The seismic evaluation recommended improvements for specific sections of the north side of our building, based on criteria developed by engineers after the Northridge/Los Angeles earthquake in 1994.  Our building was constructed prior to that event and the new criteria.  The engineers have stated that the recommended improvements will bring the building up to current life-safety standards as defined by the American Society of Civil Engineers Standard ASCE/SEI 31-03 for the Seismic Evaluations of Existing Buildings.

The Board of Trustees has decided to move forward with this work as we continue an ongoing facilities evaluation.  We will proceed with developing specifications and obtaining necessary approvals, with the most likely scenario of construction at the end of the school year.  The work will likely coincide with some construction to improve ADA accessibility to the property as well.

In the meantime, we will continue to keep you up-to-date on the other projects and upgrades that will be scheduled during the summer months and in the future.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact me at (415) 951-0500 or mhalper@atcpartners.com.

Michael joins San Francisco Day School from Oakwood School in Los Angeles, CA, a K-12 co-educational independent school of 760 students.  As the Assistant Headmaster, Michael holds primary responsibility for the daily operations of several academic programs that include diversity, service learning, a student-led teacher growth program, financial management and administrative leadership.  His references emphasize his ability to work collaboratively with faculty to conceive, design, implement, and assess academic programs.

Michael is not new to the Bay Area – in 2000, he provided the primary leadership in founding the new high school division at East Bay Waldorf School, a K-12 school with 300 students.  Michael also created and implemented the academic, service learning, advisory, counseling, co-curricular and arts programs as part of the high school program.  Prior to his return to California in 2008, Michael spent many years as Chair of School at Haleakala Waldorf School in Hawaii. He developed and taught the Middle School Language Arts program and created the Visions of Peace Project: a public-private service learning arts education project for cultural revitalization, which included 50 schools throughout the state of Hawaii.

Michael will be joined in San Francisco by his wife Heather and their two children:
Taliah (15) and Oliver (12).  Next year, Oliver will attend SFDS as an 8th grader.

This appointment brings to a close an exhausting but affirming process to identify Nancy Clark’s successor.  I’d like to thank the Search Committee and especially Carolyn Sasser, Chair, who logged countless hours in this process.  On their behalf, I’d like to thank the SFDS community, who also contributed every step of the way.  You welcomed the candidates, gave them a true sense of the School and provided me with invaluable feedback and insights. In fact, Michael was so taken with our community that he chose San Francisco Day School over other nationally prominent institutions that also sought his candidacy.  He sent this note to me, following his visit:

“I have fallen in love with the School and community.  The depth of connection and engagement that I felt with the faculty and parents was unexpected and especially heartfelt for me. I want to work with the people who are at SFDS, and I am completely committed to being the Head of the Upper School.  My vision, hopes, and aspirations for the School are far-reaching, and I truly believe that we will all benefit in deep and meaningful ways.”

Judging from the thoughtful and supportive feedback we received in his survey, our community holds Michael in the same high regard.  Here are some of your comments:

“He would model caring for the ‘whole child,’ even in a rigorous academic program. I appreciate his belief in forming strong personal relationships with students, since this is the connection from which all learning springs.”

“As a parent of a 7th and 9th grader, he has seen what the future holds in grades 9-12, and can help assess the stress these kids are facing and how to handle them.”

“I felt that Mr. Mancini communicated clearly that building a strong school takes a tightly knit community in which all feel supported and respected.  He clearly has the experience and commitment to weave together the faculty, students, parents, and administration to strengthen our vibrant learning community.”

I look forward to joining you in welcoming Michael and his family to the SFDS community.

2011-2012 is an accreditation year for San Francisco Day School, which means that our faculty, staff and administration spent a large part of last year (and this year) preparing an in-depth self study for CAIS review.  This is a complex process that takes place every six years, in order to ensure that independent schools are able to articulate the reasoning behind their programs and practices and thereby maintain their CAIS membership.

As CAIS states on their site, “The accreditation process is designed to assist a school in engaging the energies of all community members in reviewing and clarifying the school’s purpose and goals for students, and in developing plans to accomplish these goals. The school also develops measurements that show the degree to which its goals for students are achieved. Because each school community is unique, the accreditation process permits the school to use considerable flexibility in its approach to the self-study yet still be linked to sound components of a quality self-assessment.

• involved the school community in a collaborative way;
• clarified the school’s purpose and its goals for its students–and the programs, people, and facilities that support them;
• assessed all aspects of the school’s operations, the student program and its impact on student personal and academic growth with respect to the criteria and standards;
• developed an Action Plan, as well as an accountability system for monitoring the plan’s implementation.”

