(The following shares about one-fourth of my recent report to the Board of Trustees

The 67th year at BCD is off to a spectacular start.  The faculty is offering our students a first-rate program and building upon last year’s innovations while focused on improving our curricula.  I continue to be pleased with the prudent and measured progress we have made on accomplishing our goals as presented in our strategic plan.  My thanks goes to the faculty, staff, and administration for their hard work and commitment.

Academic Team: Associate Head of School Carmen Dockery Perkins has assumed responsibility for oversight of the entire academic program, and I could not be more pleased with and confident in her abilities.  The addition of a part-time assistant for Carmen will ensure that she is able to have more time to oversee the continuity of learning experiences and the full span of programs for all grade levels at BCD; get into all classrooms and offer feedback on a weekly basis; work on strengthening the curricula by a process of review and implementation of new initiatives; nurture a culture of increased collaboration; work with each department to promote collaboration; support faculty goals and initiatives; and assess and build upon the social and advisory programs.

I believe that Carmen has brilliantly shifted some of the advisor pairings in Middle and Upper School this year.  One highlight is that core advisors in Middle School all teach in their respective homerooms, and their partner’s classrooms are in the same building.  This will further forge a Middle School identity for our students and faculty and support a culture of increased collaboration between teachers and students in Peterson Hall.

Administrative Team: I am particularly proud of the work and commitment of the administrative team.  BCD is fortunate to have such a quality group of professionals who exhibit their talents and concern for students, faculty, parents, the wider community, and advancing the school each day. 

Communications: With expert input from members of the Admission Marketing Committee, Alicia Rossie, Amy Elmore, and others, Robert Serrell launched a new BCD website this summer. 

Development: The 11/12 Annual Fund closed at over $206,000 this year, surpassing the goal and up from last year.  Parent giving increased (it had increased the year before as well), and parent participation was 86%, up from the prior year.  Of special note is the fact that faculty giving increased to 81%, up from last year and the year before.  I would like to especially thank Development Committee Chairs Paige Orloff and Lisa Kantor and Annual Fund Chairs Hilary Ferrone and Wendy O’Neil for their leadership, commitment, inspiration, and hard work last year. We could not have been successful without the leadership of our Trustees, ArtSoirée and Annual Fund volunteers, Director of Development Amy Elmore, and Development Assistant Joanne DelCarpine. 

As planned and reviewed with the Board in June, Amy Elmore led a thorough process this summer to select a proposed Capital Campaign consultant.  Twelve recognized firms submitted proposals.  Paige Orloff, Hilary Ferrone, Amy, and I interviewed four firms before narrowing our sights on a finalist that we believe best suits BCD and will serve us well during the first phase of our campaign.

Facilities: Larry Bingham oversaw and completed several projects during the summer, and Dan Lee once again demonstrated his many talents as a carpenter and painter. Major projects included:

  • A thorough renovation to the first floor of Oakes, including a wall removal to expand the First Grade, new carpet and furniture, concealing the heating pipes along the ceiling, and improved safety lighting.
  • A significant repair to the Ryan Spanish classroom including roof repair, the complete rebuilding of the south wall, and new windows (to be installed soon).
  • The renovation of Carmen Dockery Perkins’ and Sarah Williams’ new offices.
  • The re-grading and improvement of parking lots and roadways, including the addition of tons of new surface material.
  • The distribution of a truckload of woodchips under the play areas on our playgrounds.

As planned when the full Board met in June, the Buildings and Grounds Committee completed a thorough process to select a landscape architect/engineer to oversee planning and construction during Phase One of our site work, specifically dealing with our pathways and courtyards.  A sub-committee of B&G interviewed several firms and determined that Clark Engineering is the best fit for our project this year.  As was announced to the Board and unanimously approved by the Executive Committee this summer, we have proceeded and contracted Clark to begin work.

