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:

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.

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.

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.

Parent IGNITE! Back-to-School Conference

I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer.

As we prepare for the 2025-26 school year, I’d like to invite our Springs families to participate in our annual Parent IGNITE! Back-to-School Conference which will be held Tuesday, August 12. Its purpose is to equip and inspire our families so that they may enjoy a successful school year.

Participants may join us virtually or at one of our regional events in Riverside, Temecula, or Santa Ana. Our keynote speaker is Jonathan Fanning who will lead a session entitled “Who Are You BECOMING?” Based on his popular book, Jonathan will explore the four pillars of great leadership and offer a simple formula for personal and organizational growth. He draws on lessons from historical figures like Viktor Frankl and shares practical leadership advice, applicable to leaders of organizations, teams, and families.

Journey Teacher to Make Presentation to Historian Group
I am continually impressed by and grateful for the many outstanding teachers we employ at Springs! One I’d like to highlight this month is Journey teacher Scott White, who will discuss “Hiroshima and the Birth of the Perilous Present: How the Atomic Bombing Set the Stakes for Modern Global Threats” at the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association (PCB-AHA) on July 31. Scott has been working on his Master’s degree in history and will discuss the purpose and outcome of his research.