This is all based on a comprehensive self-study that addresses over one hundred standards with responses to questions about every aspect of the school. Led by chairs Anne Paine and Chris Corrigan, SFDS created and submitted a report in November 2011.  Under their guidance, all of our teachers across the grades and grade levels spent many hours to describe and assess all aspects of our curricular and extracurricular program.

Following the submission of the report, CAIS delegated a team of educators to conduct an on-site visit.  Our CAIS visiting team came to SFDS in late January, and spent a few days at our school to assess the effectiveness of our programs in fulfilling our goals and objectives as articulated in the self-study.   Following is a recap of their topline commendations and recommendations following their visit, which they shared with the faculty and staff prior to their departure.

Commendations

• The Committee commends the faculty for their clearly demonstrated deep and resident commitment to the students of San Francisco Day School. For their dedicative support of the mission and philosophy of the school and for creating a nurturing environment that supports the academic, social and emotional development for the students.

• The Committee commends the Board of Trustees for its commitment to the School’s mission and philosophy, for its fundamental understanding of the resources and commitment required to be a truly diverse and inclusive family school and for the passionate support that allows the school to realize its mission.

• The Committee commends the Business Office for their diligent efforts and strategic focus financial planning on an annual basis, which has allowed San Francisco Day School to maintain a strong financial position to support its mission

• The Committee commends the Students for their poise, creativity, confidence, kindness, depth of thought and leadership resulting in an atmosphere of mutual respect, inclusivity and a love of learning.

• The Committee commends the Parent Association and their establishment of inclusive parent groups and committees that include learning differences, diversity and parent education events, all of which align with the School’s mission and philosophy.

• The Committee commends the Administration for the addition of the Learning Resource program which includes a specialist in every grade level, demonstrating the commitment to making the curriculum successful to students and supports the differentiated instruction.

• The Committee commends the Faculty for implementing Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, demonstrating a long standing commitment to best practice and student learning in attending to diverse student learning styles.

• The Committee commends the Administration, Faculty, and Staff for their cohesive approach to providing a caring community culture. For their commitment to enriching the lives of the San Francisco Day students and for working tirelessly to enable the School to realize its mission.

• The Committee commends the Administration for leading the community and clarifying the meaning of the School cornerstone beliefs and for establishing clear, achievable priorities to carry out the School’s mission and commitment to educational excellence.

• The Committee commends the Staff for their dedication, skill and commitment they bring to San Francisco Day School every day. For the gentle and effective approach they employ with both students and parents and for the considerable professional talents they bring to bear on the day-to-day life of the School.

Recommendations

• The Committee recommends that the Board of Trustees and the Administration implement the long range financial model adopted by the Board of Trustees that will allow the School to maintain competitive faculty salaries, support the educational program, and maintain significant tuition assistance to sustain the long range financial stability of San Francisco Day School.

• The Committee recommends that the School more clearly articulate an evaluation process for faculty, staff and administration to ensure and sustain consistent performance across all areas of the School.

• The Committee recommends that the Faculty and Administration commit to further professional development in integration of new media literacy in core content areas and it be consistent throughout every grade level.

• The Committee recommends that the Faculty and Administration establish a firm commitment to the educational ideas that include: Habits of the Mind; Health and Wellness; The Artistic Mind Set; and Cultural Competence as outlined in the action plan to develop skills for the 21^st century learner.

• The Committee recommends the Building and Grounds Committee continue their efforts to complete and approve a comprehensive facility plan in order to alleviate space constraints, improve programs and provide areas for differentiated small group lessons.

• The Committee recommends the Head of School and Administration explore tangible ways to more substantially and meaningfully increase enrollment of diverse students and support their school experience to sustain the community’s close alignment with the School’s mission.

• The Committee recommends the Administration and Faculty analyze the School’s schedule with a specific emphasis on improving the instructional time, efficiency and effective use of classroom space.

Although schools are accredited for a maximum period of six years, they must complete an interim review midway between accreditation visits. The interim report addresses the school’s progress in responding to the major recommendations of the visiting committee and the advancement made on its Action Plan.  We will continue to keep you apprised of our progress regarding the CAIS report and our corresponding actions.

David Jackson,
Head of School

On Tuesday, November 9, I hosted a Parent Education event at school: “How to Develop Individual Capacity for Perseverance and Resilience.” I held a similar seminar last year; the topic is one that continues to resonate with our parent body, so we brought it back.

