From the director:

Dear Families,

Hiring! We are making progress and I wanted to share our exciting news with you! We have completed the hiring process for our third grade, middle school humanities, and development director positions. I will keep you posted on the rest of the hiring as soon as things are settled. Please join me in welcoming Tanya Finley, Jennifer Franklin, and Skye DeLano.

Tanya Finley will be our third grade teacher. She comes to us from Discovery Center School where she has been teaching a fourth/fifth grade program. Tanya’s undergraduate and graduate degrees are in sociology and elementary and middle school education from Pacific University in Eugene. Her enthusiasm for teaching and engaging with children is infectious. The PHS students she taught during her interview voluntarily approached her after the lesson to thank and compliment her – that’s a true testament!

Jennifer Franklin will join the middle school team as the seventh grade humanities teacher. Mike and Lisa are looking forward to actually forming a humanities department! Jennifer comes to us from Burgundy Farm Country Day School in Alexandria, Virginia. As some of you may recall, Burgundy Farm is the wonderful, progressive school that former director, Hock, came from. Her bachelor’s degree is in psychology from Bryn Mawr College and she is a Fellow from the Columbia University, Teachers College, Klingenstein Institute. She looks forward to sharing her personal perspective to the world cultures theme of seventh grade humanities through her life experience as a woman of Puerto Rican descent.

Skye Delano will follow in Dedee’s footsteps as our new development director. She comes to us from Mount Tamalpais School in Mill Valley where she currently serves as development associate. Her work has included annual fund drives, alumni relations programs, parent volunteer coordination, and relationship building with philanthropic donors. Skye holds a master’s degree from the University of Canberra, Australia in public administration and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. She has worked in independent schools throughout the country and is thrilled to be joining our innovative educational program. I suspect she will join our coaching staff as well!

I know you may be anxious to meet our new staff members. We are working to arrange these visits whenever possible. Skye will join us at May Festival. Tanya will attend the corporation meeting in May. Jennifer is busy teaching in Virginia! Hiring is a complex puzzle: matching skills, experiences, and perspectives. I am so pleased with our three new colleagues and I know you will join me in helping make their transition to Presidio Hill a positive one.

In addition to these exciting transitions, there is another important staffing change that will take place at the end of the school year. Linda Collins has decided to refocus her time and energy as a parent volunteer rather than an employee. We have all benefited from her tremendous warm spirit, sense of humor and dedication to PHS during the last three years and I know we will continue to benefit from her presence as a volunteer. We will be looking for an administrative support assistant to join our administrative team for next year.

See you Sunday

Ann Meissner
Acting Director

P.S. Carey is hoping to join us at May Festival. She’s looking forward to seeing the kids in performance and saying hello to all of you !

Ben S

From The Deans

Dear Families,

As a learning specialist I can’t let Gavin Newsom’s disclosure of dyslexia go unnoticed. You may have seen the Chronicle article last week that describes the mayors recent visit to a school designed for students with dyslexia, Charles Armstrong in Belmont. The mayor made some important comments to the students during his visit.

Newsom reminded the students of successful, important people with dyslexia – Dr. Seuss, Henry Ford, Cher, Charles Schwab, John Irving. This list goes on and on as dyslexia is found in roughly one in five people. “I still have dyslexia – it doesn’t magically go away….But it’s OK. It gets a lot easier if you work hard.” The challenge as educators is to provide the type of instruction that will allow dyslexic learners to find success in their academics. This success encourages further hard work allowing self-esteem to flourish. And when this happens a child is ready to build on their own individual interests and skills – and wonderful things happen! Dyslexic learners are often gifted in areas that don’t rely on language based skills. We see this every day at school in our artists, athletes, mathematicians, designers, logicians, creative thinkers. Newsom commented that since he was “terrible at school,” he used sports, chorus and photography to improve his self-confidence. He goes on to say “You’re going to be better people because of the academic struggles you have right now….There is nothing in this world you guys can’t accomplish – I promise you that.”

I am often asked about the school’s mission as it relates to students with learning differences or learning disabilities. Unlike Armstrong, we are not a school specifically designed for students with learning disabilities. However, by virtue of how we teach, PHS is often a very good match for these types of learners. Small class size, hands on learning, lots of instruction in the arts, an emphasis on learning how to think, and a de-emphasis on competition are all teaching approaches that particularly benefit kids with learning disabilities. And our mission as a multi-cultural community encourages us to value the divergence in learning styles. This is what makes a classroom come alive!

Ann Meissner
Lower School Dean and Learning Specialist

Scenes From a Photoshop Class

Lucy B

Ben S