It was a wonderful day today as we welcomed our Living History participants and I was able to again offer a greeting this morning. As always, I watched students go off to hear stories from true participants in events of the distant past. Bringing these stories to life each year is an important part of the ASW culture, looking back to look forward. I walked around a bit and watched students in rapt attention as these golden warriors shared their experiences of challenge, despair, and salvation with our students.

A big thank you to our wonderful organizers, teachers, translators, and volunteers for a job well done. And the students looked pretty good dressed up for the day, too!! Way to go 8th grade!!

Board Training and Elections/Appointment reminder

In case you missed the email, Greg Liddle’s Board Chair letter is HERE!

Board Training:

Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here: 

https://goo.gl/forms/cfjli5MvNnwzNiNs2

In both prior eNotes and the board chair’s letter, the call for both applications for appointment and nominations for election is open and available. The link to that form is here:

https://goo.gl/forms/3Vg4LemowAyfBTNA3

The Board is currently seeking community members with experience in fields like human resources, fundraising, development, and strategic planning. We are also seeking members with strong social networks within both ASW and our host community.

You can find more information about the BoT, including the composition of the board and qualifications here:

https://www.aswarsaw.org/community/board-of-trustees

Project Nest

The project nest remains open until March 20th. Please get your ideas on the wall. No idea is too small or too big. Start with “What if we…” and complete the thought. Examples: What if we could find more time to learn about basic life skills like balancing a checkbook or changing a tire? What if we could change the schedule to allow more options for collaborative groups? What if we could build a rocket ship to take us all to Mars for a visit?

All your ideas are welcome and encouraged!

Last Chance on Parking Permits

Stop by the security desk and get your parking permit. Then proudly make sure it is displayed somewhere behind the front windshield so that it is visible at all times while your car is on campus. After the February break – No Permit, No Entrance!!

Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Update

No significant update other than we continue to watch the status through the updates by John Hopkins University, WHO, and the CDC. The numbers increased significantly in recent days on one chart, but not due to additional cases, but instead because of a change in the criteria for counting.

Athletic Travel and Hosting Safety

A reminder – Both CEESA and SCIS have agreed to abide by our restrictions that are now adopted in all CEESA schools. This means that all coaches, athletic directors and activity directors have been informed that they must assure us that all members of the visiting team comply with the following:

• No community member within a family or a student will be allowed to participate if they have traveled to China within the last 14 days
• No group member will be allowed to participate if they have had contact with anyone having an elevated risk of exposure to the 2019-nCoV in the past 14 days
• No group member will be allowed to participate if they show symptoms of any respiratory illness.

For our upcoming hosting of the CEESA MS/HS Swim Meet, all arriving schools will be checked for compliance with the above standards. All CEESA schools recognize the implications of safety and security for all our students and we have an absolute commitment to our standards from all participants! Looking forward to the competition in two weeks’ time. Go, Warriors!

Board Training and Election Cycle

Like earlier this year, I’ll be leading a session on School and non-profit board membership. If you have an interest in a position on the ASW board, as a leader in PTO, or if you are looking to serve on other boards in the future, this training will help provide some of the key understandings associated with good governance in a non-profit setting.  The content of this training has been expanded to also include insights into ASW specifically.  We’ll explore selected ASW Board documents and will give some insight into ASW structures and policy.  Our first session will take place as follows:

Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here: 

 https://goo.gl/forms/cfjli5MvNnwzNiNs2

Similar to last year, the BoT is also seeking candidates as new Trustees (U.S. citizens and Non-U.S. citizens) who will begin serving in the 2020-2021 school year. This process, overseen by the BoT Governance Committee, begins now with a call for both applications for appointment and nominations for election through a unified form to be completed by March 30 for appointments and by April 17 for elections. The link to that form is here:

https://goo.gl/forms/3Vg4LemowAyfBTNA3

The Board is currently seeking community members with experience in fields like human resources, fundraising, development, and strategic planning. We are also seeking members with strong social networks within both ASW and our host community. Most importantly, the BoT needs parents who are committed to the values, mission, and vision of our community and the long-term wellbeing of our school and its students.

You can find more information about the BoT, including the composition of the board and qualifications here:

https://www.aswarsaw.org/community/board-of-trustees

Parent Partnership – Elementary Principal Search and Window into Early Years Open Doors

Please join me on February 20 for a parent coffee in the ES Tower to discuss the current Elementary Principal Search that was announced back in December. This is just an update as our process gets closer to invitations and visits for our finalists shortly after the February break. Our Search Committee has been working diligently on first-round interviews of our applicants. In total, we had over 70 applicants from our global search. We are hoping to have some parents join us to share their thoughts on preferred qualities and also to sign up if interested in joining community interview teams as part of the upcoming visits. Please join us if you can on Thursday, February 20 at 8:45a. Be sure to check ES eNotes for information on the Early Years presentation as well! See you in the tower!

