August Letter to Families
Posted September 29
Dear Families,
Our summer quarter has passed the halfway mark, and within a very short period of time, your thoughts will begin to focus on the beginning of the 20112012 school year. The first day for students at the Laboratory Schools is Tuesday, September 6, the day after Labor Day, and all of us at Lab will be eager and ready to welcome your children.
Another very important date to place on your calendar is Saturday afternoon, September 17, as that is the day set aside for groundbreaking for the new Early Childhood Campus, Earl Shapiro Hall. There will be food and activities for all ages and a very brief ceremony. More details to come!
Thanks, in part, to the proceeds from Connections 2011, over 80 members of our faculty have either participated or will be participating in professional development activities. We are particularly pleased that many of these activities included all members of a department or grade level.
For those of you who missed the announcement on Friday, June 9, the Faculty Association, representing all of our teachers and academic support staff, ratified a four-year contract with the University. I am most pleased that we will be starting the new school year with an agreement that emphasizes improvement and professional growth.
Speaking of improvement, we will be developing a new survey instrument this year to give families in all grades the opportunity to be heard and give meaningful feedback. Our three-year trial of surveying parents with children in kindergarten, fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades has given us a baseline of information and issues to improve.
With the exception of a few areas at the High School, very few facilities improvements are taking place. This is the calm before the storm, but we remain encouraged that all other aspects of our Lab+ Campaign are moving ahead on schedule. It will be to our advantage that the University is planning construction of a childcare center on the south side of the Early Childhood Campus and intends to have it completed at the same time as our new building, in September 2013.
Please enjoy the rest of the summer. I look forward to seeing you in September.
With best wishes,
David W. Magill