Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 30, 2013)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Recently, some have expressed concern about the gate in back of the building that leads to our learning cottages.  The concern is that the gate is left unlocked during the day.  This is a legitimate concern since anyone could walk into that area without first being seen.  The problem we have is that we must leave the gate unlocked (not open) due to fire regulations.  The Fire Marshall has stated specifically that we cannot lock our students into the gated area (for obvious reasons).  Therefore, we are left with an uncomfortable situation.

First, though, we must acknowledge that we can never be completely secure.  Any school is vulnerable to someone intent on getting in or doing harm.  That said, we also know after consulting with individuals trained in dealing with intruders that barriers that slow someone down are often adequate when dealing with this kind of situation.  We have improved our security by adding locks on classroom doors and training students about where they should go in order to be out of sight of people looking in.  At this morning’s gathering with the students we discussed the intruder drill and the procedures that are in place for that type of situation.  Additionally, we will be adding a sophisticated camera system that will greatly improve our ability to monitor who is seeking access to our building.  One camera will be installed to view the front door and another will be installed that looks at the back gated area where the unlocked gate in question is located.  The cameras will be connected to a computer screen located in the office so that Jen, or anyone else manning her desk, will be able to see those two areas at any time.  We will also be able to access the cameras on our cell phones, which means that I will also be able to view the two areas at any time, including at night when I am at home and receiving a call about an alarm.  This improvement to our security comes to us in the form of a grant that Jill Goodman was able to secure for this specific purpose.  Once again, she comes to the rescue when our needs are greatest.

            On Friday evening, many parents and staff members gathered at Jeff and Christie Hazard’s house to celebrate the success of last year’s Annual Fund.  I would like to specifically thank the Development Committee, led by Jill Goodman and Christie Hazard, for the amazing job they did last year.  We actually doubled our contributions from the year before.  And a big thank-you also goes out to all of you who gave an average of about $210, with other contributions of as much as $5,000, making last year our greatest success ever.

Now we have begun our campaign for this year with the goal of $33,000.  This fund is very important in terms of our ability to operate the school effectively.  Your tuition covers about 93% of the costs associated with a full school year, leaving 7% to be covered by other sources.  Of course, we have had great success with grants, thanks to our Development Committee.  However, grants are almost always restricted.  That is, they are designated for a specific purpose, such as the Theater Arts Project.  Our successful infusion of grants still leaves us with nearly a 7% deficit in operating costs.  Based on the budget we have for 2013-2014, that 7% amounts to nearly $70,000.  So you can see why the Annual Fund is so important.  I encourage you to make your contributions early.  We are hoping for 100% participation from everyone, including the staff.  By the way, when those awarding grants see that our community contributes at a high level, they are much more likely to look at us above other applicants. This way we can double the benefit of a high level of participation.

            Finally, let me thank you again for how well this year has begun.  The highlight of my day is always greeting you and your children at the front gate.  I have never seen so many happy faces and children ready to learn.  You are doing a great job as parents and your success is readily seen on the bright faces of all the students who pass by me every morning.  Please know that when I am not there, it is not by choice.  You and your children start my day, and without that connection, my day is missing its most important component.  I’ll be out on Friday.  Drat!

Cheers,  

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 23, 2013)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Today, I would like to announce the addition of a new staff member.  As those of you who are somewhat observant probably already know, Ms. Kelly is having a baby (a girl) toward the end of November.  She has decided that she will not return to GreenMount, but instead devote all her time to her family as they welcome this new, wonderful addition.  We know that Kelly has been a daily source of positive energy and always ready with a smile for everyone.  She will be especially missed by the students who love her so much.  However, we do wish her the best, and I know that Ms. Kelly and her first girl will visit us sometime following the birth.

In her place, we have hired Mr. Robert Bekas, who comes to us with a great deal of experience and training and the unusual credential of having graduated from a university solely devoted to physical education.  Being from Poland, Robert attended the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw and has a Master’s of Arts in Physical Education, specializing in fitness and strength training.  As a PE teacher at the St. Catherine Laboure School in Wheaton, Maryland, he had seven years’ experience teaching students K-8.  Unfortunately, that school closed in June, leaving its staff and Mr. Bekas without jobs.  Now, happily, he has found a new home and is anxious to start straight away working with our students and staff.  Please welcome him when you have the chance.

Of course, we wish Kelly nothing but happiness and our gratitude for her service to the children of GreenMount.  She has been a wonderful staff member, always willing to do whatever we asked of her and more.  She will definitely be missed.

