We have had an interesting return to school from our March break, with the Red Sox opening in Tokyo, the Celtics thriving, the Bruins under the radar but striving, and March Madness in full swing. The energy on the Applewild hill as the students return is positive and productive – anything but “mad” – and we are starting to think that spring may arrive.

 

Spring at Applewild is a busy time. I hope you enjoyed some time as a family over the vacation and are well rested for the activity that warmer weather and spring in schools bring. If you are like me, you left mail in a stack over break and now have to sift through it. If you find your Applewild re-enrollment contract(s) in that stack, please send it in – or give a Division Head, Terry Perlmutter or me a call if you have a concern. Many classes are beginning to fill, and we want to avoid losing a family who has been with us.

 

I am pleased to announce that the architecture firm Lincoln Associates was retained over break to begin working with us to develop plans to respond to our Long Range Plan for facilities needs. As reported earlier, we are interested in considering a new dining facility, in part to help us strengthen our kitchen and food delivery capability, create appropriate spaces for our music program and Upper School Shop, and classrooms adjacent to Marshall to up-grade our facilities, for grades four and five as well as for Lower School Science. We will be reporting on progress during the spring and next fall in a variety of ways.

 

Among student activities that culminated over the break were successes in History Day, a student earning a place in the state Geography Bee, and several impressive results from the national language exams. Those latter results, which come from the Language Department’s added commitment to provide such opportunities for our students, are still coming in and will be reported next month. Congratulations are in order now to eighth grader Natalie Helmer, Applewild’s Geography Bee contestant, who qualified for the state contest as a result of her written test.

Congratulations also to our Upper School students for their success at Regional History Day on the first day of vacation, Saturday, March 8; and thanks to Todd Goodwin and Judy Carr for attending with them. Applewild students qualified for the State History Day in all categories in which we had contestants!�In all, thirteen of our 23 entrants earned recognition among the 132 students who competed. The theme this year was Conflict and Compromise.

 

Ninth grader Alex Fichera won Second

Place in the Senior Division (grades 9 - 12) for his Individual Documentary on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the Junior (grades 6 - 8) Division, we had entrants in five of the seven categories, and our eighth graders earned two firsts, four seconds, and an Honorable Mention. Natalie Helmer, Samantha Morrison, Sally Shepardson and Arcadia Kratkiewicz (on her birthday!) won First Place for their "Lowell Mills" Group Performance. Lacy Allain, Emily Bovenzi and Tori Gray won First Prize in the Group Exhibit category for their presentation on "Women's Voting Rights"; and Apoorva Vijayakumar and Via Trexler came in second with their exhibit about Joan of Arc, sweeping the category! Nicole Kula earned Second Place in the Individual Documentary category for "Women in the Military During World War II." Blake Henderson earned Second Place for his Individual Exhibit about the Salem Witch Trials. Ryan Bennett earned a Second Place for his Historical Paper, and Julia Duggan received an Honorable Mention in this category.

 

Among the dates to save (see below), parents will want to save Tuesday evening, April 22. Internationally known speaker, Dr. Jamie McKenzie, will join our faculty for our in-service during the day. At 7:00 p.m. he will present to parents the topic “Teaching Our Young to Embrace Complexity.” He will help parents employ strategies to “develop and maintain a knowing relationship with your children’s life on (and off) line.” Jamie is a cogent thinker with valuable ideas about the role of technology in education and how best to utilize it to “equip the young to manage and appreciate complexity [and] wrestle with difficult issues and quandaries confidently.”�Jamie maintains a few web sites such as The Question Mark, From Now On and No Child Left. I recommend that you review “Embracing Complexity” at The Question Mark site: http://questioning.org/index2.html.

Parent Anna Barker will again arrange for a Parent Association sponsored dinner in Marshall at 6:15 in advance of Jamie’s talk. This was delicious last year and relieves some pressure on families as you may be returning from your long weekend, so thank you, Anna! I am also grateful to an Applewild family for helping to make Jamie’s visit possible and pleased that Fitchburg State College will collaborate with us during his visit by having him speak to its education faculty and students on Wednesday morning.

 

I am also grateful to the Parents Association for again helping us sponsor Applewild’s participation in the Fitchburg Civic Clean-Up Days. We have chosen Saturday, May 3 as our Clean-Up Saturday both to support our core value of civic-mindedness and our emphasis on the environment and the outdoors. Last year we had several Upper School students volunteer, together with some younger children and their parents. We will again enjoy a pizza lunch at the end of the morning.

