Zimplicity

It’s that time of year when we build on the learning of the fall and begin building to the crescendo of the second term.  Many activities in the coming days are representative of that shift in focus with end goals now clearly in sight.  It is no accident that the Studniówka dance this weekend is, by tradition, representative of the final 100 days before exams.  It is a celebration of the early stages of culmination, valuing the journey as much as the result.  We’ll also be involved in Upper School conferences next week, reflecting on the work that remains while looking at accomplishments to date.

And don’t forget the upcoming PTO Quiz Night!  Fun and frivolity are guaranteed and we are hopeful of significant participation.

Hope all enjoyed the wonderful dusting of snow this morning.  While I know that traffic can be difficult under a blanket of white, I enjoyed the winter wonderland that greeted us this morning.  Smiles all around as snowmen appeared on the playgrounds.  May we all embrace the season!

Mr. Zurfluh is currently out of country recruiting at the Search Associates Fair in Bangkok, Thailand.  He will return to ASW on Friday.  In the meantime, the following is a repeat of an earlier message on Air Quality published last year – reprinted here as a reminder:

Air Quality Follow-Up

As a follow-up to our increased diligence on air quality, I wanted to inform you of some deeper insight into our understanding of the issue and additional steps we are taking.  As you already know, we are making decisions on a daily basis with regards to recess and outdoor play decisions.  It’s important to note that this decision is not about suggesting that air quality, under these circumstances, is better indoors.  Instead, it is meant to implement the recommendations of our medical experts that exertion or physical activity be minimized when air quality is bad.  While this doesn’t limit exposure, it mediates the potential impact of air quality issues.  In the general sense, there is only so much you can do in a large building with many doors opening and closing all day.  While our systems have filters and do circulate air, they were not built for a high level of filtration and will not mediate the current concern in the PM2.5 range that is driving the primary air quality indicators.  We are regularly and rigorously evaluating our systems and continuously upgrading them where possible and appropriate.

To help in monitoring this, we have installed a small monitoring device just inside the building at our front entrance.  This unit is now sharing it’s data through the AirVisual interface that I previously shared in our first post on air quality issues.  You can now monitor the school’s device on your own applications via the sharing tool that this online system provides.  The “Node” for the school has the following sharing code:

FBZFKATE

In order to monitor this node, you’ll need to setup an account on AirVisual.  Then point your browser here:

https://www.airvisual.com/app

And, then follow the instructions for adding a node, entering the share code above.  The instructions may be slightly different online vs. the mobile applications.  You can then follow the school’s sensor and compare with the monitoring points in nearby Konstancin or in the city center of Warsaw.

We’ll keep monitoring and reflecting on our practices in this area.  Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.

Climbing on the Shoulders of Success

In the coming days, we will be sending reports to you regarding student progress.  It’s an important juncture in the year and provides a wonderful platform for conversations with your children about goals and aspirations for when we all return to greet a new calendar year.  MYP and DP reports in particular will have a significant refresh with the implementation of methodologies aligned to our overall journey toward becoming a “continuum” school.  While new for ASW, these reports have been modeled from the best and most successful International Baccalaureate  schools around the world, tested for structure and content, and reliable in providing actionable feedback to students and parents.

We would like to believe that this first iteration of a new style of reporting will go without difficulties.  But, we are mindful that the first time with anything of this magnitude is likely to be tested by unforeseen challenges and we are fully ready to address these as they emerge, improving our practice with each iteration.  Here are some things to be thinking about:

1. With this report, we reaffirm again our commitment to PowerSchool.  We’ve tried to make this easy and seamless, but access challenges are still likely to emerge.  If you are not yet a regular user logging in to PowerSchool, sort this out earlier rather than later.  It is our primary platform and you should be a regular at this doorstep.  Your upcoming report will require this level of access.
2. It’s not just grading anymore.  As was shared in the parent meeting recently, you need to think differently about the numbers attached to each course.  They are markers that have criteria associated with them and cannot be averaged or summarized in simple ways.  Click on the links that are provided and dig deeper into what the number represents from the criteria for each performance level.
3. It’s in the comments!  Teachers put tremendous effort into capturing your student’s journey through their learning.  It isn’t going to be perfect, but it should open the doorway to additional conversations if you don’t understand.  Reach out to teachers as necessary to get clarification.  We’ll have conferences very shortly after this in January.  Come prepared with insights and in search of deeper understanding where necessary.