            Did you know that it has been five years since we were accredited by the Association of Independent Schools of Maryland and D.C. (AIMS)?  It seems like only yesterday that we went through that very labor-intensive process.  And now it is time for our five-year review.  A team will be coming out in the next month or so to look us over and review our Action Plan.  The Action Plan is the result of our Self-Study, which we completed as part of the accreditation process.  This was an educational process for the entire staff as we looked very closely at what we do for students and ways we could improve our practice.

We created he Action Plan five years ago to address the items that we felt needed to be considered over the 10-year period of our accreditation.  When we created the Action Plan, we spared no part of the curriculum or our daily operations from intense scrutiny.  We viewed everything based on our philosophy and mission and made sure that we are true to our beliefs and ideals.  This year, the staff and board members as well as non-board parents took on the task of reviewing the Action Plan and evaluating the status of our actions. Elaine headed the committee and made sure everyone had a job to do.

Today, the revisions are almost complete, and I am editing the final document that is due on October 1.  I know that we will pass muster again for this review because of all the good work that has gone into the Action Plan.  I am very appreciative to all who participated in this process.  And, by the way, my thanks to all of you for choosing GreenMount for your child.  For it is the community that we have created together that makes us find such favor with AIMS.  Of course, it also helps that we are one of a handful of independent schools across the nation that is at capacity.  AIMS likes that about us….

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 16, 2013)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Have I told all of you how excited I am about this year?  If not, let me proclaim my great enthusiasm for where we are headed as a school and where we have come from in just a few years.

We continue to add amazing students and families and this year is no exception. As the staff gets to know the new students and their families, we find ourselves beaming with the possibilities that they bring.  The students are fitting in very nicely with our “veterans” who have, by the way, been exceptional in their inclusiveness by going out of their way to be welcoming.  Our new parents bring a wealth of unique experiences that we look forward to sharing with other community members and the students.

            As we celebrate our growth over 20 years and the quality of the program we now provide, we must still remember that we are continuing to strive to create a culture of excellence as defined for us four years ago by Ron Berger in his book, An Ethic of Excellence.  After reading the book, the staff has worked to implement many of his ideas, as they seem to fit nicely with our definition of project-based and experiential learning.

The students too have become familiar with what it means to produce excellent work as demonstrated in today’s Monday Morning Meeting.  When asked about some of the vocabulary of excellence, I was genuinely surprised to hear even some of our youngest students talk about risk-taking, peer review, rubrics, drafts, portfolios and even aesthetic eye. For example, we are sure that most of our students understand that in order to produce excellent work, they will have to produce several drafts of their writing or other product they are creating, such as a drawing.

I was equally gratified that two younger students described portfolios perfectly.  Indeed, this will be a focus for us this year, for the portfolio provides a way for students to effectively reflect on their work.  So this year all students will be creating either “Showcase” portfolios or “Growth” portfolios.  In a showcase portfolio, the student adds and subtracts from the portfolio as it becomes the collection of only the student’s best work.  In the growth portfolio, the student collects examples of all his or her work to show growth over a trimester and/or the year.  These portfolios will be managed by the individual students and they will decide the kind they will use, which may change as the year progresses.

Parents can help in many ways.  The best-case scenario would be for you to read Ron Berger’s book to become familiar with his ideas.  You could also go online to see videos of his lectures, which are very informative.  Finally, have conversations with your children about excellence and serve as role models for them discussing the things that you do which you consider excellent.  Talk to them about how many times you have to write that proposal before it meets your standards, or how much you have to plan and rehearse the things that you do at work in order to be excellent.  As parents you have great power to influence your child by serving as a role model for them.  And as you are in the building so often working with students or just helping out, children will notice that.  They see you here and they understand that you value education.  This sends a powerful and long-lasting message to them.

            Finally, let me remind you that tonight is Back-To-School Night for grade K-3.  We hope to see you here at 6:30 p.m. when the program will begin promptly.  It will be an informative evening for all who attend.

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 9, 2013)

Greetings, GreenMount Community,

            Today, we officially begin our first theme as all of the back-to-school business is completed, and the students are looking forward to their first full week of school.  At today’s Morning Meeting we talked about the first theme, “In a Country, On an Island”.  We are all excited to learn what it is like to live on a tropical island and how cultures develop there. Parents, please let us know if you can contribute to our learning with this theme.

Today, we also reviewed our Pillars and have begun with the Academic Pillar and the goal of “putting forth our personal best.”  We hope that parents will reinforce this idea at home as we will be discussing this with the students all week.

            Attached to this bulletin is the list of faculty members and their qualifications.  We update this list each year, and if you are keeping up with this you will see that our years of overall experience have increased not simply because of the fact that a year has passed, but because we have added staff with more years to our roster.  We welcome Luca Ippolito who will be teaching math primarily to students in grades 5-8.  He has extensive experience teaching mathematics with young students and students at the college level.  It appears that his expectations will be very high, and I expect that students will learn a lot of math in his hands this year.  He also was born and raised in Rome, Italy, and speaks fluent Italian.  If any of you want to practice your Italian, make sure to set aside time to talk to Mr. Luca.