Our strategic plan and the latest research on critical skills needed in the 21st century have identified traits such as perseverance and creative problem-solving as essential to our students’ workplace success.  Recent research also demonstrates that such character traits are neither inherited nor consistently demonstrated by any one person. Instead, we can learn these highly desirable traits. During the parent education seminar, parents and I explored 1) the behavioral contexts in which perseverance emerges (or does not) and 2) the mindsets necessary to actually persevere when the task is difficult.

Prior to the event, parents were encouraged to review and reflect on two articles:

1) NY Times article: “Grit – Habits of Mind – Character”

2) NY Magazine article: “The Inverse Power of Praise”

Both articles touch on the value of persistence through consistent effort, particularly in the face of challenges.  Each article also discusses the potential drawbacks of offering praise without underscoring the fact that failure often results in learning. During the evening, parents reflected on their own experiences and identified times when they were able to persevere and times when they were not.  Not surprisingly everyone was able to recall incidents in their lives where were challenged by through difficult learning tasks.  In keeping with the latest research, our major insight was that the capacity to be resilient, to persevere through failure and overcome failure is NOT a character trait that some of us have and some of us do not have.  It is not a behavior that some of us exhibit all the time.  Therefore, developing the capacity is something that we can learn.

Further discussion revealed that the most common and most essential element necessary for perseverance is personal engagement.  When someone is very interested in a task and perceives it to be meaningful and valuable, then perseverance emerges.  There is a deep connection between interest and sustained effort!

We then talked about how to ignite interest when the student is not immediately engaged in a learning task.  We developed some language that parents and teachers can use together.  I offered several questions to use as discussion points with children.

1. Why is your teacher interested in you learning this?  Why does your teacher believe that this is important for you to learn?
2. Why is learning this topic/skill in your “best interest?”
3. What about this exercise is interesting to you?  Is it the mental tricks you are learning?  Is it the content and the ideas?

I suggested that parents frequently ask their children what they are doing in school that is interesting, and why.  Refrain from only asking them if their homework is done or what grade did they get.  Try and shape conversations about what is interesting and why.  Show interest in what they are learning, not just how they are learning.

Children do expect their parents to be monitoring their school work to see if it is well done, and that is appropriate, of course.  However, when a parent focuses on what is “of interest” that concern communicates two very important overarching values:  1) being engaged in a task because of its meaning and substance is essential, and 2) it is the student’s responsibility to find interest in the activity when it might not be there in the beginning.  An active mind can always find something intriguing in almost any task.

As we work together to develop our children’s capacity for interest and engagement, we create the conditions that foster resiliency and perseverance.  Join us for the next event, “How to use the Power of Cultural Identity to Build Capacity for Sustained Effort,” which is scheduled for January 11 at 6:00-8:00pm in the library.

Dear SFDS Families,

With very mixed feelings I report to you that Nancy Clark has informed me of her intention to retire as Head of Upper School at San Francisco Day School as of June 30, 2012.

Nancy has spent over a decade with our school, and not a moment has gone by when she hasn’t been guiding and inspiring her students, peers, and friends here at SFDS.  There will be several opportunities in the spring to acknowledge and celebrate Nancy’s talents, dedication, and contribution to SFDS and the broader San Francisco education community.  Until then however, let me state her most enduring impacts on SF Day, from my point of view.

Any substitute teacher or professional visitor to our upper school gets hit with one overwhelming perception.  Whenever the teachers are not in class, they are incessantly talking about their students.  These conversations occur at the regularly scheduled weekly grade level team meetings, in the teacher’s lounge during lunch, in the hallways when they have exactly three minutes between classes, in lengthy afterschool meetings, and on their way to their car as they are leaving school.  They occur on the couch in Nancy’s office, which for obvious reasons is called the “Dew Drop Inn.”  As in, “Please do drop in and talk with me.”  The teachers will mention some wonderful success a student has had after some persistent effort or ask for help with a student who is not succeeding as the teacher would like.

Substitute teachers and professional visitors often comment to me about this culture of attention to the individual child.  They note that other schools do not have the same incessant conversation about students and wonder why it is so prevalent at SFDS.  I always say, “It is because of Nancy Clark.” She is just so welcoming and interested in students that it becomes part of the school atmosphere.  All of us owe a great deal to Nancy for making this essential—but often hard to define and achieve—characteristic of our school a day-to-day reality.

To say she’s made a permanent impact would be a major understatement—so I won’t.  What I will say is that she has been an amazing leader and we will miss her dearly.