There are more changes coming to reports in the future.  More adjustments to MYP/DP (MS/HS) and some more distinctive changes to the PYP (ES).  The board received reports on this during their Monday meeting and will receive regular reports with other changes as they are implemented.  You will also have opportunity to provide additional feedback in the spring.

Calendars

We received approval for our calendars, both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, at the board meeting on Monday night.  They have been posted on our website and mark the first time that we have more than one year ahead planned.  In the future, we will assure that two years of future calendars are always generally available for the school community.

Calendars 2018-2020

Happy Holidays!

My best wishes for a wonderful holiday season!  May joy and blessings be with you all!  From the Zurfluh family to all Warriors — students, parents, staff — our best wishes for a Happy New Year!! See you all in 2018!

We’ve had an interesting week here at the American School.   On Monday, we had an inadvertent sounding of the fire alarm due to a false reading on a sensor, but performed brilliantly through our evacuation of the building and return to classrooms in quick order.  Today, we had failure of the water supply, which has now been rectified after being down for some hours. In the midst of staff work this morning, we also had a brief power failure due to an errant transformer.  Seems we were being tested from multiple directions!

Mainly, we will return to school on Thursday, December 7 as a normal school day.  For Upper School, this will be a Day C schedule.

Our thanks to all for your acknowledgement of our systems.  We have not initiated the phone tree today, but have updated via these E-Notes, our SMS system, and our website.  If you are not yet receiving SMS messages, please enter your information into our problem log located here:  https://goo.gl/forms/AQp4DSPIXRclMhS03

In the case of all emergencies, we rely on the information you provide through the PowerSchool interface and we use phone numbers and email addresses you have registered with us to populate our systems for contacting you in the case of an emergency.  Emergencies can arise at any time of the day or night, so it is important that we have all critical contact information in order to assure student safety.  With only a few exceptions, our use of these systems last night were highly effective.  Thank you, as always, for your partnership in this regard.

It’s time for some community input on future calendars.  Now that we are completing accreditation, we are moving to more stable calendars in the future and hope to finalize them at the upcoming board meeting in December.  In order to get ready for this, would love to have your input on the draft calendars for both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.  Administration has already done their work and they are now ready for your input before final decision.  Please follow the link below to participate.  Responses need to be submitted by Monday, December 4th.

Calendar survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N6JXRHN

Thank in advance for your input!

Thankful

I thought I would offer a note to share my thoughts on this day that we keep in our holiday mix to support those cultures that have a day of Thanksgiving incorporated into their culture and traditions.  While other countries may celebrate this on other dates, the idea behind an annual opportunity to offer thanks is very embedded in the American home and family.  As was shared at a recent PTO meeting, there are many things associated with this holiday beyond the turkey and trimmings.  For Americans, it is a time to cherish family and offer thanks for all the gifts that have been given to us throughout the year.  It is a celebration of half full rather than half empty, a time when even those in the most difficult of circumstances find the silver lining of life and offer mind and heart to things like health, safety, sustenance.  For myself, I’m thankful for so many things that it is hard to identify any one thing.  I’m thankful for my school, thankful for the families and friends borne over a year of embracing a new home, thankful for the many wonderful things that Warsaw and Poland treat me with each day, and thankful for the colleagues and partners across the entire staff of ASW, connected together through commitment and common purpose.  I’m thankful for the blue skies and the falling rain.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to improve the lives of others.  I’m thankful for the special moments with family, sipping the nectar of a child’s accomplishment or the lovingkindness of a doting spouse.

I hope you find the many things that inspire you this weekend.  Whether traveling or enjoying time at home together, may this weekend give you opportunity to reflect on the way that your life is filled with the important things life offers!

Parking Lot – Car Idling

A quick environmental note.  It has been brought to my attention that there are laws in play in Poland that restrict the idling of occupied and stationary vehicles.  According to the regulation, vehicles are only allowed to sit in one place idling for a couple of minutes before drivers should turn their engines off if they intend to wait for a longer period.  Fines for breaking this regulation vary, but it is clear that police will give tickets associated with this offense.