Another new staff member that we are delighted to have here is Catherine Young.  She will be teaching music to all of our students and comes to us with over 30 years’ experience and glowing recommendations from former Baltimore County principals, including yours truly.  I hired Catherine in 1991 and can attest to her dedication and work ethic.  She is an accomplished pianist and is learning the ukulele along with our students.

Finally, we welcome John Monahan, a true scientist whose book, They Called Me Mad (not an autobiography), accompanies his other writing for The Baltimore Sun and his regular broadcasts on WYPR with Dan Rodricks when John is the guest on “Science Friday”.  The students have already shared with me that science is going to be “fun!”.  I’ll have to speak to John; we can’t have students having fun with something as important as science!

            Also attached to this bulletin is the Vision Statement for 2013-14.  As in past years, we conducted sessions with parents, teachers and students to determine what they felt our school should look like in five or 10 years.  Each time we conduct this exercise we come up with some truly visionary ideas.  The students especially have some interesting thoughts, like adding a swimming pool, a second story and a high school.  The latter is a great idea and one that expresses our students’ desire to remain here longer than eighth grade.  Maybe if we added a second story….?  Actually, that’s not going to happen.

We are also just one or two students shy of our maximum enrollment, and plans to expand beyond our new learning cottage are not being considered at this time.  We are actually right up against our 240-foot line of usage in the back of the property and in truth the only way to go would be up.

But we are very happy with the number of students and staff we currently have, and the addition of our new families this year has only enhanced the talent and cooperative nature that we always enjoy.  Welcome to all of those of you who are new to GreenMount.  Please know that we value your input and I hope that you will talk to us often about your impressions. And if you have concerns, do not hesitate to address them with us.  My office door is always open.

Cheers,

Steve

Weekly Message from Steve Warner, Head of School (September 3, 2013)

Greetings GreenMount Community,

            WELCOME BACK!  Finally, our students and their families have returned and once again fill this building with laughter and excitement about another successful GreenMount year.  We had a morning meeting in the gym where the students got to see for the first time some of the improvements that have been made.  We have improved the sound quality greatly with the addition of sound absorption panels and the new lighting makes the gym much more cheery and inviting.  Soon our new stage curtains will be in place and new seating will relieve you from the task of sitting on those old metal folding chairs.  All of these improvements are due to the hard work of Jill Goodman as she raised the money from donors, including many of you, to complete these major improvements. 

During the summer, the gym was a mess with dust flying everywhere and crews working on different projects.  Our own crews were busy, too.  Parents refinished the stage, built the new deck, painted, moved furniture, cleaned, and lent a hand with many of the “odd” jobs that we had for them around here.  I can’t voice enough in praise of all the parents who, this summer, made this day possible.  The intensity and quality of the work were amazing.  Just look at that deck as an illustration of how you all step up to help our school.  Without the cooperation and dedication that you contribute through the co-op program, and just because you want to make sure that all of our children have a safe and attractive place to learn, we would not be enjoying such a happy day and such a bright future.  I am looking forward to being with all of you as we work to make our program even more successful during 2013-2014.

Attached to this newsletter is a page from the Maryland Guide for Visitors that I thought would be helpful to you as you plan for those times when you are not in school and looking for some great family activities.  The page includes happenings from September 6 to September 21, after which I will publish another few weeks’ worth of suggestions.  (I think that if you decided to go to the Berlin Fiddler’s Convention, you might see Ms. Laurie there.)

Many parents and teachers, both new and returning (notice I didn’t say “old”), are very kind in their praise of our school and the approach to learning that we have.  We believe that approach is fashioned to create learners that will be equipped to meet the challenges of a future about which we can only speculate. It is an exciting and yet uncertain future that our children face, and who knows what will face our kindergarteners in 2063 when they are retiring?!

So, we know that we have a great responsibility to create a culture in our school where the “cool” thing to do is to work hard and achieve our very best.  We will continue with our plan for inculcating excellence in our school.  Our professional development plans for the year will extend our research and discussion in creating this culture, and I hope you will join us in using the language that inspires children to take risks, strive for excellence, and unleash their curiosity and innovative spirit.  Each year at GreenMount is better than the previous one and as our staff learns, so do the children.  It will be another banner year for all of us.  Aren’t you excited?

            The same quote as last year and the year before that.  We are still pursuing this goal:

E X C E L L E N C E

“Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise; risking more than others think is safe.  Dreaming more than others practical and expecting more than others think is possible.”

Cheers,

Steve