Faculty: Faculty were in and out all summer long planning for the year ahead, meeting with administrators, reading admissions files, and investing in their professional growth. Some highlights of the work completed this summer includes: Alicia Rossie participated in a four-day workshop for professionals/administrators new to the world of independent school admissions in Delaware this summer.  The workshop was led by Judy Bagdon and was organized by Independent School Management (ISM).  Workshop members learned best practices, shared stories and suggestions, and gained valuable perspective on the admission field overall.  Sarah Pitcher-Hoffman attended soccer clinics at The Fieldhouse in Canaan, NY, with Pete Lopez.  Specific focus was on skills related to coaching varsity girls this fall. This clinic will continue throughout the school year.  Sarah Pitcher-Hoffman and Jeff Uhas spent an afternoon in Deerfield, visiting colonial homes and the museum attic, which is full of colonial implements and tools. They spoke with the education coordinator to plan a trip to Deerfield for their 7th grade history students as they start to plan for the 7th grade Colonial Museum.  Jilly Lederman participated in a 2-month course, Working with Individuals with Disabilities, for completion of her Massachusetts license in Moderate Disabilities, PreK-8, through the Hampshire Educational Collaborative.  Mike McCarthy studied the course curriculums of professors of the Spanish department at Springfield College and reviewed the texts as he prepared for the course that he will teach this fall.  Marilyn Orner Cromwell attended the week-long Kidspace Summer Teacher Institute at MassMoca, The Clark Art Institute, and The Williams College Art Museum.  This collaboration, centered on the theme of curiosity and showcased arts based teaching strategies for PreK through 8th grade students.  Jessica Hoffman Davis, head of the Arts Education program at Harvard Graduate School, was the keynote speaker.  Alexis Watts took two graduate courses: Adolescent Psychology and a humanities course entitled New England and Empire. Both courses were discussion-based seminars.  Ned Douglas engaged in conversations with Bruce McEwen about the new research on brain development and read three books, including Catherine The Great by Robert Massie.  Sarah Cooke attended a day-long workshop at the Austen Riggs Center called “The Brightening Glance – Creativity in Early Childhood.”  Katharine Allentuck attended a week-long Responsive Classroom Workshop in New York City in July.  An in-depth study of the RC approach to teaching, topics included: structuring morning meeting, logical consequences, academic choice, working with families, creating rules, teacher language, guided discovery and collaborative problem-solving.  Gill Romano and Kathy Clausen attended a 2-day workshop on Assessing Dyslexia at the Reading Institute in Williamstown, MA.  The workshop provided its participants with an understanding of what Dyslexia is and reviewed the various tests that are used to determine whether a student is in fact Dyslexic.  Maureen Tumenas attended ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) annual conference in San Diego for 4 days. This conference attracts over 18,000 educators from over 80 countries. She also attended EdcampBoston, EdcampBLC and Edcamp CT, all one-day professional development opportunities run by educators, for educators.  John Evans taught two graduate classes, both were for the Southern New Hampshire University Graduate Program in Community Mental Health. One was Diagnosis and Assessment with emphasis on co-occurring psychiatric and substance abuse disorders; and the other was Career and Lifestyle Development: focus on theories regarding how we make decisions about occupation, career, family, retirement, etc.  Amy Sanchez participated in a 2-day professional development workshop at Clarksburg Elementary School about behavior management and addressing disruptions to classroom instruction.

This summer, members of the faculty chose to read a book from a list proposed by colleagues.  Groups gathered during our back-to-school meetings to discuss:

  • Understanding Independent School Parents: The Teacher’s Guide to Successful Family-School Relationships by Michael Thompson and Allison Mazzola
  • Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity by Don Hellison
  • Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative by Ken Robinson
  • Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood by Ned Hallowell
  • Drive by Daniel Pink

Finance: Gwen Connolly continued to keep her keen attention on the finances of the school this summer. We can attribute the smooth and efficient year-end work with our accountant to Gwen’s excellent performance last year. A final report from our accountant will be presented to the Board at our November meeting.

We have successfully proposed a plan that balances the budget for the fourth year in a row.  We ended the 2011-2012 fiscal year with a modest cash excess, and we were able to add to the operating reserve fund that was created at the end of the prior year, increasing it 50%.  Our endowment now stands at over $1,200,000, up 13% from last year.

NEASC:  BCD is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. The full accreditation review process occurs every ten years, and BCD is scheduled to conclude this extensive process during a campus visit by an accreditation team this spring. This has been a wonderful opportunity for the faculty and others to evaluate our programs and policies while setting goals for future improvement.  In addition, we have assessed ourselves against an extensive series of standards to ensure that we are implementing best practices in every area.

Technology: With thanks to the careful work of Kim Kisselbrock and Tom Provencher, the following projects were completed or are underway:

  • A new graphic design lab was installed in Peterson and will be available through the day for use by other classes.
  • We continued to replace faculty, staff, and administrative computers as scheduled.
  • A series of improvements to our network were completed.
  • A new phone system will be installed this fall.