We spent some time with the leadership cadre today in our next journey toward strategic planning work that increases in focus this semester. Today, we focused on our adopted objective:

By 2024, everyone here will spend the majority of their time managing what they do and designing how they do it.

In the context of our Mission tag line “Changing the world for the better,” we unpacked the wording of this objective after many months of embracing the ideas that have been emerging in the Project Nest and deepening our understanding of the IB Standards and Practices.  We considered the embedded concepts in “managing” and considered terms like negotiating and advocating – all terms associated with agency.  We dug into designing and talked about making, planning, writing, presenting, debating, and constructing amongst many others. Most importantly, we took the time to create and tell our own stories of what it would look like for students and teachers if we had achieved this objective.  As our vision statement, this is the storytelling of a crafted future, building on ideas that cross subject, divisional, and departmental lines.

We then turned our stories into aspirations by capturing the aims of the story in a “What if we…?” statement.  These are now being added to the Project Nest for all to review and reflect upon.  It’s not too late to still add your own ideas using the same starter.  Please come and add your own between now and early March.  Then we start turning the Project Nest into tangible projects that will be designed during March and April.  Look for more on our work as it evolves between now and the end of the year.

Coronavirus

Some parents have asked the athletics and activities office over the last few days about any travel restrictions in regards to athletic travel over the next few weeks to SCIS and CEESA tournaments. The conferences in which ASW is a member have at this point said they have imposed the same or similar guidelines including the exclusion of students who have recently traveled to or through China. This is part of our screening for trip advisories that will now be given each week in advance of the next weekend of travel.

Our other plans in school have now been fully implemented. We continue to watch the information from reliable sources and will make additional changes to our practices as the situation requires. Thank you for the many messages supporting our actions and our communication during this emergency. As always, we appreciate your feedback and accept both criticism and compliment in order to continue to improve our practice.

Parking Permits

Reminder to get your parking permits. Remember, after the February break:

NO parking permit = NO car access to the campus.

To the ASW Community…

I’m writing to update you on the status of our response to the Coronavirus as new details become available. The information below is gleaned from multiple sources, but all checked against current science and official positions on the issue.  It is clear we also have a significant amount of misinformation that is being shared through media and individuals that increases the complexity of our decisions.  Despite news reports from China of more drastic restrictions, we are still taking a measured approach to the situation, grounded in current and validated facts. 

According to our risk plan for infection, we are currently at Level 1 and will remain at this level based on current advice. We would only move to the next level after reviewing additional information and based on US Embassy or other competent recommendations. There are 4 levels to the plan that include board involvement on any decisions that would include the closure of school.

Level 1 includes the following actions:

• A student must be kept at home if symptoms occur.  This is consistent with normal school policy but will be further reinforced in the coming days.  As per our health manual (excerpt), parents must “keep a child home from school when he/she has any of the following symptoms: Signs of severe illness including fever of 38C (100.4F), difficulty breathing, a severe runny nose, sneezing, frequent and/or hard coughing…”
• Students who have been diagnosed with a Communicable disease “must inform the Nurse’s Office of the diagnosis. When returning to school, the student must submit a doctor’s note stating that he/she is no longer contagious and is fit to return to school before going to class.”
• Encourage hygiene including handwashing (all levels)
• Extra cleaning around the school and increased disinfection
• Normal activities program and normally scheduled events
• Field trips as normal, but potentially restricted if any risk in Poland or at the location of the visit:
  • This weekend we are hosting MATHCOUNTS and sending basketball teams to Zurich and Vienna
  • Next weekend, we have trips going to Basel and Athens

We will use email, establish a notification on our website, and use our SMS system if the situation suggests an increase to the next level, which would include the following additional steps:

• Restrict campus access to only staff, parents, and students – all visitor access suspended
• Parents requested to disclose travel to infected areas
• School activities as normal
• School travel suspended
• Evening and special events – school staff, parent, and students only
• Posters and information on buses regarding health restrictions – don’t get on the bus if sick!
• Increased school cleaning and 3-day cycle on additional cleaning support and activity
• All students who have traveled in last 10 days monitored.