Thanks in large part to Nancy’s contribution to our school, we are very well positioned to attract strong candidates to assume the role as Head of Upper School. We are implementing a dynamic, forward-thinking strategic plan that will enhance our excellent academic program and ensure our students’ continued success.  We are embarking on an endowment campaign to strengthen our financial stability and secure our long-term financial model.  SFDS is in excellent shape, executing a rigorous academic program to motivated students with the support of an engaged community.

The Board of Trustees, administrative team and I have been working closely with Nancy to create a thoughtful selection process, with the guidance of a professional search consultancy, Carney Sandoe.  As part of this process, we are creating a Search Committee comprised of trustees, faculty, parents, and administration.  The Search Committee will work with the consultants to select three finalists from 12-15 semi-finalists.  The three finalists will be interviewed publicly by the community.  We hope to make a decision by February 2012.

Our first order of business is to gather input from our community to inform the consultants and the Search Committee about the qualities needed in the SFDS Head of Upper School.

Please accept our invitation to participate in this survey by visiting this link:

http://tinyurl.com/3exosj7.

The survey has also been emailed to the community, and I encourage you to visit the link at your own convenience.  The survey will be open until Friday, November 11.  I hope you will take a moment to share your thoughts with us, as we prepare for a smooth transition.

Nancy will continue her responsibilities as Head of Upper School and History teacher through June 30, 2012.  No doubt she will do so with the same commitment and enthusiasm she has possessed for the past twelve years.  We wish her the very best in the next chapter of her life.

Sincerely,

David E. Jackson, Ed.D.
Head of School

Carolyn Sasser has agreed to serve as Chair.  She will be the primary person responsible for connecting with consultants, scheduling meetings, and facilitating a thoughtful and inclusive process.

Committee Members are:

• Carolyn Sasser – Administrator, Business Manager
• Sue Collentine – Administrator, Head of Lower School
• Lisa Busby – Teacher – High School Admissions, Coordinator of Strategic Plan Implementation
• Renee Otero – Teacher – Librarian, Director of Diversity
• Carter Graham – Teacher – Grade 5
• Jeff Turner – Teacher – Grade 6/7 Math
• David Wildkress – Teacher – Grade 7 Learning Resource Program
• Chris Corrigan – Teacher – Service Learning, Technology, Writing Lab
• Laura Spivy, Parent, member of Board of Trustees
• Beth Berliner, Parent, member of Board of Trustees
• John Hayashi, Parent, member Parent Group on Diversity, Admission Volunteer

Mathematics Program Update at SFDS

Upper School Math Update
For the past two years, our upper school teachers have been working closely with Nancy Lobell, a STEP (Stanford Teacher Education Program) Clinical Associate for Mathematics.  With Nancy’s direction, our teachers re-structured the curriculum scope and sequence to identify overlaps, redundancies and gaps to meet international standards.  They engaged in a series of observations, feedback and lesson re-design.  Our teachers identified key goals around teaching students how to collaborate to solve mathematical problems and develop strong habits of mind to help their critical thinking and problem solving skills.  The faculty also established specific classroom norms to encourage students to truly own and master the content.

Last year, student achievement test scores were very high.  We believe this is the result of the re-design of the curriculum and teaching practices that we’ve incorporated over the past two years.  The ERB results illustrated in this chart show that in three grade levels, on two different tests, our students scored much higher than their private school peers.  Wow!  Click here for more information on the ERBs.

For nearly two decades, seventh grade students at SFDS have been taking an Algebra Readiness Test that was originally developed by mathematics professors at the University of California, Berkeley. To be considered prepared for a formal high school level algebra class, students must meet the threshold of 36 correct answers out of 45. More of this year’s eighth grade students scored above the standard for algebra readiness than any other class in the history of SFDS.

Knowing that we were aspiring to international math standards, we also devised an exam of complex mathematical thinking modeled after PISA (Program for International Student Assessment).  Our students did exceptionally well.

Click here for a detailed explanation of the exam, with examples of both test items and student work.

Lower School Math Update
Our lower school teachers have been following a three-part procedure in order to further their learning and enhance the overall quality of their students’ experiences.

1)     Review math curriculum scope and sequence to identify overlap, redundancies and/or gaps.  The K-4 sequence must be coherent and rigorous. Our teachers work together to ensure all critical content is taught with sufficient depth and opportunities for complex learning.

2)     Engage in a series of training opportunities for teachers.  Most recently, our lower school teachers have been focusing on the work of Professor Cathy Fosnot (see below), and many teachers have participated in workshops with her as part of our professional development program.