There are environmental reasons for this and we would ask parents who are waiting to pick up students after school to please comply with Polish law on this matter and turn off engines if sitting stationary for more than a minute.  You’ll be doing us a favor in both following the law and protecting our precious air quality.  Thank you in advance for your attention to this.

New and Aspiring Board Member Training

A reminder to mark your calendars for the first session this year of the New and Aspiring Board Member training.  There are still a few spots available.  Like last year, I’ll be leading 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, November 30, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here:  https://goo.gl/forms/cfjli5MvNnwzNiNs2

New and Aspiring Board Member Training

A reminder to mark your calendars for the first session this year of the New and Aspiring Board Member training.  Like last year, I’ll be leading 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, November 30, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up by clicking here:  https://goo.gl/forms/cfjli5MvNnwzNiNs2

Just a few updates this week on things happening around campus.

Cafeteria ID Card Initiative

We worked with the cafeteria this year to design and organize a school ID that would work with the cafeteria cashless system, but which would also work for other school wide systems including Library and general identification.  In coordination with CPS, we distributed ID cards to all Upper School students in grades 6 to 12.  During our pilot phase, use of the ID card for the cashless system provided by CPS, the speed of transactions increased significantly and lines were far faster.   But, now students are relaxing their use of the cards and we would like to re-energize the use of cards as a better option when compared to the lookup system (with photo) and the use of cash.  We plan in the coming weeks to work in partnership with CPS to separate the use of cards into identified lines during the lunch hours.  Those using cash or the lookup system will be restricted to one line that is already currently labeled in order to get students ready.  We are considering further the phase out of the lookup system in favor of identification cards in order to both speed the line and reduce the potential for erroneous entries.  Please help us by encouraging students to bring and use their ID card.  We will be doing the same in assemblies and classrooms in order to change our habits in favor of this preferred approach.  If you don’t currently have a cashless account with CPS, applications are readily available and the account can be easily linked to the current ID card.  Replacement ID cards for lost or stolen items can be handled at the divisional offices.  Parents can also get a barcode sticker for their parent ID cards to use the system in similar fashion.  Please contact CPS if you have any questions about this and thank you for your recent participation in their survey.

PD Day today…

Today was our last half day PD day and the work on our accreditation report and other important professional development went well.  In particular, our work on accreditation is yielding great results as we close in on our development of the final report.  We will be hosting the visiting accreditation team at our campus in February and will share more details of this visit in newsletters just after the holidays.  Thank you for your flexibility on these additional half days and your ongoing support of this important work!

I hope everyone had both a wonderful October break and that you fully enjoyed Halloween and All Saints Day!  It was evident that many who I spoke with were feeling refreshed and renewed by this break, helping us get ready for the many things on our agendas in the weeks before our longer Holiday Break.  It’s hard to believe that we are almost at the halfway point of the year and much, already, to look back on that inspires reflection.

The most recent memory, and one not to be missed in offering our gratitude, is our recent United Nations Day.  A HUGE thank you to PTO and all the parents who cooked and created and shared their talents on the day.  It was a fabulous event, casting yet another shadow on all prior years with more countries represented and more engaging activities for kids across the campus.  Our assembly was a wonderful kickoff for the day and we were all enriched by our diversity on display.  Thank you all involved for your dedication and commitment.

Stepping Up

One of our key messages during United Nations Day spoke to the important imperative of contribution in a community that is dedicated to the collaborative approach in nurturing our children.  Our core value, “Work Together. Because without us all, we’re nothing.”  We reflected on the imperative in the statement that we must depend upon all of us finding our role in a community of learners.

Further down in this E-Notes you will find a plea from PTO for new leaders to step forward and help with time honored events that are scheduled on our calendar this year.  We know that there are many wonderful organizers in our community and we are looking for leadership.  As Brian Mason, our wonderful leader in PTO since my arrival last year, has given notice that he would like to hand his baton to the next in line for succession, we are looking for the leaders in our community who can step in for this role.  In addition, some of the events remaining this year are still in need of leaders as well.  For the school’s part, we are ready to support and help you take on a leadership role of this nature.  We just need some new partners and hoping that you will encourage yourself and others to step forward and help.

