Headmaster’s Remarks for the
Members Meeting
May 2, 2011
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great American author and poet, once stated, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Without hesitation, I can tell you that there is much to be enthusiastic about East Woods and we continue to take some bold steps to strengthen our mission. It is with pride that I share a few highlights of this year at East Woods and much of which I will share tonight, reflects the incredible dedication and generosity of our faculty, trustees, parents, and friends in the community this and illuminates the vitality of our community.
Admissions
Despite the current economic challenges, our admission activity has been active. What is very satisfying is that more families are seeking admissions in our upper grades, as well as our ECC and Lower School. We enrolled 59 new students this year. When we opened in September we had 255 students and 3 more students have joined us in January. Many of our new families have come to East Woods, because they are looking for personal attention, academic challenge, and a broad range of extra curricular activities that they could not find in their local public and other independent schools.
ERB
Each year we use the results on the ERB testing to monitor student progress and trends in skill development. While it is pleasing to find that our students score well ahead of the national norms, we are most interested in the performance of our students in comparison to other independent school students. In reviewing the results for last year’s 8th grade, they scored at or above the independent school norms in 5 of 7 sub tests and 85 percentile on the other two. In Comparison to public schools, this is 35 to 42 percentile points above the national norms. Our current 4th grade also scored above independent school norms at the same level and this bodes well for their academic future.
Secondary School and College Placement
At secondary school level, our graduates received acceptances from the following boarding schools: Phillips Academy, St. Paul’s, St. Mark’s, St. George’s, Westminster, Middlesex, Tabor Academy, The Gunnery, and Pomfret. The most frequent acceptances for day schools came from Friends Academy, Portledge, and Chaminade.
At the college level, the East Woods Class of 2007, have received acceptances from Georgetown, Wake Forest, Barnard, Villanova, McGill, Trinity, and George Washington. We have not received the final list, but it affirms that our graduates are being accepted into the finest schools and colleges that this country offers young people. It also is indicative of the preparation and strong educational foundation that is built here at East Woods. Recently, I was speaking with the parent of one of these graduates who said that his son attributes his college success to the East Woods education and that he felt well prepared, far more than his college classmates.
Community Service
Service to others has always and will continue to be a hallmark of East Woods. Under the leadership of Madame Tawaji and assisted by the entire faculty, we have expanded our community service program to include the Oyster Bay Manor House for elderly citizens, a soup kitchen in Huntington, The Family Center in Huntington Station and the Parent Child program sponsored by the Youth and Family Counseling Agency. For the past six years, our Upper School students have been assisting younger students with their academic assignments and skills at the Family Center in Huntington Station.
In addition we continue to support our local food banks, holiday drives for clothes and toys, and Save the Children Foundation. This past winter, Mrs. Werblin, one of our Upper School Mathematics instructors, delivered 500 pounds of school supplies that our school community collected. Our children also supported the effort of Osh by Kosh, by creating 500 cranes that were shipped to Japan along with clothing that was donated by the company. It is another clear example of how we can make a difference in this world.
Finances
It is important to note that not only are our programs healthy, our finances our healthy despite today’s economic challenges. Our endowment has grown to over $5million, thanks to the initial phases of our capital campaign and will provide future support for the school’s operations. We learned this past fall that Karen Smullen, has decided to retire at the end of this academic year. Karen’s creativity, love of children and dedication to East Woods has touched all of us and I for one will miss dearly our philosophical chats about education, politics, and life.
We are establishing the Karen Smullen Faculty Fund in honor of her teaching in our ECC program. I urge all to join us next week at the reception on May 13 beginning at 6pm. to honor Karen. There will be a great display of her art work.
When I look at a typical week at East Woods, it is always full of a myriad academic activities, field trips, musical performances, parent and trustee committee meetings, athletic contests, faculty presentations, and seminars. I think our motto should be, “How many things can East Woods do today?” Given our mission of academic excellence, community service, and character development it is no surprise that our days are full of activities
I want to close with a few thoughts.
I shared with the school community in February, 2008 to outline the progress on our action plan and what it would mean for East Woods’ future. Our strategic plan is not just a piece of paper collecting dust on my desk. It is a working document that is being transformed into real action. The Trustees are fully behind it and have resolved to take all necessary steps to complete each goal. In fact, we have been so successful in the first five years of this plan, an updated plan is now being formulated and will be completed before we open school in September. The Trustees have committed their time, resources, and expertise to ensure that we will succeed. We are now at a cross roads, we need to finish the task before us to support our teachers. To complete this goal, it will require all of us as teachers, parents, alumni, past parents, and friends to get involved and join the trustees to keep East Woods moving forward.
Please remember, our 60th capital campaign is not just about renovations, increasing endowment, or new construction. It is really about giving our teachers new tools and resources to carry on the great tradition of academic innovation and excellence at East Woods. Most important, we have created a school where dreams really do unfold. Listen to the words of an East Woods parent. “This experience is truly the best gift we could have given our boys, and it seems that every single day we are reminded in one way or another, why choosing East Woods was by far the best decision we could have made for our sons. From all of the big things like; a more challenging education, teaching them to set the highest goals and reach them, teaching through constant example, how to be a good person and friend, to the smallest of acknowledgments, a personal note of praise, a pat on the back or a passing compliment, we have watched our children grow and change in the past few months in ways we only dreamed could be possible.”
I receive many similar notes expressing the same sentiment through out the year. I think what is special about East Woods is that we actively work with our parents to develop each child as an individual. We value this partnership.
I close with this quote about teachers from Jonathan Kozol, author of Letters to a Young Teacher, “I think that teaching is a beautiful profession and that the teachers of young children do one of the best things that there is to do in life: bring joy and beauty into the hearts of little people in their years of greatest curiosity.” I will be forever grateful to call myself an East Woods teacher and work with such fine people as my colleagues.
Thank you for being here this evening!
Nathaniel W. Peirce, Ed.D.
Headmaster