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 daughter, Lucy attend OCS. 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. 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 has worked in the administration at another charter school for two years. Beth keeps records on all school personnel, keeps current on insurance information, organizes the staff schedules and arranges for substitutes. She works collaboratively with the school's management company to ensure that necessary funding reports are made in a timely fashion. Beth is our enrollment coordinator and she handles the school lottery and waiting lists. She also is our school expert on conflict resolution and trains students and teachers in this important skill. She advises parents and assists in supervising special education. Beth is married and has two daughters. Her oldest, Shannon, is in the third grade at OCS. Her younger daughter, Sarah, will start kindergarten at OCS next year. Contact: beth.w@ourcommunityschool.org Alma Hernandez Office Manager Alma is office manager at OCS and came to us from LAUSD with many years of experience in school office management. She tracks all school spending and budgets and she is responsible for ordering supplies. Alma is responsible for arranging repairs and facilities maintenance. She keeps all attendance and admissions records and does all the district reporting. She creates and disseminates the school calendar, newsletters, flyers, bulletins, and signs and does all Spanish translations. Alma helps with admissions including scheduling school tours and helps out with first aid. She calls parents if a child has had an injury or if they need to go home due to illness. Alma is the youngest of eleven children and has 22 nieces and nephews and four great nieces. She enjoys scrapbooking and cake decorating. Contact: alma.h@ourcommunityschool.org Nikki Maxwell Community Development Coordinator Nikki worked at CSUN as a volunteer coordinator and outreach person for seven years. Previous to that she worked in development for Habitat for Humanity, worked as a camp director and ran an aftercare program for Highland Hall. Her two main tasks this year is to raise our school funds through grant writing, and creating donation programs, and to raise awareness of our school in the local community through outreach projects and community connections. She is a 1/2 time employee and will be working from home. Nikki has a busy household with three young children, a husband who is a writer and also works from home, and her dad all under one roof. Her daughter, Erin attends OCS and her daughter Morgan wishes she was old enough to come too. Nikki will be regularly attending the PTSA meetings this coming year. Contact: nikki.m@ourcommunityschool.org Valerie Davis Office Assistant Valerie Davis is our part-time 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. She is the mother of a third grade student at OCS. She is expanding her education by taking computer courses and enjoys her time with her daughters extracurricular activities. Contact: valerie.d@ourcommunityschool.org Janett Gonzalez Office Assistant Janett Gonzalez is our full-time office assistant. Her previous office experience comes from working as a personal assistant to a realtor in Palmdale. Her experience working with children comes from an afterschool enrichment program tutor for Sutter Middle School. Here at OCS she helps with all the clerical duties and is in charge of all the student records, benchmark assessment inputting, and assists with the facilities maintenance. She is also helping out with the translation of all the letters and flyers that go home in the Wednesday packet. Janett and her husband, Nestor, have a 19 month old boy named Jason Taylor. She finds pleasure in cooking, scrapbooking and spending as much time possible with her son Jason.