Fellow Parents and Community Members:
Welcome back to the start of another year at San Francisco Day School.
First of all, I want to send out a very big thank you to Su-Moon Paik, last year’s board president. During her nine years of tireless service as a trustee and four years as board president, Su-Moon made a significant impact on SFDS. Our school is a much better place because of her work. She spent countless hours working on behalf of the Day School and provided strong leadership during the head of school transition. Her efforts to bring in Dr. Jackson as our head of school proved to be one of her many successes. I know Su-Moon will continue to stay involved with the School. We are fortunate to have her in our community.
I also want to use this communication to let you know about the board’s upcoming work for 2009-2010.
As we enter the third year with Dr. Jackson at the helm, SFDS is on the right course. He has provided strong leadership and has high aspirations for the School. Last year, he generated a faculty commitment to differentiated instruction for all students – No Ceiling, No Threshold. The nine learning resource teachers have become integrated into the Day School’s instructional program, benefiting all students. Dr. Jackson formulated and implemented this significant program quickly and efficiently — a great example of his high energy and “can do” attitude. We look forward to working with him as our head for many years to come.
This year, the board has formed two Task Forces that are important to our school and community: Differentiated Instruction and “Strategic Plan 2010 – Planning an SFDS Education for the 21st Century.”
The Strategic Plan will evaluate the School’s overall needs with a long-term perspective. In addition to performing a facilities review, the task force will look at educational trends and financial sustainability. We expect that this task force will work with the goal of creating a final plan for the School over the next few years.
The Differentiated Instruction Task Force is charged with reviewing and assisting the new Learning Resource Program. The School has committed significant resources to the program and this task force will look to assist — at the board level — in making LRP as effective as possible.
This will be a very exciting year for us at SFDS. In my first year as board president, I am looking forward to working with many of you in our efforts to provide a great learning environment for our children. As always, we encourage you to contact any of the trustees should you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Best,
Michael Halper
President, Board of Trustees