Admissions Survey

One last reminder, we still need your input on our Admissions Survey.  If you haven’t done so already, please head to this link and complete it if you will be leaving mid-year or if you plan to enroll additional siblings next year.  That survey is here:

https://goo.gl/forms/HWUEtDqJ4mlJ2dKz1

New and Aspiring Board Member Training

Please mark your calendars for the first session of New and Aspiring Board Member training.  Like last year, I’ll be leading session on School and non-profit board membership. If you have an interest in a position on the ASW board, 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.  Our first session will take place as follows:

Thursdays, November 30, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.

If you would like to participate, you can sign up here:  https://goo.gl/forms/cfjli5MvNnwzNiNs2

Finally, as many of you know, I’m in Shanghai this weekend revisiting the Learning2 Conference that I helped inspire 10 years ago.  They invited me to attend and speak as I take a position on the advisory board of Learning2.  I’ll be back on Monday and, speaking of Monday, we have our next board meeting of the year.  As always, meetings are public and you are welcome to join us!

Monday, November 6, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. in the MPR.

https://livestream.com/accounts/15498644/events/7790464/videos/164538325/player?width=640&height=360&enableInfo=true&defaultDrawer=&autoPlay=true&mute=false

A few quick updates in this edition…

UN Day tomorrow!!
Setup has begun and we are getting ready for a busy and wonderful day!  Assembly begins at 9:00 a.m. – seating (and standing room) will be available at 8:45a. Livestream is here:

https://livestream.com/accounts/15498644/events/7790464

To all the parents and particularly to the coordination under PTO and the capable leadership of Jessica Sirotin, we all thank you in advance for everything that will be on display tomorrow for all of our community, celebrating our diversity in wonderfully special ways.  Students will remember these experiences for many years to come and your sharing of time and talents is an important part of the Warrior spirit!!  Thank you, one and all!!

Admissions Survey
We still need your input on our Admissions Survey.  If you haven’t done so already, please head to this link and complete it if you will be leaving mid-year or if you plan to enroll additional siblings next year.  That survey is here:

https://goo.gl/forms/HWUEtDqJ4mlJ2dKz1

Safety and Security
We have had recent reports confirmed by police of home invasion robbery in the local area.  This is a general security reminder to all with regards to personal safety and security in your homes.  You should:

• Lock doors at all times, even if at home (this includes vehicles)
• Use your alarm (if one is installed)
• Ensure that items that could be used to force entry into a home are not left unsecured on your property.
• Report all suspicious activity to local law enforcement (Dial 112)

In regards to personal safety, it is always good to refresh your practices and make sure you have emergency contact numbers handy and report anything out of the ordinary to the local authorities.

And, Finally…
Wishing all a wonderful Fall Break next week!!  Whether you are traveling to a new adventure or staying in our own neighborhood, we wish you a nice mid-semester rest with renewed energy and enthusiasm for the Winter season that approaches.

At the administrative level and during this first part of the current school year, we often start thinking ahead to next school year and beyond.  It is our strategic nature to reflect on the results of our initiatives and programs during this first part of the year and think about the next year and how we will improve or otherwise sustain our work going forward.  While many professions experience this cyclical aspect to their work, education is particularly suited to an annual “do over” that allows us to get better and better with each iteration.

Our work in strategic planning is a key example.  While we work toward implementing our new core values, we are already considering the gaps that are being identified between what we are, and what we want to become.  The next phase of strategic planning is to translate these experiences into tactics that accomplish the aspirational work represented by our 5 values.  The results of Accreditation Self-Study will also inform this work.

But, we are also planning for the more operational aspects of school growth and assessing our overall school population in the face of growing demand.  At our most recent board meeting, we reported the lowest turnover rate on record for ASW and how this increased pressure has created waiting list at most grade levels.  To that end and in order to more effectively gauge our response to the upcoming registration season and the potential for turnover during the winter holidays, we would like you to take our annual survey from admissions.  In this survey, we want to know about the potential for mid-year departure and your early notification to us will help us place some of the students currently on our waiting lists.  But, we also want to know about younger siblings that will be applying for next year and with this message we want to inform you that current families of ASW are now allowed to apply early for admission of younger siblings for the 2018-2019 school year.  If you are planning to apply for next year, please fill out our survey and we will contact you with more details.  Thank you in advance for filling out our survey.  We want to hear from everyone in order to plan effectively for the remainder of this year and for next year.  Click here to complete the survey.  It will only take one minute of your time.

https://goo.gl/forms/HWUEtDqJ4mlJ2dKz1

Finally, looking forward to seeing you at United Nations Day which is fast approaching.  We are working out final details and a seperate message about our event will be coming shortly.  Very excited to see our diversity on display in all its pageantry!!