To be clear we are not at the next level yet and we would only go to this level when cases are identified in Poland, a pandemic is declared by either WHO or the CDC, and broader travel restrictions are implemented.  This is NOT the case at this time.

We have a much more detailed document from the Embassy with questions and answers to the most frequent requests for information.  It is attached “HERE”.

One of the issues that we are facing is two families are returning from China in the coming days.  I’ve been in touch with both families and they have confirmed they have not traveled to the Wuhan area and have been only with close family members during the New Year.  The following is an excerpt from the longer Q&A advisory linked above:

Q: Should we be limiting contact with staff or family members who are returning from China?  Is it okay to have them in offices, classrooms, training, etc?

A: At this point, neither the WHO nor the CDC has recommended any preclusions for people coming from China.  Currently, the CDC in the United States is screening all arrivals from China and doing more in-depth screening of arrivals who have been specifically in Wuhan.  From what has been seen to date there is no indication that travelers from China should be limited in their interactions at work, school, or recreational activities.  Excluding someone “out of an abundance of caution” is not indicated, unfairly stigmatizes people without evidence that it protects anyone and should NOT be done.

US Embassy Med Unit, January, 2020

As you can see, there is no support for excluding these families at this time and we have contacted them to confirm that they have not been exposed nor have traveled to the current region of focus, the Wuhan area, and are not exhibiting any symptoms.  Therefore, messages to these families suggesting that they should remain out of school are highly inappropriate.

We have heard many other rumors and hysteria driven claims in the media.  We must be cautious about believing everything we read and see on TV and through the internet.  As we teach your children, we should be thoughtful consumers of information seeking the best and most accurate sources.  As a school, we focus on reliable and confirmed sources of information for our decisions and will continue to resist calls for action that is based on fear and false information.

To summarize:

• While it is early, this is not a serious illness based on the number of cases and the symptoms reported.  The deaths are a limited number and mostly older adults with other health concerns. 
• As a comparison, the CDC estimates that the flu has hit as many as 21 million people since October 1, 2019 (start of the flu season) and has caused between 9000 and 20000 deaths so far, as it does each year.
• The Polish government released advice this afternoon that affirms a prudent approach of just better handwashing and also sought to push back on erroneous claims of the spread of the virus via postal mail.

Please allow us to be cautious, but also prudent. Do not take matters into your own hands and directly contact other families you believe are of concern. Make decisions relative to your own child and family as you see appropriate. But, most importantly, please know that the school is making decisions based on changing conditions and using the best official advice available.

In recent weeks, we have moved some important items into our PowerSchool interface that are important informational and process links for parents. After login to PowerSchool, you’ll see a menu item labeled “QuickLinks.” Please click on this link to access the ASW Dashboard – your portal to the most critical information of school operation. You’ll note a governance link for direct board governance information, links to important documents of procedure and policy, and links to important forms for incident reporting and easy access to security information. We will be adding additional links here as required to make this a one-stop location for critical school information. Look for continuous upgrades in the weeks ahead.

Reminder – Vehicle Access

Reminding you that over the coming weeks, parking permits will be provided to all parents and staff who request them by presenting a valid ID at the main entrance security desk.  You may register and pick up parking permits for up to 3 vehicles per family. Permits will be tied to individual cars (by license) and should be hung from the rearview mirror or placed behind the windshield so that they are visible when entering campus and while the vehicle is parked on campus.   Starting now, security will be reminding everyone without a permit about the new requirement. After February 22nd, your badge will not open the entrance gate until a security guard confirms that you have a valid pass visible in the vehicle. Your ID badge and the vehicle permit are both required to enter the campus.

Water Update

We are just about two months after our issues with the water supply and wanted to provide an update with regards to recent testing and our efforts during the winter vacation. We just received our most recent water tests and all measures were excellent. This was undertaken after additional work during the vacation on our water fountains and the general flow of water to all locations in the building. So this report confirms that everything is back to normal and we continue to monitor under our regular protocols. Reports are available for viewing in our Operations department at your discretion.

We are taking the new year as an opportunity to implement some additional tweaks to our security plan that were recommended by our ongoing review of practices and procedures. ASW will now require all vehicles to be registered for campus access.  Over the coming weeks, parking permits will be provided to all parents and staff who request them along with a valid ID.  You may register and pick up parking permits from the Security Desk at the main entrance (Maximum of 3 vehicles per family). Permits will be tied to individual cars and should be hung from the rearview mirror or placed behind the windshield so that they are visible when entering campus and while the vehicle is parked on campus.   Until February 21st, security will be reminding everyone without a permit about the new requirement. After February 22nd, vehicles will not be permitted to enter the campus without a permit.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in implementing this quickly and efficiently during the coming month!

