From the director:

Several of you have asked me for a copy of “the list” from the corporation meeting, meaning the part of my speech that included some of our collective achievements over the past several years. Here you are, plus bits of the preamble and postscript.

My topic tonight is change—how much of it we have been through, what change does to our individual and collective psyches, and why we should feel proud of our accomplishments. The changes have been great and small, and have put us in a new place as a school. We are in a position to move forward with confidence and strength. One measure of personal and institutional stability is the way we survive transitions. You know the maxim, “change is the only constant.” Change is a fact of life; being stable does not mean being stuck or stagnant, but instead means being established enough to examine new ideas, to be confident in our evaluative abilities, and to make wise choices.

Susan Andrews spoke to you last spring about some of the huge transitions and changes this school has managed in the recent past. In the time that many families in this room have been at PHS, the school has:

• Raised three-quarters of a million dollars for the first major building renovation (not this one!)
• Mounted two national searches for directors
• Completed a strategic planning process that resulted in this building and the capital campaign so many of you supported
• Created a diversity plan that was one of the most comprehensive in the nation
• Took the lead in developing a local (and now national) organization called People of Color in Independent Schools—and now we’re taking the lead in starting a similar organization for gay and lesbian educators in independent schools
• Plus, this small community dealt with an unconscionable number of deaths and illnesses that affected everyone.

These are just some of the major events, not a comprehensive list by any means. Going forward, I’d like to give you a sampling of what we have accomplished in just the past four years.

First and most importantly, like every good school we have:

• Written and revised curriculum
• Hired talented teachers and administrators
• Evaluated programs and people
• Provided a range of professional development opportunities for the staff and the board
• Taught thousands of engaging and interactive classes—this is what we do every day, for the first 8 or10 hours of the day

In addition to this, the heart of our work, in our “spare” time, we:

• Wrote a comprehensive self-study for the California Association of Independent Schools and received a clear six-year accreditation, the maximum length given
• Did all the work around designing and building this new school, including getting through the Planning Commission, finding a temporary site, and moving over 80 years’ worth of stuff—twice!
• Spent a year in the Presidio while managing a complex construction project that came in on time – just!
• Moved into this building with about ten minutes to spare before school started last year
• Successfully negotiated a $6,000,000 bond to fund the building construction
• Mounted the first major capital campaign in the school’s history and reached the goal of $3,200,000 last June
• Developed a comprehensive safety handbook and emergency plan
• Designed a new brochure, logo and stationery, and web site
• Worked to develop an increasingly effective board of trustees
• Made major strides towards building our library collection and services
• Converted to a new accounting system and software and are now on a calendar of annual audits, which are crisp, clean, and clear
• Developed an entirely new administrative structure for the school, including the lower and middle school deans and a fresh approach to staff meetings, administrative meetings, and committees
• Formalized our admissions process and timeline to put us in synch with local schools, and now track admissions statistics
• Developed comprehensive new materials for the admissions and financial assistance processes
• Launched a major expansion of the middle school, which requires adjustments to everything from schedules, staffing, and curriculum to advising and the way we approach grades and comments
• Successfully educated the community about the importance of annual fundraising at the same time that we completed a capital campaign
• Supported the launch of a parent support group around learning differences
• Revamped the after school program, software, and billing system
• Began to rely less on oral tradition and are actually writing things down
• Developed a formal mentoring program for new teachers
• Completely revised and rewrote the parent/student handbook
• Found new locations for Follies and May Festival, more than once
• Changed the timeline and process for developing the annual budget to support the enrollment cycle
• Developed the first multi-year budget in the school’s history
• Overhauled and improved the entire process and product of student evaluations K-8
• Created a staff handbook chock full of useful information to help employees understand how we do things around here
• Revised the personnel policies
• Developed a formal system for evaluating teachers and curriculum
• Are in the midst of developing a parents association
• Have embarked on the next strategic planning initiative

We have changed dozens of things you don’t see—we have a new bank, phone system, computer network, payroll company, insurance company, auditing firm, cleaning crew, database software and server—and things you DO see like this building, the furniture and fixtures inside it, even the big summer mailing you receive and the Friday Letter. We take and track attendance differently, have codes for the copy machine and the front door, and even have new ways to purchase school supplies. Each of these is minor in and of itself, but they add up to a long list of changes that affect us on a daily basis

Even this is a partial list, and does not even begin to address the thousands of volunteer hours that many of you have contributed on a number of fronts. It’s important to me that the community as a whole comprehends how much has happened here in a very short time—it’s remarkable. Frankly, we deserve to pause and appreciate the monumental achievements of the families, staff, and children who make up this school. We have developed a successful culture of change, which is exhilarating. Thank you ALL for coming along for the ride, which is like a roller coaster in terms of speed, dips, heights, and thrills.

At this point in the ride, I want to support Joninna’s exhortation that we slow down, look around at what we have accomplished, take the time to congratulate each other, and resist the temptation to charge headlong into a new excellent adventure. I do not mean that we should rest on our laurels and gaze at each other with self-satisfied expressions. I do mean that part of doing things well is reflecting, assessing, and fine-tuning those accomplishments. Ideally, this becomes the work: improving and refining systems and structures. It is time to focus inward, on programs and people—”people” being all of you in this room tonight (parents and staff), and the partners and children you have left at home. The staff and I have loads of energy and enthusiasm to devote to this work, and are excited to be moving forward together.

I’d like to close with the final lines from Mary Oliver’s poem Indonesia, as a reminder of how important it is for us, in the midst of so much change, to slow down enough to notice, reflect, and appreciate:

At the inn we stepped from the car
to the garden, where tea
was brought to us scalding in white cups from the fire.
Don’t ask if it was the fire of honey
or the fire of death, don’t ask
if we were determined to live, at last,
with merciful hearts. We sat
among the unforgettable flowers.
We let the white cups cool before
we raised them to our lips.