Dear Montgomery Community,
As I watch my vegetable garden grow from new seeds, I am excited to see sprouts and leaves begin to form. I feel a sense of accomplishment that my winter planning and early seeding will “bear fruit” later in the summer. It is a lot like watching children mature. As I observe our eighth graders preparing for their last exams and graduation on June 5th, I realize that I have watched them for many years, a number of them since the age of 5. They have benefited from your investment in their education: the good planning and “early seeding” of the entire Montgomery community. They have become strong, bright, accomplished, young men and women. It is now time for them to move on to their next schools. They are eager, well prepared, and ready to enter the next phase of their lives as Montgomery School alumni.
As it is in schools, we begin again in the fall with a group that looks very much as it did the year before. Bell Hall will be full of children, however, everyone will be in a different seat. At School we have been preparing for next year for quite some time and look forward to it with optimism. Enrollment from kindergarten through eighth grade will be much the same as it has been for the last seven years. At this time we anticipate only having one section of prekindergarten. Even though new enrollments have been behind previous years, the retention of current families has been stronger than ever. Your commitment to the School in difficult financial times has been exceptional. Thank you.
Despite the challenges, there has been some great news on the admission front. We have had exceptional interest in 4th and 5th grades, and as a result, we will have three sections of fifth grade for next year. Joining Mrs. Batson and Mrs. Barker will be Ms. Lisa Kolesar, who has been teaching 4th and 5th grade science this year. Lisa came to us in September having been the 5th grade classroom teacher for the gifted and talented at Canterbury Woods Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia. As we have seen all year, she is a great match for our fifth grade team.
Here is a preview of some things to come for next year:
Our new website has been under construction all year. We are in the last stages of testing, and it will be ready to launch later in the summer. Among its advantages, will be an ease of communication that will be web-based. Links in Schoolhouse News, letters from the Head of School, and other electronic communication will allow easy access to everything you need to know. While we will continue to publish the Parent Student Handbook in hard copy, it will also be available online for your convenience. In addition, our directory will be available online which will allow directory changes to be made easily keeping our community more up-to-date.
For the Fall, we are making some new additions to the Middle School athletics offerings and to the Lower School Afternoons program. In addition to our full complement of athletic and arts offerings in the Middle School, middle schoolers will be able to choose horseback riding. We have entered into an agreement with Peace by Piece Farm, which abuts Montgomery behind the Operating Engineers Playing Fields. For fifth graders, we will be adding a modified interscholastic sports program in the afternoon. We are also working to provide an after school offering of Chinese language instruction for kindergarten through 5th grades.
We are excited about what is ahead for the coming year and will keep you posted with mailings in the summer. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop in to say hello.
Have a wonderful summer.
Sincerely,
Kevin R. Conklin, Head of School