 

Other April opportunities I encourage you to include on your calendar (with more to follow in May!):

• Writers’ Café and Furniture Mentor Show – Thursday, April 10 – 6:30 (Laverack)

This event gives students, parents, teachers, and guests an opportunity to read their own short pieces in front of an informal audience after having marveled at the craftsmanship of the Upper School winter furniture art mentor students. I would encourage families with children perhaps as young as fourth grade to attend. You do not have to read a piece of your writing to come!

• The K-3 Play at 7:00 on April 17, with a preview art show of our youngest students’ work.
• April 25 Applewild Today alumni program will include recognition of Ron Ansin as our fourth Founder’s Award recipient.
• April 26 Applewild Jubilee celebrations
  • Family activities in the morning on Saturday at school (including hula hoop contest!)
  • Evening adult celebration at Wachusett Mountain starting at 7:00, featuring an anniversary DVD and Frank Bonanno’s Center Stage band.
• Reminders of various parent information opportunities about next steps at Applewild:
  • Rising Fifth grade parent meeting (for fourth grade parents) at 3:00 in Laverack on April 2.
  • Information meeting about our Ninth grade program for parents in grades 6 – 8 at 7:00 on April 15 (an auspicious date?) in Laverack Room.
  • Our other normal parent “step up” meetings, including fifth to sixth, generally occur in late April or May. They will be announced shortly.

 

Personnel Up-dates

With our “senior master” Clarence Rabideau moving from part time to retirement at the end of the year, we will consolidate our art teaching into two full time positions. Cheri Amarna, who has been teaching art at Applewild for four years, will become the Upper School art teacher. Sara Sanford, who is presently teaching third grade but, in addition to her experience as a classroom teacher, was an award winning art teacher for many years in New Hampshire prior to joining us, will teach Lower School Art. It is poignant that Clarence, who has served under all of Applewild’s Heads of School, will be retiring as we celebrate our fiftieth. Lisa Montanaro, who has been out on leave, will not be returning.

 

Bobbie Spiegelman, as you know, also chose to move to part time this year and has decided that this will be her last year. Director of Education Technology Nancyellen Crowley and Technology support assistant Joanne Demers will also be leaving at the end of this year for personal reasons. As a result, we are considering how best to configure these positions to meet current needs such as more coverage in the Marshall Library and additional support for both information literacy and technology. We have begun interviewing candidates for these positions.

 

As our eighth and ninth grade families already know, Kristin Benedict left at the March break to take another position. Elaine Kahan, for whom our mathematics prize is named, has returned from her recent retirement to teach Geometry and a section of Algebra. Dr. Julia Miles, who taught Algebra for

two years prior to shifting to science, and Karen Flanagan, our sixth grade science teacher and algebra tutor, are teaching the other Algebra sections. We are in a search for a Math Department Chair and Algebra and Geometry teacher who will continue our efforts to strengthen our teaching of mathematics K - 9. We are in the process of interviews and appear to have some outstanding candidates in the pool.

 

With Sara’s move to art, we are looking for a third grade teacher and have begun collecting resumes. Fourth grade teacher Laura Hubbard, who taught our third section this year, will be leaving us to seek employment overseas. We will be interviewing for a fifth grade teacher for our rising third section, and we will be talking with our fourth grade parents about our plans for next year when we meet April 2. Spanish teacher Rachel Segal has also decided that her third year at Applewild will be her last. She needs to relocate despite her affection for Applewild.

 

I know that families will want to express appreciation for those who are leaving. We do that formally at Recognition Day; and the faculty also has a special Appreciation Luncheon, graciously hosted by the Parents Association, during closing faculty meetings at which we express our appreciation. As always, if you have any thoughts about good candidates for our open positions, please let me know.

 

We are collecting the final responses to our first Survey Monkey Parent Questionnaire as I write, so I cannot report complete results yet. I can tell you that parents so far identify the following as their highest priorities as they think about education:

• Keeping students enthused and motivated about learning
• Employing high quality teachers
• Providing a safe environment
• Meeting the individual learning needs of each student
• Preparing students academically for secondary school and college
• Teaching a/o reinforcing values and ethics
• Providing a climate in which students value studying and excelling

 

It is particularly noteworthy that the results thus far indicate that respondents on average believe that Applewild exceeds expectations in all of these categories, with the possible exception of “meets individual learning needs,” at which respondents rate us at 1.95 ( 1 is “Exceeds,” 2 is “Meets”). I have read with interest the entire results to date, including the individual comments. I appreciate the time taken to respond and again want to thank Lisa Bakstran for her help with this project. I look forward to reporting more fully in late April.

 

I hope that those of you who observe Easter enjoyed meaningful family celebrations and the hope of spring. Those of you celebrating Passover may be closer to actual spring weather this year! Enjoy the spring, and I look forward to seeing you on campus a few times!