Welcome to Parish 2010!

August 6, 2010

Dear Parents:

Greetings from a campus which, at present, still resembles more a construction site more than a school! I hope your families have enjoyed a summer filled with rest, enrichment, and renewal. That has certainly been the case for Mollie, the boys, and me.

One question I have been contemplating is - What does remarkable look like? Seth Godin, the noted entrepreneur and blogger on business and marketing, tells us that being remarkable or indispensible means offering “something worth talking about, worth paying attention to.” Moreover, attaining a level of remarkableness requires “originality, passion, guts, and daring.”

I have spent a good portion of my reflective time this summer considering what it means to be remarkable…as a father and husband, a school leader, and teacher. Of course, I have also focused considerable energy on our collective and ongoing quest to make Parish a school worth remarking about.

Last year, I spoke often of Parish as a place of possibility – for our students, for families, and as a community of learners, teachers, and colleagues. I remain convinced that at Parish, anything is possible. This year, as we build our strategic plan, our conversations will shift from possibilities to realities. I am confident that we will build a strategic plan which is daring, gutty, and original enough to bring us even closer to being the remarkable school we aspire to be.

We will build our plan with confidence of our present position and future vision. As part of our planning, listening, and discerning, we have generated a guiding document which speaks to our identity and purpose. You will recognize, I hope, our four Parish Principles of integrity, leadership, innovation, and preparation, which we shared with you last spring after our work with Ian Symmonds & Associates. These principles and the broader statements articulated in this template will guide our strategic planning process. In fact, as you will read in the (enclosed? attached?) letters of your division head, we are actively engaging one another in how to bring these principles to life within our program. Please take some time to read this document to learn how your division will embody the Parish Principle of preparation.

 In anticipation for the new school year, I have asked our administration and faculty to consider how they can be remarkable – remarkable leaders, teachers, and colleagues – and will share my perspectives with them on the same. As you prepare to return your child to us, I would ask you to reflect upon what it means to be a remarkable parent in the Parish learning community. When you are on campus for Parent’s Night in September, I will speak more to this, but I would like to prompt your thinking with a few thoughts of my own:

Remarkable Parish Parents:

Connect and Engage - read what is mailed home, visit the web site frequently and log on to the new online portal – myParishConnection starting August 18, attend parent education and other events on campus, and partner with one another and the School to enrich the Parish experience for adults and students alike.

Expect but Respect – hold the education professionals at Parish to high expectations but respect their experience, judgment, and wisdom in administering the program.

Candid and Civil – share concerns and commendations freely, openly, and regularly with teachers and administrators, and do so with a commitment to a civility in discourse.

I look forward to our ongoing conversations on this and other topics this year.

Of final note, incredible facility alterations await your return to both campuses. At Hillcrest, we have built a new learning lab for our second graders, instituted significant upgrades to our technological infrastructure, and implemented necessary improvements to heating and cooling utilities. At Midway, the addition of classrooms, an art gallery, and athletic locker rooms in the West Wing along with major reconfiguring of the cafeteria and surrounding area in the Kleinert Tower and Pearlman Conference Center represent the final steps in transforming of Exxon/Mobil Oil’s international research facility into the Midway Campus of Parish Episcopal School! I know you will be impressed by these enhancements.

It is with great anticipation that I await the arrival of our students and to seeing each of you again on campus. Enjoy your last few weeks of summer!

Regards,

Dave Monaco
Head of School