SCC's Annual Report for the Year 2015 - 2016

Many annual reports focus on numbers. However, the financial facts give only a partial view of what we do at Sound Circle, so they are shown at the end of this report. We want to focus on our non-financial accomplishments.

Teacher Training

SCC’s main activity is Waldorf teacher training. By the end of June 2017 we will have a cumulative total of 120 graduates since we began. Most of our graduates who teach are doing so in the nine Waldorf Schools in the Puget Sound area. Sound Circle is one of fourteen Waldorf teacher training institutes in North America. We offer a Foundation Studies program which is open to anyone, and is also a prerequisite to the teacher training program. In the fall of 2015, fifteen were enrolled in the Foundation Studies Program, and nine were enrolled in the teacher training program. Our program is part time over a three year period, which requires over 900 hours, including Foundation Studies and is under the leadership of Heidi Jefferson, Pedagogical Coordinator. In 2015-16 we provided almost $22,000 in financial aid to our teacher trainees, about half of which was in the form of loans and grant funds from AWSNA, and the balance from SCC income.

Over the years, SCC has tried a variety of schedules in order to accommodate student needs. Beginning in 2015 the faculty arranged a new schedule which allowed Foundation Studies students who were unable to attend full time to attend either Friday or Saturday of the weekend sessions, finishing in two years rather than one. New flexibility in the two-year teacher training curriculum allows us to have graduates every year, rather than every other year. This new arrangement provides more flexibility to students and a more even cash flow from year to year for SCC.

In 2011 we began offering an Early Childhood In-Service (ECIS) Program for currently practicing teachers. The program spans twenty-seven months: three two-week summer sessions and monthly sessions during the intervening months from September through May. Our current group meets in Denver and has students from Colorado, Kansas and Washington states. These students will receive their certificates at the close of the Summer Session in Seattle in 2017. The success of the program inspired another group of EC teachers to ask us to repeat the program in Boulder, Colorado, starting in the summer of 2017. We have been able to offer this training opportunity due to the experience and commitment of one of our former Core Faculty members, Holly Koteen-Soule.

Working With Waldorf

When we inquired how Sound Circle could help them, administrators of Puget Sound Waldorf schools asked us to provide opportunities for their administrative staff, board members and parents to learn more about the basis of Waldorf Education. Sound Circle Center’s “Working with Waldorf” program was born. In April of 2015 we held our second session, attended by forty-eight people. The speaker was John Bloom, from RSF Social Finance, speaking about Steiner’s concept of “threefolding” and its value in organizational life. Both sessions were graciously hosted at the Seattle Waldorf School’s new high school facility.

Capacity Building

In 2015 and 2016, an evolution was completed of the faculty structure from its historic form of a group administering the pedagogy to centralizing those duties in one position. Many of the same faculty members remain as teachers, but are no longer heavily involved in administrative work. Heidi Jefferson-Gloor was hired as the Pedagogical Coordinator. We expect that this structure will provide more continuity and efficiency, and enable us to focus more on increasing and retaining enrollment.

We were very fortunate to receive grant funds in the amount of $75,000 from the William I Smith Foundation in 2016. These funds were very important in funding the new position, and modestly increasing the salaries of existing positions so that we could retain the incumbents and their expertise. Not all the funds were expended, so there is a balance for further capacity-building efforts in 2016/17.

Board of Trustees

We were very pleased to add two new members to the Board. Martha Collins is a very experienced Waldorf administrator and teacher, and Tracy Bennett is the Head of School at Seattle Waldorf School. Martha and Tracy bring years of experience and wisdom to our efforts and we are very grateful to have them. We miss Trish Bondurant, who resigned after eight years of dedicated service to Sound Circle Center.

Finances

The IRS Form 990 for the Sept 1, 2015 - August 31, 2016 fiscal year is available for public inspection. Accounting is done on an accrual basis.

REVENUES

Grants and Contributions 53,342

Program Services 192,994

Interest 26

Total Revenues $246,362

EXPENSES

Salaries and Payroll Taxes 158,931

Other Expenses 83,986

Total Expenses $242,917

NET $3445 carried into following year

BALANCE SHEET AS OF 8/31/16

ASSETS

85,091

LIABILITIES

-59,763

NET ASSETS

$25,328