A Moment of: Looking Ahead

by Tucker Foehl, Head of School
I’m not sure when it exactly hit me. It could have been the moment we descended into Quito after a long day and night of travel from the Bay Area, or it could have been upon arrival to our home base in Ecuador, the 200-acre Palugo Farms. It definitely struck me as we embarked on a two-day expedition through the Andes, as we hiked from roughy 10,000 feet to 13,000 feet and then back down the same distance; and it fueled me as we descended into the rural indigenous village of San Clemente, home to an amazing community that has preserved their indigenous way of living while also welcoming visitors to participate in homestays and their active village life. It could have been in one of the multiple, daily circles we held as a group where we reflected on, and processed, the life-changing experience we were having together. Most likely it was all of these moments and so much more — one of the most meaningful experiences I have had as an educator. 

What deeply impacted me throughout our Passport Program experience in Ecuador — in which Maitane, Maggie, and I, as well as our intrepid group of student adventurers, immersed ourselves in the language, culture, and sustainable living practices of our new Ecuadorian community — was how profoundly we experienced the core values of our school in a different country, a different language, and in such a different mode of living. As we review the mission and core values of our school, I am regularly reminded of the strength and meaning of our core values — they are everywhere throughout our campus, they are what drew so many of us to this school, and they are what excite and inspire us as we think about our next great decade and how we might more fully integrate these values into every aspect of our learning experience, our community, and everyday school life. 

I could spend all afternoon sharing stories from our recent trip to Ecuador — if you are interested, please stop by and let’s talk! As I think about the immense value of experience, I also keep reflecting this week at SA about our schedule and how we spend our time, how we organize that time is fundamental to living and demonstrating our values; and the goal of our calendar and daily schedule should support our student’s personal growth and maximize their potential. 

As I wrote earlier this school year, we embarked this fall on a full schedule review as we reimagined the process that would result in a new way of organizing our day and our time next school year. This was a clear directive from student and parent feedback as well as a directive from our Strategic Plan. In fact, we encourage you to take another look at the Strategic Plan to see how we have articulated the values we hold dear as central to an SA education. 

The first initiative of our plan states: We go beyond college prep and our goal is to “Advance our overall program to ensure academic excellence and develop pathways of learning that allow our students to go beyond the traditional college preparatory model.”

To advance this, we launched a Schedule Review Committee to undertake and oversee this deeply important work. That committee is led by our Assistant Head of School, Rommel Loria, and composed of students and staffulty. They have worked closely with our Teaching and Learning Committee (this is an ongoing group that meets regularly and focuses on all elements of teaching and learning at SA). Additionally, they launched a thorough review process with the help of consultant Shannan Schuster from the Independent School Management (ISM) group. ISM works with independent schools all over the country on a variety of strategic, operational, and implementation projects, with an area of focus in reimagining school schedules. ISM spent the fall semester getting to know our school, our priorities and goals, our curriculum and program, our students and staffulty, and interviewed many constituents about what they hoped to gain from a new schedule and a reimagining of our day-to-day schedule and school calendar. 

Prior to Thanksgiving, on our recent professional development day, Shannan presented an in-depth dive into the current research on how teenagers learn and how to design a high school schedule that best aligns with what is understood about learning, memory, and adolescent development. She also shared possible frameworks that could accomplish our goals and align with our values as we strive toward implementing a schedule that strengthens and enhances our overall program. 

 

While we are in the final draft phase of this process, we are incredibly excited to soon share the final product of this work and detail our innovative approach to our daily and annual calendar moving forward. We are confident that this will allow us to enhance our commitment to deep and meaningful learning — to a program that supports our students in their capacity to engage in a challenging and purposeful education — while enhancing their ability to discover their strengths, to develop their passions and interests, to unleash their joy of learning, and to connect their education with making an impact in the world beyond SA. 

We look forward to communicating with you all soon about our schedule for next school year. We will have multiple opportunities — including a parent forum in our new Performing Arts Center —for you to engage with us in this important next step forward for our school. This is going to be a big year for SA and we are so excited to partner with you in every moment of it!