Looking Ahead
May 15, 2009
As our end-of-the-year festivities pick up speed, now is also the time when we plan and think about the next school year. As we reflect on curriculum and program each year, we continually seek ways to deepen our commitment to our core values as a school. This year, we have thought much about RDS in terms of our community and the environment. In this regard, we have a few changes planned for the upcoming year that we anticipate becoming part of the fabric of our school.
Since early this year, we have been researching what it will take for RDS to become a greener and more environmentally sustainable school. We have met with the Parents’ Association’s Green Committee, faculty, staff, and trustees, and worked with Deborah Moore, a nationally-known consultant who has had great success in helping schools become green. Through this process, we have learned a great deal, and this spring formed a Green Council that will advise us on how to achieve the general goal of becoming a more environmentally aware and responsible school. The committee is comprised of faculty, staff, parents, trustees, and students, and is led by our Director of Enrichment and After-School Programs, Meredith Spencer. As we move forward, Deborah Moore will continue to consult with the Green Council, which convenes its first meeting next week. We will keep the community apprised of our advances through the Friday Folder, the website, and other—green!—methods.
Next year, we will also assertively move towards more electronic communication and phase out much of our paper usage. Friday Folders will be distributed online in both divisions, with a limited number of paper copies still available in the Gallery. Progress reports and middle school three-week reports will be electronic. The Student Handbook will also be distributed online, in a downloadable format.
In line with our environmental objectives, we have also reviewed what we cover in middle school science and, to this end, will incorporate the study of the environment into next year’s sixth-grade curriculum, with even more in-depth environmental studies in eighth grade. The capstone of these curricular changes is a shift in the eighth grade outdoor education trip. For the past six years, students have gone to Washington, D.C. for a week of exploring history in our nation’s capital.
Next year, the trip will be to Catalina Island for a program offered jointly by Catalina Island Camps and the Ocean Futures Society (founded by Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of Jacques Cousteau). The focus is on the environment, and the trip is meant as the final piece of increased curricular attention on issues of sustainability. Through the inspirational natural environment of Catalina Island, students will learn and experience how they can make a positive difference in living more sustainable lives. Team-building challenges and activities will include: an introduction to basic snorkeling skills and using them to study the kelp bed ecosystem; an ecology hike in which students will search for endemic plants and animals and discuss the impact of humans and introduced plants and animals on the island ecosystems; education on sustainable living through conservation, recycling, reuse, and alternative energy; experience with gardening and composting; and one of the highlights, a night snorkel complete with underwater flashlights.
In terms of our ongoing work on diversity, the Diversity Strategic Plan Committee has been meeting all year and next fall will solicit feedback from the community on the working document they are creating this spring and summer. The effort of this committee is an outgrowth of the nineteen focus groups we conducted in the spring of 2008 and has been guided by our consultant, Francie Kendall.
As expected, the committee’s work is already initiating changes in the School. That is, one of their early draft recommendations was to look at what holidays the School celebrates and how we celebrate them. As a direct result of this reflection, next year we will inaugurate César Chávez Service Day on March 31, 2010. On that day, the entire school – K-8 students, faculty and staff – will devote the first half of the day to service in our community; in the afternoon we will reconvene at RDS to discuss our experiences and to learn more about César Chávez and his life’s work.
We have also made both a date and venue change to our largest single community event: Winter Concert. Next year’s Winter Concert will be held at Kofman Auditorium on February 11. The change of venue ensures that our entire K-8 community can gather in one place to celebrate our rich tradition of musical performances. The change in timing falls more in line with our curriculum as it gives students and teachers an additional seven weeks of study and practice, and creates less disruption around the already-shortened month of December.
Finally, I would like to thank all the parents and guardians who took the time to complete our annual Parents’ Survey. Over the spring, the department heads will read every comment and discuss them as a group. This will inform our work over the summer and the goals we set for next year. In addition, I will write a Friday Folder highlighting some of the results of the survey—qualitative and quantitative. With that said, we can already say that the key quantitative aspects of the survey as reported back to us by our statistical consultant are quite favorable: 96% satisfaction with RDS, 92% satisfaction with the Mission Statement, and 90% satisfaction with the exposure to multicultural perspectives. And, of course, there is much insightful feedback that points the way to continued improvement as a learning community, which is the main reason we conduct this annual survey. So again, thanks for taking the time and energy to share your experiences with us.
Have a great weekend,
Mike