From the director:

Welcome back! I have been hearing bits and pieces of winter break stories, and the variety is huge. Some of us were on the road, some were close to home, some were in the sun or snow, most of us spent time with our families, and everyone seems to have eaten too much of something delicious. At school, we are complying with local custom by saying “Happy New Year” to each other, even though we know perfectly well that the new year really starts in September.

My letters this week and next will include updates on the strategic planning process. This Sunday, January 11, volunteer task forces made up of staff and parents will join the committee for a full day of work on the Community Engagement and Financial Stability sections of the plan. The goal is to incorporate all of the information from the community meetings last spring, along with any new ideas generated during the day, into a reasonable number of draft objectives with suggested implementation steps. The committee will then take these drafts, along with the draft-in-progress from the Program Excellence section, and begin to craft a coordinated document for community review.

This may sound like a tall order for one day, but it’s possible! We already have the benefit of an enormous amount of input from the community as well as many hours of committee work over the past year. We also have the successful model of the staff’s work in November on the Program Excellence section, when we used the in-service day to develop a draft of objectives and implementation steps for the next 3-5 years. This approach is a change in the process, which came about after discussions at the board retreat and in the strategic planning committee. As we discussed various ways to move forward with the Program Excellence area, wanting to find an appropriate balance of input from parents and staff, the consensus emerged that it should be the staff’s professional responsibility to evaluate the initial feedback and develop a first draft.

The agenda for our in-service day was ambitious and effective; it was a rare and welcome opportunity for the entire staff to spend many hours working together on the future direction of the school. We delved deep into the underlying goals and principles that inform the PHS educational program, used the core values and mission statements as touchstones, examined strategic plans from other schools, referred to the recommendations from the California Association of Independent Schools accrediting team that visited PHS three years ago, examined every program suggestion from the community meetings last spring, and honed this information into suggestions for both maintenance and improvement of the program. It was a powerful, productive day that took excellent advantage of the range of experience present within the staff. It was also a comprehensive process in that we conscientiously included the full range of candid comments from parents in addition to the recommendations from the professional educators on the CAIS team and our own ideas.

The community will have an opportunity to review all of the drafts when they are more presentable.

The challenge of planning work, of course, is not simply to theorize and generate; it is to winnow and prioritize. I am grateful for the time so many of you are spending on this effort, and will report next week about the work session on Sunday.

From the deans:

Wow, it’s 2004 . . . Welcome back PHS students and families, and Happy New Year! The start of a new year signifies a time to reflect on the past and to make plans for the future.

As we bade farewell to Follies 2003, the middle school began looking ahead to our first ‘last week of school’ schedule. Mike Orlando, who spearheaded curriculum coordination, was assisted by the middle school team and art, physical education, and Spanish teachers in delivering an interdisciplinary unit on bridges. The unit afforded students the opportunity to work in multi-grade advising groups and was a great illustration of progressive education. For a full week, students were engaged in various activities, projects, assemblies, and trips. The final project, a student designed ‘bridge building quilt’, will be shared with the community later in the year. Bridge building will continue to be a prominent theme in the middle school for months to come.

During middle school admissions tours and open houses, we began building new bridges by welcoming prospective students and families to our community. We also made promises to sustain older bridges by honoring those leaving our community, Nicolas Petty-Cho and Frances Brown, who have both moved from San Francisco. We chose to say ‘see ya later’, rather than goodbye. The relationships formed between students and teachers will never be forgotten. These are the bridges that transcend time, distance, and physical space.

Now it’s the first week of school and we’ve easily found our rhythm. The middle school is well into its usual routine, back on a regular schedule. Classes are filled with excited students, teachers are full of energy and enthusiasm, and I’m once again immersed in important work at an incredible school. I’m happy to be back and I hope you are, too!

Karen Amaker
Middle School Dean