I hope everyone has returned refreshed and ready for ASW, 2019-2020, Part 2! Wishing you all well from afar as I’m out on the recruiting road seeking new staff for ASW for next year. As is the case every year, we will have some staff turnover, much as we do in our diplomatic and expatriate community. We are in the process of hiring now and looking to bring our process to quick conclusions. More details on this will eventually be posted here on Zimplicity and in future eNotes in order to keep you informed. I will return on Tuesday next week.

In the meantime, I know that we are all watching world events with some concern at the moment. I know that this can cause some levels of stress for our families, especially for those from selected regions of the world. As a community, we value our diversity and our collective regard for each other in times of concern and instability. Please know that we are monitoring for stress in our children during times like this and strive to make sure that our school is a safe place and supportive of their concerns as their age allows them to become aware of world events. One helpful site worth reviewing is here:

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/talking-to-your-children-scary-world-news

Much of this advice is part of the way we respond to world events that may be hard for children to understand. As the website points out, it is helpful to recognize that children are more aware at times than we might realize. Helping them to make sense of things is important and listening can be a key strategy for understanding their confusion and helping them resolve their concerns. Please let our counselors or your child’s teacher know if you have any concerns and know that we have other resources available as needed.

Best wishes to all on our first week back and I’ll look forward to greeting you at the entrance next week.

Water Issues

First, my thanks for your patience and flexibility as we dealt with our water issue this week. It’s always a daunting challenge when we face environmental issues like this and have to address these through our emergency planning. In this case, our plans and reviews worked efficiently and our staff did a great job of identifying the issue, communicating it, and quickly applying remedies. It’s in these moments that you truly appreciate your support staff who spent countless hours protecting the environment for our students. There were many trips to facilities and offices, phone calls with representative and testing labs, monitoring of reports and results. My thanks go out to our team for all of their wonderful efforts on behalf of all the students in our care!

Recruiting

As you may remember, each year in November, we ask staff to make their decisions about returning for the next school year. We have just completed this project and staff have informed us of their intent. We’ll have detailed information about this out to you after the start of the new calendar year and our return in January. As usual, a majority of staff are returning for next year.

One item of note was the recent announcement by Ms. Jen Munnerlyn, Elementary Principal, that she has accepted a position as the new Director of Lower School at the American School of Madrid starting in August 2020. We are very happy for the Munnerlyns and will plan for opportunities toward the end of the school year for proper farewells as they embark on their next adventure.

A Search Committee has been formed under my direction and we began our work this morning preparing the position announcement for this important role. We are planning a process that will include ample opportunities for all stakeholders to be involved in helping us select the next principal for the Elementary. This will include finalist visits and opportunities to provide feedback to the committee for their deliberations. We’ll provide more details on this in January when we return from the break.

‘Tis the Season

If you have joined us last week for Band or this week for Choir, you have had a wonderful experience of music accomplishment. Our thanks to all the students performing and to the talented directors (Ms. Bechdolt & Ms. Lyons) for their amazing work!! We still have one more remaining and hope that many of you will join us for the Guitar Concert on Tuesday night at 6p in the Theater!

Also, the Arts Department will maintain its displays this week. They were a hit last night at the choir concert when they were unveiled and important that you stop in and take a look!

One Last Reminder

We are about to start reviewing candidate applications, so please be reminded that we are looking for a project manager to serve in an advanced role for the school. The position announcement is HERE. Last chance to apply for this unique role!

Since this is the season, at least on the American calendar, let me offer my earnest thanks for all your contributions to what makes a school community. Since the start of the school year, we have had scores of volunteers on campus on a daily basis helping us to embrace sports, activities, arts, social events, charitable causes, diversity, learning goals, and fellowship. We are a big family, often daunting in scope, but always rewarding in what we accomplish for the students we all serve together. Please continue to look for opportunities around the school where you can offer the gift of time and talent. Whether signing up for Career Day (<– click here!), selling a few books, or mixing a bit of Jingle Bell Run hot chocolate, we need all of you to help raise our children and support this wide range of opportunities! In the spirit of Thanksgiving and sharing the heart of a holiday, thank you for all that you contribute and thank you in advance of all that is yet to come!!