This week it is time to pause and reflect in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy in Las Vegas and contemplate our response to this and other tragedies around the world.  We’ve just emerged from multiple storms and significant human suffering in the United States, the crisis with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, the multiple war and conflict fronts around the world, and now the worst mass shooting in US modern history.

First and foremost, we reach out our thoughts and prayers to all who may have been impacted by this string of misfortune.  We know that often members of our own community are connected through family and acquaintance with those who have been harmed by these events.  Our hearts reach out to those who are impacted by violence, no matter where or how.  Our most important human quality is our compassion for those in need and for those we have lost.

Please know that conversations at school often try to help students, in age appropriate ways, understand the bombardment of media and gossip.  We create open forums for expressing ideas and reflections on feelings that emerge in the shadow of significant events.  We will always try to make sure that this dialog is respectful and open to different points of view, valuing all in a comfortable and academic dialog.

Because we value diversity, I would also suggest that ASW, like schools of our nature around the world, aspire to values that seek to resolve conflict through peaceful means.  One of our most important values, and one that will be on display in all pageantry on United Nations Day, is the message of inclusiveness.  The idea that we can all sit together, seek redress to our concerns and not be excluded because our ideas or backgrounds are different than those across the table.  In fact, we not only embrace that diversity, we depend upon it to help us see things in ways we might not have considered – ways that can help us solve the problems that future generations must tackle.

Please join me in encouraging in our children, the ones we raise together as a village, to keep open minds and engaged hearts in all their encounters in life.  We are hopeful that the children we prepare today will find ways to eliminate the tools of violence in favor of ensuring that solutions to world problems are inclusive and empowering to all.

We are working with the Board of Trustees with various governance items starting from last year that includes updates to all of our policies.  This is also linked to our ongoing accreditation work and standards in the accreditation protocol suggest that policy is well written and effectively followed.  Our current policy manual with edits that were completed last year is available for review on the school website at the following link:

Board Policy 2017-2018

One such policy that underwent review last year is our attendance policy.  While we have always had language in our admissions and re-enrollment policy that speaks to attendance being a factor in consideration of students, the policy manual lacked clearer guidelines for attendance and the school’s expectations.  At the core, the overall effectiveness of school programs requires generally regular attendance.  The current attendance policy is here for your reference:

Policy 8.10 from Board Policy 2017-2018

This policy establishes standards that are incrementally more rigorous based on the age of the child and the growing importance of full engagement in increasingly rigorous content. But, the policy is clear that it can also be responsive to unforeseen circumstances of illness or family emergency and we encourage parents to approach principals when this is likely as soon as known.

We are still aligning our systems to report effectively relative to the policy.  For example, there is no more need for differentiating between excused and unexcused absences.  As stated in the policy, all absences are treated equally with regards to the limits established in the policy.  This encourages parent and student conversations that plan ahead for absences associated with activities and athletics to assure that potential total absences are considered.  As a school, we want to be thoughtful in the implementation of this policy and we do encourage parents to contact us early when mitigating circumstances force a conversation about student attendance.  We are always happy to discuss this with you at your discretion and as an important part of our partnership.

 

Dear Parents,

We are expanding our protocol this year and hoping to encourage greater involvement in our public board meetings.  Our first meeting of the year is Monday, September 25 at 6:00 p.m. in the MPR.  The advance packet of materials for the board meeting is published and available at the following link:

September Board Packet – Public

There is an opportunity for public comment incorporated into the agenda.  Information is available at the meeting on how to signup for this segment of the meeting.

School governance is a collaborative process and we look forward to your review and involvement.

Best Regards,

Jon P. Zurfluh
Director