3)     Observe teachers teaching, followed by a debriefing. This process enables everyone to provide more substantive feedback, and teachers can then improve their lessons or teaching techniques as needed.

These types of in-depth, professional practices are necessary to implement change in teaching methods. Without this type of professional development and training it is difficult to effect meaningful change. Fortunately, we have the resources and the desire to provide the kind of intense training that is integral to the quality and rigor of our curriculum and teaching techniques.  We see learning as an ongoing process not only for our students but for our teachers as well; this procedure seeks to facilitate that process and ensure our academic program is constantly improving to the benefit of each student at SFDS.

Professor Cathy Fosnot Visits SFDS
We are pleased to welcome Professor Cathy Fosnot, who is visiting San Francisco Day School from Tuesday, October 11th – Thursday, October 13th.

Prof. Fosnot is the author of several books and articles on Mathematics Education and general Teacher Education. She established Mathematics in the City (MitC), a national center of professional development for K-8 mathematics education, which a number of SFDS math teachers attended this past summer.  MitC guides teachers to shape their classrooms into mathematics workshops where students are engaged in inquiry and worthwhile mathematical tasks, proving their thinking, and communicating it to their peers.

During her stay, Fosnot will meet with faculty, give lesson demonstrations and team-teach with our faculty.  After debriefing sessions, the teachers will collaborate with Fosnot on lesson design, teach a lesson under her observation, and complete another debriefing with Fosnot to discuss areas of improvement and excellence.  In addition to this dedicated time with our teachers, we are also fortunate to have Fosnot lead an all-school faculty meeting and host a parent education event for Lower School families on Wednesday, so that the entire SFDS community may benefit from her experience.

Conclusion
We are very proud of our teachers’ work  and their willingness to engage in this type of intensive training and curriculum review.  These types of programs enable our teachers to observe a lesson, design a lesson and teach a lesson with immediate feedback.  As a result, our teachers are able to create a detailed and coherent curriculum tied to a weekly teaching schedule, to ensure their in-depth lesson plans are rigorous yet feasible within a school year. We will continue to keep you apprised of new developments as we continue along this path.

Our present emergency communication model uses an out-of-state mass notification service that forwards a recorded voicemail from SFDS to our parents, guardians and out-of-state contacts. Since voice traffic dramatically increases during emergency situations, we are supplementing our model with additional emergency channels.

Twitter allows any cell phone to communicate in mass to other cell phones via Tweets (140 character text messages). We like Twitter for its low network overhead, its scalability, ease of use, and price.  Simply put, it allows us to text the parent body, in mass, in case of an emergency.

We will continue to manage and use our out-of-state mass notification service. The Twitter emergency communication model will be a voluntary and complementary communications channel.

Here’s how it works:
SFDS has created three accounts that we ask our parents and guardians to “follow.” In case of an emergency (and during testing) you will receive three text messages from SFDS. Each message will be from a different SFDS cell phone and cell phone carrier:

• SFDSe1 will be sent on the Verizon network
• SFDSe2 will be sent on the AT&T network
• SFDSe3 will be sent on the Sprint network

Follow us!
Parents do not need to have a Twitter account to receive Tweets. To voluntarily receive SFDS emergency text messages on your cell phone, just send the following text messages:

• “Follow SFDSe1″ to 40404
• “Follow SFDSe2″ to 40404
• “Follow SFDSe3″ to 40404

Note: Do not use the quotation marks and capitalization doesn’t matter. You will receive confirmation texts from Twitter for each account that you are following. These accounts are only for emergency and testing purposes, and will not to be used by SFDS or Twitter for any other purpose.

On October 20th, San Francisco Day School is participating in the Great California ShakeOut to help our school expand its emergency preparation efforts.

We will test this system periodically throughout the year:

• First Twitter test is Thursday, October 20, as part of the Great California ShakeOut
• Following tests will take place on the first Tuesday of the month at noon, in concert with SF’s “Tuesday Noon Siren” project.  This is a local effort to remind SF residents to plan for natural disasters, terrorist attacks or epidemics.

It is every family’s responsibility to provide the School with up-to-date home, employment, and emergency contact information. Please update and confirm your information at https://familyaccess.inresonance.com/sfds/.  Click here for detailed instructions and contact registrar@sfds.net, if you encounter technical difficulties.

PLEASE MAKE AN EFFORT TO SIGN UP BY THURSDAY, OCT. 20TH!

Questions? Concerns? Contact Danny De Leon at 415-568-3640. Click here for more info on the Great California Shakeout.