Engine Running in Parking Lot

Please be reminded that you may not run your engines anywhere in the parking lot when you are waiting for more than one minute. Running engines on school property while parked or in our “Kiss-n-Go” area is strictly prohibited. If you plan to wait in an area for an extended time, have a warm coat in case of cold weather. Running your vehicle unnecessarily and contributing to bad air quality will not be tolerated! Thank you to all who are doing such a great job following this essential rule!

Reminder: Unique Opportunity!

The school announced recently the creation of a new Project Management Role designed by the Board Advancement Committee to work under the Director and in collaboration with the Director of Communications and the Advancement Committee on projects associated with developing new projects for the school.  The role is limited to specific projects and deliverables that the successful candidate would help to define building on the committee’s initial work.  The job description and application portal is on our website HERE!

Reminder: The deadline for withdrawal from second semester with a partial refund of fees is December 15. After December 15, no refund will be possible. Details about refunds can be found on our website here: https://www.aswarsaw.org/admissions/school-fees

Zimplicity Director’s Desk Video Podcast
Zimplicity Podcast

FCD Returns

John Tummon of FCD is back at ASW with important information to share with students and parents.  We had a good group join us for the parent evening on Tuesday night, but if you think you missed your opportunity, you would be wrong!  We are back together tomorrow morning at 8:30a in the MPR for our FCD Parent Coffee.  Please come and join us.  Remember my article back on September 18?  The issue is more intense now than ever and it’s important for our community to rally and get the information needed to avoid the damage that is being done to our children if we don’t get engaged.  Please come and join us to learn.  There is power in knowledge and collaboration!

Unique Opportunity!

The school is announcing the creation of a new Project Management Role designed by the Board Advancement Committee to work under the Director and in collaboration with the Director of Communications and the Advancement Committee on projects associated with developing new projects for the school.  This would include funding for scholarships, initiation of an endowment fund, and other special projects in support of the school and its mission and vision.

The role is limited to specific projects and deliverables that the successful candidate would help to define building on the committee’s initial work.  The job description and application portal is on our website HERE!

URGENT! – PTO Still Needs Volunteers

The fun never stops and creating community requires everyone to support when the call goes out.  Please be advised that PTO needs additional volunteers for an upcoming key activity – the Annual PTO Book Fair!!

Fun for all our students and already published in prior eNotes, please click on one or both of the following links and sign-up for one or more of the open slots.

• Bookfair shifts: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080B44A9AF28A6FD0-ptobook1
• Setup shifts: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080B44A9AF28A6FD0-ptobook

Parents Needed for Upcoming Career Fair

Parents from all sectors are needed for the upcoming Career Fair on Thursday, January 30th.  We have hundreds of students who would like to hear from parents and community members about their profession and present it to our students.  We need 45 or more parents to make this a successful event.  Sign up HERE!!

Also, if you are interested in reaching out more to students and alumni from ASW, we encourage all our parents to join our alumni network.  You don’t need to be a true alumnus to join our alumni network.  As a parent of a student at ASW past or present, you may join the network at any time and potentially provide mentoring or advice to our growing community of past and present community members of ASW!  Join today by heading your browser in this direction: https://aswalumni.org/

New and Aspiring Board Member Training

It’s not too late to join us tomorrow (Thursday) night @ 6:00p in the MPR.  You can still signup HERE or just come and join us if you are able.

 

Aspiring Board Trustee Training

Mark your calendars for the first session this year of the New and Aspiring Board Member training. Like last year, I’ll be leading sessions on School and non-profit board membership. If you have an interest in a position on the ASW board, as a leader in PTO, or if you are looking to serve on other non-profit boards in the future, this training will help provide some of the key understandings associated with good governance in a non-profit setting. The content of this training has been expanded to also include insights into ASW. We’ll explore selected ASW Board documents and will give some insight into ASW structures and policy. Our first session will take place as follows:

Thursday, November 14, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. in the MPR

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here: https://forms.gle/PaqhCCWkc5bLQZcu6

Refund deadline

A reminder that the deadline for informing us of your departure before the start of the second semester is November 15th in order to receive a full refund of fees for the semester. For further information, please consult our details on school fees on the school website: https://www.aswarsaw.org/admissions/school-fees

Boy Scouts

Are you interested in being part of Boy Scouts here at ASW? If so, there is an interest/organizational parent meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 12, in the MPR at 6:30p. Please come and join other interested parents to discuss our next steps.

