Dear Trustees,
I hope this note finds you all well ! My report will be very brief although there is much to report. What I will do is list some of the events, activities etc.... I am involved in and would like to send you a more detailed report for the February meeting. See you on Tuesday, and remember anytime you have thoughts, concerns, questions, please call or send a note.
In February I would like to send you the week in the life of the Head of School, information on our last Strategic Plan and more NEASC information.
Steve
*Regularly meetings with staff and committees continue.
*The administrative staff met with Kristin Power, the Northeast Regional Representative for NAIS. She gave a one hour power point about all the tools and resources that belonging to NAIS affords us, and there are many. It was a worthwhile hour.
*Phil and I attended the Southern Vermont Independent Day School Fair on this past Saturday in Brattleboro. Phil really got this going and all the schools helped to organize and present. Our new consortium consists of Hilltop, Compass, Neighborhood, Oak Meadow, St. Michaels and TGS. I will let you know on Tuesday how it went.
*Chris and I met with Paul Harlow about his Solar Project in Westminster which is about the same size as ours is going to be. It was installed by Sovern Energy, This is the same company we are proposing to us. The report was good. The solar array is located at his farm on Route 5 in Westminster. You should drive by.
*Pauline and I are soon getting back on the road to continue our year of cultivating, stewarding and thanking our friends and supporters. This takes time but is fun and important.
*Deb and I have been meeting on the budget preparation.
*Teaching my 7th Grade American Studies class continues to be a joy.
*I have been informally observing our new teachers and newly assigned teacher, Emily Weinberg (4th Grade), Karen Blumberg (6,7,8th Life Skills) and Ken Brautigam (6th grade social studies and PSD).
* I have been meeting with Eve and Linda regarding professional development opportunities for faculty in math and science. Once we have finalized these plans I will give you the run down. We are working with Dana Hall and Synergy Learning
*The math committee continues to meet to analyze our current math program and study a potential new program and I will have a final report by February or March.
*Faculty meetings continue on Mondays and staff meetings on Fridays. Let me know if you would like to join either of these meetings.
*I urge trustees to visit and observe classes at any level. Just let me know what grade levels, subjects and when.
*I will be working with Phil next week to finalize best as possible the content of our new web site. This will be ongoing. The launch is set for next week sometime. Thanks to Ray, Mary, Tara, Pauline and Phil for all of their efforts.
*Phil and I will, in the next two weeks, be visiting three preschool/kindergarten programs in Vermont and New Hampshire to talk about our first grade program and leave materials and information.
*The NEASC Accreditation Team of Libby, Eve, Linda, Steve, and Ken have been meeting. We have surveyed staff and faculty and will be surveying parents in the next two weeks. The process has started. More information to come.
*Libby and I will be on a NEASC visiting team in Edgecomb, Maine next fall. I will be the chair of the committee and Libby a team member. We felt volunteering to do this would give us good insight into the process we will going through in April of 2013. As the chair of the visiting team I will be making a pre - visit trip to the school this spring.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve Lorenz
New Trustees at The Grammar School
The Grammar School welcomed three new trustees for the 2011-12 school year. Bill Helm, Natalie Thomson, and Julie Burns are eager to offer their expertise as new members of the board.
Bill Helm served as president of Work/Family Directions, Inc. in Boston, Massachusetts, the nation’s leading provider of corporate work-life services for 260 corporations, with more than 2.8 million employees nationwide. He also was president of Aldrich Eastman and Waltch, a real estate investment firm, and Scientific Energy Systems, Inc., and served as vice president and treasurer of Digital Equipment Corporation. He also was the director of corporate relations at Harvard Business School.
In Massachusetts Helm served on the Weston School Committee and on the Board of Directors of Families First Parenting Programs, and was a trustee and vice chair of Newton-Wellesley Hospital. He served on the Board of Selectmen in Weston, Massachusetts.
Helm is currently Chairman of the Board of the New London (NH) Hospital and a Trustee of Colby-Sawyer College. He was the 2004 recipient of the New Hampshire Hospital Association Outstanding Trustee of the Year Award, and in 2005 he and his wife Tina received the Colby-Sawyer Town Award. Tina Helm is a selectman in New London and a Trustee of Wheelock College.
Helm received his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1963 and earned his MBA from Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves from 1960 to 1963.
Bill and Tina Helm have resided in New London, New Hampshire since 2001. The have four daughters and seven grandchildren. Two of his granddaughters, Katy and Abby Brennan, are currently students at TGS.
Natalie Thomson was raised in the area now known as Silicon Valley, California. She studied art and photography in college, and later worked as a portrait photographer in Santa Cruz. After marrying her husband Curtis, they spent time abroad in Wales, where Curtis studied English watchmaking. Raising their children encouraged Thomson to look at options for independent schools. She enrolled the children at The Grammar School and has volunteered there in many capacities.
She is very involved in the Medieval Faire, and she does the costuming for several plays and spring musicals. Currently, Thomson is the seventh grade class parent and looks forward to teaching a photography course to upper school students this winter.
Recently Thomson returned to school to earn a degree in Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Keene State College. She lives in Walpole, NH with her husband and two children, Quinn and Gwyneth.
Julie Burns is the Founder and CEO of Room to Grow, a New York and Boston based non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development. Prior to starting the organization in 1998, Julie worked as a psychotherapist in the child and adolescent division of the Karen Horney Clinic in New York. It was at Karen Horney where she developed the concept for Room to Grow, recognizing the profound need to help soon-to-be parents living in poverty, and provide them with the direct support and resources for their children from the very beginning.
Julie received her master’s degree in social work from New York University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in art history from the University of Michigan. Before embarking on a career in social work, Ms. Burns worked in the Old Master Painting department at Christie’s, the auction house, in New York.
Ms. Burns lives in Walpole, NH with her husband Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker, and their daughters, Olivia and Willa.
Founded in 1960, The Grammar School is an independent preschool through eighth grade school located in Putney, Vermont. The Grammar School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin in the administration of its admission policies, educational programs, hiring practices, or other school administered programs.
