Dear Montgomery Community,
Our school year is off to a terrific start. After a relatively quiet summer, it is so good to connect with all of you again. We opened this year with 271 students, including 31 new families and our largest Middle School (90 students strong!) in Montgomery’s 95-year history. Our driveway has been re-paved, bathrooms have been refurbished, and several classrooms were newly tiled.
While readying the School for your return, I have also been concentrating my efforts on steering the School forward in the implementation of our Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, approved by the Board of Trustees in November 2008 and published in February 2009, addresses programmatic development and is organized around four guiding principles:
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Balance & Integration
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Diversity & Inclusiveness
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Stewardship & Sustainability
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Community & Citizenship
"Each guiding principle is tied to our mission of educating students in mind, body, and character. Each guiding principle represents elements of our educational offering that we wish to augment as well as values that we aspire for our students to embrace and demonstrate. Each guiding principle describes an important set of values and behaviors we wish to model for our students and to guide the leadership of our School." (Excerpted from the Montgomery School 2009 Strategic Plan.)
Earlier this week, I was visiting classes and spent some time with the 8th graders. In language arts our “seniors” are reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and in social studies they are working on the great American documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. I witnessed firsthand what our students experience in the classroom and a number of things impacted me. The very forum in which these students were learning was exciting, from the fluid use of technology to the eager participation and engaging conversation around Harkness tables. I was equally struck by the relevance that both courses have for these students as they study America and its place in the world. This is the year that the 8th graders reflect upon their place at Montgomery School as they simultaneously prepare to broaden their horizons—considering their options for secondary school and their place in the wider world.
The 8th grade language arts and social studies curricula are the final pieces of the Middle School humanities program and are preceded by global studies in 6th and 7th grades. The coursework is intended to give the students an understanding of global culture and culminates in 8th grade with American studies. The scope and sequence of the humanities program, coordinated not only in the Middle School but also throughout the Montgomery experience—beginning in Prekindergarten, is an integral part of Montgomery’s Strategic Plan. The evolution of the humanities curriculum, developed three years ago, was guided by two of the Plan’s four overarching principles: Diversity & Inclusiveness and Balance & Integration. The program not only provides preparation for our students to understand the scope of the world and its remarkable diversity, but it also provides integration across disciplines.
Our Strategic Plan is very much a living document; one that we refer to regularly to shape a program that ensures the vitality of the School. The plan’s 19 goals inform the goals that we set for ourselves: Board goals, my goals, the goals of the administrative team, and those of all the faculty and staff. Every one of us has a responsibility in the implementation of the Strategic Plan.
I am excited to share with you two new initiatives that move us forward in the implementation of the Strategic Plan and that will have an impact on this academic year. Under the guiding principle of Stewardship & Sustainability, it is our goal to ensure the financial sustainability of the School by maximizing enrollment. Recently, the Board of Trustees created a new board committee, the Enrollment Committee—made up of Trustees and other community members, to provide guidance and support for our admission and marketing team as they strive to strengthen our recruitment and retention practices. We have also enlisted a team of parents to serve as Parent Ambassadors of the School to spread the word of Montgomery School in the wider community. Research has shown that the most effective marketing we have is “word of mouth,” and the Parent Ambassadors will serve as our primary marketers.
Under the guiding principle of Community & Citizenship, it is our goal to further integrate community service within the student experience, inside and outside the classroom. Beginning this year, we will implement service-learning projects within each grade. These projects will be woven into the curriculum and will enable the students to actively live out the “service to others” aspect of our School’s mission in developmentally appropriate ways. From rescuing dogs from puppy mills, to serving senior citizens, to understanding homelessness, service-learning projects provide students with an understanding of the need to serve others and an appreciation for the impact that we as individuals, and as a school community, can have in making the world a better place.
These are just a few illustrations of the ways in which the implementation of the Strategic Plan has had an impact on the Montgomery School community. I look forward to sharing in more detail the additional significant progress we have made in implementing the Plan at our State of the School community meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening, October 26th at 7:00 PM. We strongly encourage each family to be in attendance, and will provide childcare during the program. Look in our weekly Schoolhouse News for details.
In closing I just want to say how wonderful it is to have School back in session. It has been an exciting, action-packed month for students and families alike, with the annual Golf Outing, the Family Picnic, welcoming coffees and our first MSCA meeting of the year. Montgomery School is, indeed, a warm, welcoming, and vibrant community and one that I feel so privileged to lead.
Sincerely,
Kevin R. Conklin
Head of School