Despite a steady rain for most of the afternoon, TBS turned out in force on Sunday, October 24 for the Harvest Pie & Ice Cream Social! Collectively, we raised over $26,000 for our school by signing up for Pick-a-Parties, we square danced, and we ate pie and ice cream until we had a headache and had to go lie down. Thank you to all who baked pies, scooped ice cream, signed up to host and attend parties, and did all the other tasks, glamorous and decidedly un-, that made the day so special. Remember, there are many parties that still have space available. Contact Director of Development Jennifer Kirk at jkirk@theberkeleyschool.org for details.

Beginning on Monday, October 18, students at the University Campus will have the opportunity to sign up for hot lunches two, three, or five days a week, prepared by none other than that Bay Area culinary treasure, Gregoire Jacquet of Gregoire Restaurant! Gregoire (who also wears the toque of TBS parent) will be serving hot lunches five days a week, featuring organic fruits and vegetables, whole-wheat pastas and breads, and hormone-free meat and dairy products. Parents, it’s not too late to sign up! Click here to sign up and pay online, or here to download a paper form to return to the office with a check.

Tuesday, May 25, was opening night for the hotly-awaited Middle School play, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This year’s production featured several important “first’s”: It was the first time the play hasn’t featured music; the first time TBS used Live Oak Theater in Berkeley; and the first time that someone other than Associate Head of School Zaq Roberts directed. Drama and sixth grade Humanities teacher Norman Johnson took on the Herculean task this year, and with Christopher Sergel’s stage adaptation of Harper Lee’s classic novel, showed that he was more than up to filling Zaq’s shoes as director. This challenging play is impressively performed by the young actors; as Norman wrote in the program notes, “Like Lee, I am puzzled by the resistant quality of the anti-black racism that took root in this nation in which I have lived for thirty years. However, I am also thrilled that I can live and work in a community that does not blink when they see a young African American actress play a white male lawyer, a black convict being played by an South Asian actor, or two students of different races play the same character as a young girl and an adult. The culture of the middle school at TBS is one where it is possible to use colorblind casting to put on a play that deals poignantly with race, without anybody batting an eyelash. This is truly Berkeley, where the radical is the casual. And this is truly The Berkeley School, where the tradition of middle school students bringing the quickness of their creativity to the stage each spring lives on.”

A hot lunch program where our students could eat together in community and deeply learn the pleasures of eating nutritious and delicious food, and where they could be steeped in a seed-to-table ethos of eating local and organic food, was a long-time dream of Janet Stork, our late Head of School. After seeing the wonderful program run by Steve and Kate’s Camp, who began renting space at TBS last summer, Janet was inspired to explore ways to make that dream a reality. She recruited some like-minded parents and staff members and helped plan the hot lunch pilot program our Elementary/Middle School students enjoyed in January, 2010. After Janet had to step down, the committee pushed on, building on the success of the pilot program and soliciting volumes of feedback from parents and staff to research the nuts and bolts of how such a program might actually work at TBS. Now parent Gina Tega-Partovi has begun a blog, to keep the community informed and up-to-date on the activities of the committee. Please visit http://tbseatsmart.blogspot.com to learn more, stay abreast of the plan (called “Eat Smart”) as it develops, and voice your opinion.

In recognition of Janet’s passionate belief in the primary importance of professional development for teachers, The Janet Stork Memorial Fund for Teaching and Learning has been established at The Berkeley School in her memory. This fund will enable teachers from TBS, and from other local schools lacking adequate resources, to participate in local and national meetings, conferences, and other professional development opportunities centered around new progressive educational research. Additionally, the fund will be used to centralize Janet’s personal collection of educational resources in a single library on the TBS site.

Donations can be sent in care of The Berkeley School, 1310 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702.