Dear TGS Trustees,
Our school continues to be a happy, positive, and supportive place to be for students, faculty and staff. This has been noted by many of our recent admissions visitors and by the 8th grade students I have been interviewing. I believe the satisfaction level for our parents is also at an all time high. We continue to look for ways to improve our services to all of our customers and constituents, and I know that this continuous improvement process is appreciated by one and all.
It has been a fun and interesting month since our last meeting. I appreciate your continued work on your committees. As I say each month in this report, your time and efforts as trustees and as chairs of the various trustee committees are critical to helping advance the school. As you will see in the body of this report, there are many aspects to keeping the day to day operations of the school working and moving forward. With the help of the administrative staff and the trustees, I can continue to be visible and a part of the daily activities, while keeping an eye on the big picture items such as admissions, development, curriculum, physical plant, marketing, and more.
Please find below informational notes and highlights of the month gone by. As we look forward to the new year I am buoyed by: the positive initial response to our annual fund campaign; the various friends past and present who have been willing to meet with Pauline and me to talk about the history and future of the school; and to the flurry of activity we are experiencing in admissions.
As usual if you have questions or concerns abut his report or anything else, I encourage you to be in touch with me.
Sincerely,
Steve Lorenz
Head of School
Parent Surveys
I continue to sort and sift through last spring’s parent survey in order to help me celebrate our successes and address individual parent concerns in the areas of programming, curriculum, communication, and more.
New Data Software
Phil, Pauline, Tammy, Mary, and Tara have spent much time being trained in and putting into place our new data software. This has been time costuming and is ongoing as the staff learns to use the system and research the many aspects of these powerful tools. The new website continues to be developed, with Phil leading a committee that has met several times.
Science Gift
Last year, as part of our annual fund campaign, we received a gift of $20,000 for the purchase of science equipment, supplies, and materials. To this end we have purchased some incredible equipment for grades 5-8. The lower grades are currently analyzing their needs in terms of equipment. The donor has also agreed to allow us to use this money for professional development in the area of science instruction and curriculum. Eve McDermott is exploring opportunities at Dana Hall for the summer, and I have invited Casey Murrow from the Southern Vermont Learning Collaborative and Meredith Wade from Synergy Learning to meet with us to explore other professional development opportunities in the area of the physical sciences. The grant will help us tremendously to further improve our science programming.
Finance Committee
Deb has begun working with the Finance Committee to establish some baselines for the 2012-2013 budget, including the setting of our tuition rates. She and I will do some research as to what our neighboring independent schools are considering for increases. The national average is currently 3%. You will be receiving a timeline of the budget process soon. As Deb has noted, developing a new Financial Strategic Plan to dovetail with a Master Plan for Buildings and Grounds and a new School wide Strategic Plan will be necessary to successfully support new funding needs
Faculty Professional Development Meetings
Eve and I have met with each of the faculty members to discuss their “professional development goals” and needs for the year. This was a time consuming but valuable exercise which I believe is appreciated by our faculty and important in stressing the value of personal professional improvement plans.
Admissions Work
We hosted a very successful Open House with the Annies. Our Prek-3rd grade teachers, specialists, ans I were in attendance. it was a well attended and successful day with several prospective families expressing earnest interest.
We also attended the Westminster Middle School Information Evening. I brought four current students in the 7th and 8th grades, and we were able to talk with three families who are very serious about visiting TGS in the near future. Next up will be the Dover Elementary Middle School Information Evening on December 8. Phil and I are also hoping to get out for visits to The Orchard School and Saxtons River Montessori to sprinkle some seeds for first graders for the 2012-2013 school year.
Meetings with Other Heads of Schools
The Heads of Schools of area independent day schools and our admissions people continue to meet once a month. This month we met at The Compass School and were treated to a tour, lunch, and meaningful dialogue. The plans and preparations for a Southern Vermont Independent Day Schools Fair, which will be held on Saturday, January 21 in Brattleboro, are almost complete. More information to come.
Meetings and Interviews with 8th Grade Students
In preparation for writing letters of recommendation and filling out forms for our 8th graders who are applying for independent secondary schools, I have met with and interviewed 13 of our 8th graders. I have a list of 10-12 questions that I ask to better inform myself about them. The questions vary from: what do you do for activities not during school time, and what have been your favorite core academic and specials subjects; to: what do you excel in, and use three words to describe yourself as a learner/student. The questions continue, and the last two are for my personal use: what worked really well for you here at TGS (what did you like about the school), and what areas do you think we need to strengthen?
I will share my summary of these last two questions at a future meeting and will be sharing with staff and faculty as well.
The middle school team of teachers writes and fills out, between all of us, over 150 recommendation forms and letters for our students to support their applications to secondary schools. I will prepare a list of the schools they are applying to this year for our next meeting.
Foreign Language Night
A total success: interesting, informative, entertaining, educational, and fun. Kudos to Johanna Gardner and Susan Madrigan.
Student Leadership Council
My time working with the Student Leadership Council has been great. The group expanded from 8 to 19 students bringing with it some management and organizational challenges. We will be breaking into small task forces (committees) to achieve our many goals. Ken Brautigam has agreed to be my co-facilitator. Of the 20 identified goals, we will tackle four to begin with: Community Service Projects, Planning a School Dance (Fundraiser), Creating a Cancer Awareness Week, Offering Healthy Snack Choices, and perhaps a Healthy Lunch Choice. There is also talk of planning a skating and sledding party.
7th Grade American Studies Classes
This class is going very well and I look forward to each class. We recently had Ken Burns in to talk about history, the constitution, amendments to the constitution, and his film work. The class continues to stay abreast of current events using the New York Times Magazine: Upfront.
Teacher Inservice Day November 28
Teachers and staff will spend the first half of the morning beginning with NEASC self study and reaccreditation work. A survey will be introduced that will be used for staff, faculty, trustees, and parents. The second half of the morning will be looking at areas we identified that need improvement in programing, curriculum, and more. The afternoon session will be for the beginning of report card writing.
Putney Student Corps
Heads of Schools and/or their representatives have been meeting to form a Putney Student Corps that brings together all the schools in Putney to serve the community in meaningful and important ways. Student representatives from all the schools have been meeting as well. Directors of various community organizations have been helping with our goal setting. The Heads of Schools have agreed to the job description and funding of a paid coordinator's position to identify community needs, write grants, and organize and mobilize work forces, both big and small. Three of our student council members have been attending meetings.
School Visits and My Own Professional Development
It still remains on my radar to begin visiting other schools and attending conferences for professional development. My goal in the near term is to visit Shady Hill School and The Bement School and to hopefully attend the CASE Conference in New York with Pauline, Mary, and perhaps Phil.
