Use this time to relax, recharge and connect with family and friends. See you next week!

Who's on the panel? Amar Kumar - CEO Kaipod We help education entrepreneurs launch and operate personalized learning environments that reflect their vision and meet the needs of their community. Dr. Marina Vasserman - Founder Open Mind School Open Minds, Silicon Valley is a servant leadership organization that takes a comprehensive, community-wide approach to meeting the needs of the whole child. Both through the physical location in Menlo Park, as well as partnerships throughout the SF Bay Area, Open Mind School's integrated focus on academics, services, supports and opportunities leads to improved student learning, stronger families and healthier inclusive communities. Elmarie Hyman - Founder Learn Beyond the Book Hands-on, interactive homeschool and hybrid school classes, tutoring, music lessons, support, and resources for a well-rounded customized education. Tonya Kipe - Founder Kipe Academy Kipe Academy is a nonprofit microschool that provides support to both traditional and homeschooling students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade. Our mission is to inspire creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking in a learning environment that empowers students of varying ability levels to achieve independence.​ We support families by offering a microschool program, 1:1/small group tutoring, weekend workshops, choice navigator services, assessments, homeschool evaluations, and our umbrella program. It's an incredible group! What questions do you want to ask? We're curating questions for our panel discussion on November 20, be sure to add it to your calendar!

Being a leader is about making decisions. Yesterday we made the best decision. We closed school. On a Thursday. With two weeks notice. For a party! To celebrate one of our educators who was getting married! It wasn't an easy decision. It was a quick timeframe to cancel school on a Thursday and leave our families without childcare. We were worried how they would react. We were worried they would be upset. We were worried it would negatively impact the culture we were so carefully building. But culture is about people. We talked with members of our community. We talked with our team. We decided that celebrating love was the most important thing and true to our values of community and empathy. We are a small community. We support each other. We celebrate each other. Sometimes decisions are quick and easy, sometimes they are big and hard and sometimes they feel harder than they should be. This one felt hard, but really, it was easy. As the community came together to celebrate her in the afternoon, it was clear we made the right decision. One of the amazing things about running a small non-traditional school is that you can decide to close, to celebrate, to be about community instead of academics for a day. What hard decisions have you made this week?

This group is amazing! We have such a great group of educators, thought leaders, and edupreneurs gathering here! I'd love for you to introduce yourselves and share why you decided to join this community. This group is for you, knowing why you are here will help me to create the best experience possible. Help me help you! I'm so excited to have you all in one place and excited to see what we can be, what we can build, how we can grow, and how we can make a difference in education - together!