Administration Chris Ferris Principal Chris Ferris has a Masters Degree in education from Bank Street College in NYC. Chris has had 10 years of teaching experience at progressive schools in New York City and Los Angeles and was an associate professor of Education at Antioch University L.A. for five years. She wrote the curriculum section of the OCS Charter. Chris has two children. Her son, Owen, and her daughter Lucy both attend OCS. She and her husband and children live in Northridge. As the Principal, Chris provides educational leadership; she supervises all the classrooms and provides training and support to the teachers. She actively assists the PTSA, and does outreach to community organizations, such as our current partnership with the CSUN teacher credentialing program. She is also responsible for the school budget, fiscal health and the general school well-being including ensuring that the charter is renewed as needed. She reports to the OCS Board of Directors and is a non-voting member. Contact: chris.f@ourcommunityschool.org Beth Wolfsbauer Assistant Principal Beth is an experienced preschool and elementary teacher with a Master’s degree from CSUN in Family Environmental Sciences. She worked in the administration at another charter school for two years prior to joining Our Community School. Beth handles student conflict resolution and is the main person & contact for student behavior issues. She keeps records on all school personnel, keeps current on insurance information, organizes the staff schedules and arranges for substitutes. She is our enrollment coordinator and she handles the school lottery and waiting lists. She also is our school expert on conflict resolution and she trains students and teachers in this important skill. She advises parents and assists in supervising. Beth is married and has two daughters, her oldest daughter, Shannon, will be in the fourth grade this year and her youngest, Sarah, will begin kindergarten at OCS. Contact: beth.w@ourcommunityschool.org Alma Hernandez Director of Operations Alma came to us from LAUSD with many years of experience in school office management. In the four years she has been with OCS, she has attended many training and staff developments in the areas of finance, emergency procedures and school reporting with the state and has grown in responsibilities. She is in charge of the overall operations of the school. She tracks all school spending/budgets and she is responsible for ordering, stocking and filling school textbooks, classroom materials and furniture and general supplies. Alma is in charge of all facilities matters, from arranging repairs, scheduling maintenance of equipments and facilities, as well as overseeing our custodial staff. She oversees the office staff and keeps all attendance and admissions records and does all the district and state reporting. She is in charge of the functions and reporting of our food program. She creates the school flyers, calendars and letters that go home weekly and translates in Spanish both verbally and written. She helps with enrollment, including scheduling school tours and assists with first aid and helps run the front office as needed. She assists in calling parents if a child has had an injury or if they need to go home due to illness or discipline. Alma is the youngest of eleven children and has 22 nieces and nephews and 7 great nieces and nephews! She followed in her fathers footsteps and enjoys baking and cake decorating. She is very creative, enjoying scrapbooking and crafts in general. Contact: alma.h@ourcommunityschool.org Valerie Davis Office Assistant Valerie Davis is the receptionist and front office assistant. She helps students when they are sick or injured and also calls home if children are ill or injured. She helps teachers and staff with xeroxing, faxing, and mail sorting. Valerie is the point person in the area of special education and works collaboratively with the school’s assistant principal and the LAUSD special education department to ensure that we are in compliance with special education services. Valerie is married and lives in Northridge. She and her husband are the parents of a fourth grade student, Jacquelyn, at OCS. Contact: valerie.d@ourcommunityschool.org Janett Gonzalez Office Assistant Janett Gonzalez is the second receptionist in the front office. She and Valerie work together in making sure that the office runs smoothly and the children are always taken care of! She is an excellent translator and will often assist Alma in both verbal and written translations. Janett also oversees inputting the Benchmark Assessment results into our data base system and printing and mailing progress reports for our families. Janett is married with a 2 year old son and a baby-to-be whom we will meet sometime in December! Contact: janett.g@ourcommunityschool.org