent
• Jessica Rush - June 2024-2027 - St. Paul's Parent - WELCOME JESS!
• Ali Stewart - November 2021-2024** - South Fruit Street Parent

**Term Ending Soon (as of November 2024, we will have just 1 board member representing South Fruit Street)

We also have several ex-officio, non-voting, members of our board:

• Stephanie Beattie - Woodside School's South Fruit Street Site Director
• Kellie Goble - Woodside School's St. Paul's Site Director
• Michele Parenti - Woodside School's Business Administrator
• Katie Lugg - Woodside South Fruit Street's Teacher Representative
• Currently Open - Woodside St. Paul's Teacher Representative

The Woodside School, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization, enabling us to operate with tax-exempt status (such as receiving donations to further our mission to provide quality childcare for as many children in the community as possible). In order to meet these requirements, Woodside School, Inc. must have Bylaws, a set of rules which indicates how many board members are needed and the governing rules by which those board members follow to support the organization.

Woodside School, Inc. is governed by a Board of Directors, with daily operations led and administered by our Site Directors (Kellie Goble at the St. Paul's School location and Stephanie Beattie at the South Fruit Street location).

Per our bylaws, Woodside School, Inc. is dedicated to providing quality, developmentally appropriate early learning and care through a supportive environment for all children, their families, and the greater community. We work to maintain a sustainable organization that provides quality childcare for children.

To support this mission, we develop policies and procedures, pursue new initiatives, and create other supportive materials and practices. We primarily conduct this work within our five committees: Finance, Development (Fundraising and Communications), Personnel, Nominating, and Facilities. Each of these committees reports progress at monthly board meetings and meets approximately 1-2 times per quarter, with meetings occurring more or less often depending on the needs at that time of year. Each are described in further detail below.

If you are interested in joining or supporting the work of any of these committees, please reach out to the chair of the committee, one of the site directors, or email us at boardofdirectorswoodside@gmail.com! We would love to have you!

Committee Chairperson/Board of Directors Contact: Kristi Johnson, Treasurer

• Purpose: Overseeing Woodside School's finances and preparing the annual budget.
• Current Members: Woodside's Business Administrator, Michele Parenti, Site Directors, Kellie Goble and Stephanie Beattie, Treasurer, Kristi Johnson, former Treasurer Jimmy Karas, and other volunteers as determined by the Committee.

Committee Co-Chairs/Board of Directors Contacts: Emily Schwartz & Meagan Phelan

• Purpose: Fundraising and for creating additional communications to members of the community, such as our annual report.
• Current Projects: This committee is working on organizing a fundraising Gala (see event information below) and other initiatives. Continuous efforts are made to apply for grants and to access other sources of funding available to us as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
• Current Members: Other members of this committee include Michele Parenti, Woodside's Business Administrator, Woodside's Site Directors Kellie Goble and Stephanie Beattie, as well as other members as determined by the committee.

Committee Chairperson/Board of Directors Contact: Kristina Styren, Board of Directors Chair

• Purpose: Ensuring compliance with current personnel policies, making changes when appropriate, and establishing new policies and procedures to further support the operations of the school.
• Current Members: Woodside's Site Directors, Stephanie Beattie and Kellie Goble, Board Chair, Kristina Styren, Board Member Jessica Rush, and other members as determined by the committee.

Committee Chairperson/Board of Directors Contact: Keith Cassettari

• Purpose: Supporting facility-related needs, such as addressing ongoing building maintenance, determining the best approach to fixing any structures throughout the grounds in need, and securing contractors or other applicable professionals needed for these fixes. (This committee primarily concerns the South Fruit Street location, as the grounds/building at the St. Paul's site are rented and St. Paul's School holds the responsibility for making all fixes/updates themselves.)
• Current Members: Keith Cassettari, Board Member, Woodside's Site Directors Kellie Goble and Stephanie Beattie, Fritz Moeckel, Board Member, and any other members as determined by the committee.

Do you have feedback or ideas to share? Anything you wish to share anonymously? Additional items we should add to Woodside's website? Fundraising opportunities we should consider? Know of someone to contact for a unique opportunity? Wish to connect with a member of our staff or board but unsure about whom? Click the button below to complete a Google Form to share, with the option of including your name or completing the form anonymously. We look forward to hearing from you!

Each month, I hope to highlight/spotlight a different board member/director. For this first issue, I wanted to share a bit about myself for those who do not know me!

I initially joined the Board of Directors to give back to Woodside - the organization that has done so much to support our children, and am excited to be able to contribute even more this year. I have two children at the Woodside St. Paul's site: a daughter, Lily, who is 4 years old in the PK 2 classroom and a son, Henry, who is 2.5 and in the Toddler classroom. We have been members of the Woodside School community since Lily began in the Infant 2 room at 9 months of age, and we have been so grateful for the care of both of our children throughout this time. All of the teachers have been incredibly supportive, dedicated, and we feel so lucky to have had them, and welcomed into the Woodside family.

I have been a member of the board for the past two years, regularly contributed to the Personnel Committee, and served in the Vice Chair role this spring. During the school week, I work for the SERESC, Inc. organization as a School Psychology consultant, and I will be working with the Hopkinton School District (primarily at the middle/high school) this year. I am also a certified elementary and secondary math educator, with an additional certificate in PBIS. Over the last 13 years in education field, I have worked as a school psychologist, middle school behavior coach, elementary classroom teacher, gifted/talented teacher, middle and high school mathematics teacher, mathematics instructional coach, and spent a stint organizing a Jumpstart AmeriCorps preschool program. I love what I do and have loved supporting Woodside further with anything I can!

In my free time (when it happens to exist, which is rare these days), I enjoy spending time with my family, which includes my husband, our two human children, two dogs, cat, and rabbit. I also enjoy gardening, reading, stained glass art, traveling, and working with our dog Torben toward becoming a therapy dog.

I look forward to meeting any of you whom I have not yet had the opportunity and I thank you for making it to the end of this first newsletter (hopefully the longest it will ever be).

- Kristina