Car and Traffic

There have been some significant traffic jams along the back road to school in recent days due to a project rebuilding the northern crossroad of Przyczolkowa and Drewny Street. This will continue through the end of November. There will be some changes to the car traffic and buses as a result. As part of the project, they are putting lights on the crossing at that location. This is actually good news in order to have a safer crossing that connects to the bike path that was recently installed.

I’ll reiterate my advice from last year that all bicycling should avoid the back road to and from school due to safety concerns. The challenge was the lack of a path on the main road that would allow safe transit to this area. That has now been resolved with the installation of a new bike path and this will continue to be improved in the weeks ahead.

Click here more info about changes in buses and changes in traffic as a result of this work.

Dear Mom & Dad,

Today was United Nations Day at school and it was so much fun!  It’s hard to figure out where to start in telling all of the stories of the day.  I tasted treats, sat in a car from India, Disco danced in Holland, had Korean noodles, Indian Samosas, Slovenian honey, Polish Perrogi, Italian sliced ham, Turkish treats.  I won a prize at the China booth when I was able to remember some of my Chinese characters.  I was very proud that I remembered Zai Jian (??).  Then, I milked a goat and later traveled the Oregon trail and got a new recipe for Snickerdoodles (but they called them something else).

But, I also got flags from a few countries, watched fabulous dances and enjoyed conversation with almost every booth.  I watched Tae Kwon Do when they broke some wooden boards and took lots of video of the Chinese and Turkish dancers.

But, there were a couple of special moments.  The students reading their poems in the assembly almost made me cry.  I did shed a tear during the music when I heard the wonderful voices of our soloists.  And, like always, I really enjoyed sharing my ideas with our “family” audience.  We were all warriors together on the day!!

I also received a special gift from the Swedish table, a wonderful volume on Dag Hammarskjold.  He was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations until the year after I was born in 1961, but I remember him dearly for two reasons.  First, I remember writing a research report about him when I was in 6th-grade while we were studying the United Nations, probably about this same time of year because I remember also celebrating countries from around the world in a very similar fashion.  Second, I remember his legacy being a significant presence at Pacific Lutheran University, my alma mater. PLU hosts the largest Scandanavian Center in the Pacific Northwest.  He has been an inspiration to me and, of course, shares a portion of my heritage since I have about 25% Swedish inside of me somewhere (along with Norwegian and Swiss).  The book presented to me today was a wonderful gift and I’ll treasure it.

We really have to thank PTO for such a great day today!  It was brilliant and all the parents really took on the challenge and made it truly special!

And a special shout out to Mr. Sidaway and the team in the Athletics and Activities office for making our assembly truly something special.  I really enjoyed watching the UN flag rise over the crowd during the procession.

I had a great day at school.  Memories will remain with me for a long time.  As I said, these memories will come back to make me a better person someday.  If I remember them, maybe I can help change the world for the better!

Sincerely,

Your Son

One other item:

The Konstancin-Jeizorna mayor has invited us all to November 11th – Polish Independence Day in the local community.  Mass and wreath-laying is in the AM, followed by an Independence Day race at noon and a picnic in the historical park. Here is the link:  https://www.facebook.com/events/2629901990573093/

First, our sincere thanks to parents who participated in Upper School parent conferences this week. It was a wonderful two days of interaction with our key partners and I observed many smiles from both parents and students as they departed following their sessions with teachers, counselors, and administrators. Many thanks to all the administrators, faculty, office staff, and support personnel who helped to make it all possible. There are many pieces to the puzzle of organizing for this and our team did a great job!

New!!

Two new items on launch this week:

Please join two new Podcasts that have been launched in recent days. First is a project I started last year, but alas it did not get enough attention. It’s back and you can join in the conversations (audio) on Zimplicity! Two episodes have been posted including some sustainability conversations in Middle School and a Leadership presentation to 5th grade in our ES Tower. Please join us:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zimplicity/id1279277246

Second, a new video podcast with some engaging student talent to share. Modeled after the NPR favorite of many, the Tiny Desk, we are pleased to announce Zimplicity Director’s Desk! – a compilation of student talent, straight from behind the Director’s Desk at ASW. Be sure to check out the performance by the cast of West Side Story!!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zimplicity-directors-desk/id1480817175

We hope you will subscribe and listen for regular new episodes on both of our new channels.

PTO Meeting

I’ll be joining the PTO meeting on Friday to talk about some strategic work that is beginning. You may have noticed a recent article in the Warrior News on this topic. I’m looking forward to giving general updates on all things ASW, but also engaging parents in some plans to share and work on ideas together that may spark the school’s next strategic project. Please join us to hear about UN Day and to spend some time talking about school.