December 2025 eNewsletter

December 2025 eNewsletter

Springs eNewsletter

From the Superintendent …

New Beginnings: Announcing the Arbor Student Center & Orchard Academy

I am pleased to announce the new Arbor Student Center located on Van Buren Blvd. in Riverside, opening for the 2026-27 school year! At the heart of this new center will be the Orchard Academy, a program offering a unique, Waldorf-inspired approach designed to ignite a passion for learning.

The Orchard Academy is an independent program that draws from Waldorf principles while adapting practices to meet the needs of our students and community. This approach emphasizes:

Continue reading

November 2025 eNewsletter

Springs eNewsletter

From the Superintendent …

APLUS + Conference 2025

It was my great pleasure to participate in the 22nd annual APLUS+ Network Conference in Sacramento. Its purpose, according to founder/director Jeff Rice, is “to fight for the constitutional rights of our students, families, and communities, and to defend 21st century education that is more flexible, student-centered, personalized, and collaborative.”

Vivian Price, our Assistant Superintendent, Education, was one of our Springs staff who participated, and joined me in leading a workshop entitled “StoryPower: Building School Culture One Story at a Time.” Our workshop focused on how to use storytelling to build school culture. Its use is more powerful than data alone, we believe, and lasts when data is forgotten.

Continue reading

October 2025 eNewsletter

Springs eNewsletter

From the Superintendent …

I hope your school year is off to a good start! First off, I encourage you to regularly view Springs’ social media. We regularly post items of interest for the Springs community. Please visit our YouTube page to see new videos, including a recent profile of our Otay Ranch Academy.

Also, if you have had a positive experience with a Springs program and you are visiting sites that rate Southern California schools, I encourage you to post your thoughts on your experience with Springs. This can be an effective way for us to get the word out to other prospective Springs students.

Continue reading

September 2025 eNewsletter

Springs eNewsletter

From the Superintendent …
Welcome back to the 2025-26 school year.

We are grateful to each of our Springs families for making Springs their charter school of choice, and please be assured that each member of our Springs team is dedicated to providing each of our students with an outstanding education.

Preparations for the new school year included Ignite conferences for our staff and parents; the staff event included our annual board appreciation dinner at Pechanga Resort.

Continue reading

December 2024 Springs eNewsletter

Springs enewletter header image

From the Superintendent:
​APLUS+ Recognizes Springs

I hope you are enjoying a nice Thanksgiving holiday break.

I’m pleased to report that Springs Charter Schools was a 2024 APLUS+ Pioneer Award Winner, acknowledging our Silver Jubilee and recognizing us for our “exceptional contributions to flex-based, personalized learning in education” setting “a new standard for innovation and excellence.” APLUS+ founder/director Jeff Rice has been a good friend to our organization through the years, and a regular participant in our events, and we’re most honored to receive this recognition.

Continue reading

From the Superintendent: Mistakes+Effort = More Robust and Long-Term Learning

Happy New Year! I hope 2021 brings you and your family many blessings.

As we get ready to resume our school year, I’d like to draw your attention to the thematic resources which we add regularly to our Building Atomic Habits site. I think you will find them to be practical tools to support your students academically and in their overall wellness, as you make Headway Every day in Relationships and Outcomes like a real HERO! Please view my most recent Kickin’ it with Kathleen/December Atomic Habits video, the theme of which is that when we make mistakes, it proves we’re trying! As I indicate, studies show that the more mistakes students make in their efforts to learn something, the more robust and long-lasting their learning will be: Take a risk, and if you make a mistake, try again!

Our current academic focus is on increasing reading volume and cultivating a love of reading from TK-12th grade and beyond. We encourage you to focus on reading volume and discussions every day. Read for a variety of purposes and enjoy the wonderful world of reading from newspapers to poetry. You will find tips for increasing motivation and reading strategies to help you support your children with reading every day.

Please take a little time to explore these resources, try a breathing exercise or daily mindfulness technique, and do the same with your students. Don’t forget that this year we are #CallingAllSpringsHeroes and you are a HERO to us!

Thank you for making Springs your charter school of choice. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your school representative.

kathleens-signature

Dr. Kathleen Hermsmeyer
Superintendent

Continue reading

From the Superintendent: A Year of Building Atomic Habits

As I noted at the beginning of our 2020-21 school year, this is a Year of Building Atomic Habits for our Springs family, during which we plan to introduce new topics each month with resources to help you educate your children. Click on the link and you’ll see topics we’ve addressed in these first few months of school.

Additionally, I encourage you to view the videos in my Kickin’ It with Kathleen video series, in which I offer some suggestions to help you have a successful school year despite the pandemic, and the importance of praising children’s efforts as they learn and thinking about math differently. Among the thoughts I offered include the importance of praising effort in your child and yourself, as when we praise our children’s efforts, it will inspire them to try harder and harder. Also, as many of us may experience anxiety about learning and teaching math, we have some suggestions which may help you to think about math differently.

I encourage you to watch these videos if you have not already done so, and keep an eye out for new videos in the upcoming weeks. I hope you find them helpful.

And, as we approach the end of our calendar year and our winter break, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, a happy New Year, and good wishes for any other holiday you will be celebrating.

kathleens-signature

Dr. Kathleen Hermsmeyer
Superintendent

Continue reading

Apply Today Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram