September 2007

Dear Parents,

My First Year: A Structured Plan to Gather Information and Formulate Goals and Objectives

As I have explained in my first letter to the community, this year will be focused on information gathering, culminating in a consensus set of goals and objectives to be implemented over the next several years. Initially there are three basic means for gathering information, each of them relying on firsthand observation and personal face-to-face communication. 

For parents, the Board of Trustees and the Parents Association are jointly sponsoring a series of informal small group gatherings in SFDS homes located in the neighborhoods of the city. The format of the evenings will be a conversation with me.  I will ask a few open-ended questions and then listen. I am most interested in hearing your impressions of our school and your hopes for your children.

For faculty, I will be visiting every classroom, meeting with teachers both before and after the visits to discuss the curriculum, the learning activities designed by the teachers, and the students’ active participation and performance of the activities. I have set aside three mornings a week for classroom visits.  In addition, we are scheduling a series of meetings with teachers to examine and review aspects of the academic program.

For both parents and faculty, I am available for individual conversations about curriculum, instruction, academic accomplishment, student performance, social development, affective education, etc.

I expect by the end of this year that these conversations will result in a set of plans and actions for the future that will, of course, be communicated fully to the community.

Strategic Review

The four task forces of the Strategic Review Process - Academic Excellence, Diversity, Communications, and Finance – completed their study and formulated a set of recommendations. Each task force reported to the Board of Trustees last spring. I have received copies of the recommendations and will be meeting with each task force early this fall to discuss their report and recommendations.

The Academic Excellence Task Force’s recommendations will become part of the Entry Plan discussions and be included where appropriate in a summary set of consensus goals and objections formulated at the end of this year.

The recommendations of the Finance Task Force centered on making SFDS affordable for families from a wide range of incomes. Making our school accessible to families from a variety of backgrounds and experiences is a central value of the School.

The Diversity Task Force’s recommendations will become central to the work of the diversity committees at school. We will focus on four questions, two of which are quantitative and two qualitative. 1) How do we encourage families from many different backgrounds to apply for admission to SFDS? 2) How do we generate an applicant pool for teaching positions at the School that is diverse across many dimensions? 3) How do we shape a school culture that is truly welcoming and supportive of children, adolescents and their families, who come from a wide array of racial, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds, and sexual orientations? 4) How do we include, in our curriculum, in natural and authentic ways, materials and topics that demonstrate to all our students that who they are is represented in our school’s course of study?

Communications Plan

To implement the recommendations of the Communications Task Force, we have restructured several vehicles for sending information and created some new forums.

There will be three newsletters, each transmitted electronically by e-mail and posted on the School’s webpage.

1. The first, “The Week Ahead,” will be published each Friday and include a list of all events in the week ahead.  It will also include a section entitled “Looking Back” to celebrate what has happened, and a section entitled “Looking Ahead” to generate interest in future events.

1. The second, “SFDS eNews,” will be published monthly on the first Friday of each month.  It will have a series of news articles and information about SFDS.

1. The third will be totally new, a Head of School Blog, published on Fridays several times a month.  The content and structure will describe and interpret the day-to-day life in classrooms, art studios, music rooms, science labs, and recess fields. I will describe anecdotes that I have witnessed and comment on their meaning and significance. It is my hope that the blog entries will generate a community discussion about what makes a really good school and a good education for children and adolescents. Readers of the blog will have the opportunity to publish comments for the community to read.  A moderator will read all comments submitted for posting, and only those comments complying with the guidelines will be published.
   
   I do intend to read all the comments, but, of course, that depends on the number and length. 

In addition to the newsletters, communication between school and parents will be supported by the newly created Room Parent Council. With the assistance of the Parents Association, four parents per grade, who serve as the room parents, will meet monthly with the Division Heads and the Head of School. In these meetings, questions and concerns can be aired and candid factual information provided.  Administrators and parents will then jointly decide how to share significant information with the larger community.

Conclusion

Other articles in the Newsletter contain information on the new directions for the library, facilities work this summer, and an update on personnel changes for the 2007-2008 school year.

The first three days have been full of energy and optimism. We are all learning the routines of the classroom and how to be resourceful learners as well as respectful community members.