Board Policies & Accountability | Charter Council Agendas & Minutes
The Woodland Star Charter Council is comprised of 9 members who form the exclusive governing body of the Charter School. They are dedicated to our mission, vision, core principles, and to ensuring ongoing educational success and fiscal responsibility of the school. The Board of Directors gives final approval to all personnel, budget, and policy decisions and ensures that the school’s practices are consistent with the vision and mission of the school. Four Board members are voted in by the WS community, three are appointed by the Board and two are appointed by the WS Faculty, each serving a term of two years. Elections are held in the spring when vacancies occur. The Board delegates operating of the school to the WSCS Administration.
The Charter Council meets monthly on the second Wednesday of the month (unless noted below) at 6:30 PM in the Main Hall. As a public agency, the WS Charter Council must adhere to the Ralph M. Brown Act, California’s open meeting law. The law’s intent is that the actions of public commissions, boards, and councils in California be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly. (Government Code section 54950.)
Woodland Star Charter Council Calendar 2019-20
January 15, 2020
February 12
March 11
April 8
May 13
June 10
Charter Council Board Members
Robert Stewart
Charter Council President/Parent Representative
Board Appointed (seat expiring June 2021)
Robert and his wife, both working in creative careers as a photographer and illustrator/designer, live in Sonoma with their two children. Robert also works part-time as Program Director for ITP in Marin. Robert has been actively engaged at Woodland Star for the past 10 years, donating time as Class parent, Hiring Committee member, Parent Association member and WSEF Board member. He has served on the WSCS Board for eight years, three as president.
Brooke Sevenau
Vice President
Community Appointed (seat expiring June 2022)
Brooke Sevenau is the mother of two – a current Woodland Star student and a Woodland Star alum who now attends Credo High. Brooke has served on the Charter Council since 2017 as the Parent Association representative.
Brooke was raised in Sonoma. She graduated from Ursuline High School and earned her BA in English from UCLA. She worked for 10 years in major gift fundraising at UCLA and at UC Berkeley. As Director of Research, she identified donors for Cal’s $1.1 billion Campaign – at the time, the largest fundraising effort in the history of public universities.
After leaving non-profit, she started several businesses including a public relations and communications firm specializing in jewelry, beauty, fashion and film, and a vacation rental management company that managed 40 houses in the Sonoma valley. In 2012 she was hired as Editor of a jewelry trade magazine, where she worked until 2017.
Brooke’s mother was a Waldorf kindergarten teacher and Brooke is passionate about Waldorf education. She is grateful for public Waldorf schools and does what she can to support our special community. Her favorite role on campus is Director of W.O.W. (Women of Waldorf) a Woodland Star dance troupe made up of moms!
Laela French
Board Secretary
Community Appointed (seat expiring June 2022)
Laela French has been overseeing the Star Wars & Indiana Jones Archive collections for th epast 18 years. In that time Laela has both curated and produced over 20 Star Wars exhibitions that have been to over 100 venues worldwide with over 14 million visitors total.
Prior to joining Lucas Museum, Laela was the Collections Manager for Loans & Exhibitions at the Autry Museum. Previous experiences for Laela include Chief Registrar at Long Beach Museum of Art and Archivist at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art where she won an award for her work cataloging and preserving the Los Four artists’ archives.
Laela holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History from Loyola Marymount University and French Language from the Université de la Sorbonne, Paris. She also received a Masters in Art History and French from the California State University, Long Beach.
Robert Bucher
Faculty Appointed (seat expiring June 2021)
Mr. Bucher received his BA from the Hutchins School of Liberal Arts at Sonoma State University and his Waldorf training at Highland Hall in Los Angeles. In May of 2013, Mr. Bucher graduated Woodland Star’s eighth grade class which he began teaching when they were in grade 5. Mr. Bucher spent 12 years as a class teacher at the City of Lakes Waldorf School in Minneapolis where he took a class through grades 1-8. In addition to his class teaching experience, Mr. Bucher has developed Waldorf curriculum and authored research papers on spelling and grammar approaches in independent Waldorf schools. He has traveled extensively and spent several years overseas teaching English at the elementary and high school levels. He joined Woodland Star in 2009.
Hilary Gruendle
Board Appointed (serving one year to June 2021)
Hilary chose to start her now 20+ year career in the Restaurant and Hospitality Industry as a dishwasher, just to prove that she had what it takes in a field where hard, roll-up-your-sleeves work is the fabric of what we do. Since then she has worked in every position in almost every kind of food and beverage setting, working her way up through the kitchen to Executive Chef and over to the front as a GM and then Director of Operations.
Hilary’s career at Vine Solutions began with her role as an Advisor, where she passionately helped restaurant operators become better by showing them new ways of looking at issues large and small. While she still works directly with some clients, her role now, as the Senior Director of Advisory Services at Vine, focuses mostly on leading the client-facing Advisor team and keeping them abreast of the latest and greatest news and happenings in Restaurant and Hospitality Industry. As a key player on the Vine leadership team, she also helps provide strategic guidance to the company as a whole.
In both her professional and personal life, Hilary thrives on being part of a team. She has a wealth of knowledge to draw from and takes pride in how this experience has helped shape the success of those around her. She seeks input from all walks and all experiences in life, especially her husband and two sons and their native Sonoma County.
Aimee Landers
Faculty Appointed (seat expiring June 2022)
Ms. Aimee Landers earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies specializing in Spanish. After getting her teaching credential at Humboldt State University she got her first teaching job at a Waldorf charter school in Sacramento teaching in middle school. She became intrigued by Waldorf education and wanted to know more and after having her son she enrolled in Waldorf teacher training at Antioch University and learned about the spectrum of teaching from kindergarten-eighth grade. Aimee was mystified with the kindergarten child and so worked at River Oak Charter School for eight years. She joined our school in 2018 in the kindergarten; Aimee and her husband are also parents at our school. Along the way she earned her Master’s in Administration, while she loves to teach, Aimee also loves to dance, travel and go camping.
Katie Tomola
Community Appointed (seat expiring June 2021)
Katie Tomola is serving her second year on the board of Woodland Star Charter School. Previously, she served three years on the board of the Woodland Star Educational Foundation, one year as the class liaison for the Parent Association. and continues to serve as a class parent for the fifth grade. As an implementation consultant at Wells Fargo, she manages the digital library collection for employees and leads projects related to training logistics. Katie earned a BA in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a MA in Cultural Anthropology with a concentration in Human and Organization Transformation from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
*Note: Two appointed seats are vacant.
