Snow Day!

It wasn’t long after I accepted the position of Head of School that I realized one of my responsibilities would be deciding when to close or delay school due to weather.  My inner child immediately thought – this is so COOL!  Unfortunately, I am a child no more, and balancing the need to keep people safe with the integrity of the BHS program is no easy task.  In the winter, I become an avid weather watcher and always rise just a little earlier to check for an unexpected snowstorm.

Recently, school administrators have begun to hedge their bets, instituting remote learning days, requiring students to attend school remotely and counting as a day of school.  I am all in favor of using technology to further our students learning; however, I feel that the joy of a snow day is something that kids in New England should know and savor.  So, while it might make it harder on my decision making, I do not intend to institute remote learning days.

Prior to this first snow day, I spoke to the students and let them know that snow days do not absolve them from completing work that is assigned.  Likewise, I encouraged them to go outside and have fun in the snow.  In the end, we have structured so many other parts of our kids’ lives, that it can seem that even middle schoolers are like young professionals.  By preserving snow days, we can hold sacred some of the joys of an unstructured and unexpected snow day.

Always in Season

Yesterday, the school hosted a gingerbread house decorating event, which we have done for a number of years.  This year, the event was spearheaded by the Beech Hill School Parents’ Association, with Kelly Conn P ’24,  ’26 and Emily Ricard P ’23, ’24 leading the way.  On Friday afternoon, every student and faculty member had a hand in making this event possible.  We cleaned, decorated the school, built gingerbread houses, and in less than 2 hours transformed BHS into a winter wonderland.  On Saturday morning, countless volunteers helped bring joy to many as they decorated their gingerbread houses with copious confections.  The entire endeavor was amazing. 

On Friday morning during Community, I spoke about why we put forth such a great effort for this event.  I let them know that our hard work would lead directly to the joy of those that participated in the event – and it did!  This sense of joy – sometimes called the spirit of the season was made possible by the hard work of our students, faculty, and Parents’ Association volunteers.

Fortunately, this spirit of giving and altruism is not seasonal at BHS – throughout the year we all give freely of our time and energy, and I believe that it always comes back to us in multiples.  If you are feeling a bit humbug this holiday season, I hope that the BHS Community can help serve as an example of a community that gives as it receives.

What Once Was Old Is New Again

On Wednesday, our Board of Directors met for their Fall/Winter meeting.  As a nonprofit, the Board plays a critical role in governing the School, and we are fortunate to have directors that are bright, committed and insightful.  As Head of School, I am a non-voting member of the Board, and I can provide our directors with a sense of day to day life at BHS.  As such, I typically am provided an opportunity to brief the Board on the “State of the School.”  Most days,  I am very focused on individual trees in the forest that is BHS, but when I take a moment to consider the “State of the School,” I am forced to pull back and look at the forest.

It was a genuine pleasure to provide the Board with an incredibly positive report.  By all measures, The Beech Hill School is doing quite well.  I am especially pleased to report that, despite the persistence of individual cases of Covid, we have completed the fall trimester in a most “normal” manner.  As the overwhelming majority of the faculty have been teaching since before the pandemic struck, we were thrilled to reintroduce those things that we had to put on hold during the pandemic.  Only 5 students, however,  attended The Beech Hill School prior to the pandemic.  Thus, for almost all our students, normal is not the same as pre-pandemic.

Perhaps it is because I am teaching history this year, but I could not help but compare the current state of the Beech Hill School to The Renaissance – or rebirth.  Out of the dark times of the pandemic, the school is a buzz with activity and our students are reaching new heights.  Like the Parents’ Association’s reintroduction of Friday Pizza Lunch and the upcoming Gingerbread Fundraiser, things that were at one time old, have become new again.

As I shared with the Board, I am grateful that I am able witness all the numerous ways in which our school community is flourishing.  Overall, it is truly and exciting time to be a part of The Beech Hill School!

- SPECIAL ADDITION TO THIS WEEK’S BLOG -

The Beech Hill School’s Robotics team placed 3rd overall in Saturday’s FIRST LEGO State Championships; far and away the best finish in school history!  What an incredible accomplishment - Ms. Fries and her team should be so proud of this extraordinary feat – I know that I am so incredibly proud of them!

Football, Food, and Family

Thanksgiving is, and always has been, my favorite holiday.  The confluence of football, food, and family make it a holiday like no other.  As a child, the day started with football, as my hometown had two high schools that played one another every year on Thanksgiving morning.  The whole town came out, and I would run around with my friends and root for Lyman Hall High School – the school that was on my side of town.  Following the game, we would make our way home to a relative’s house, where we would pile in too many people and eat too much food, and I would listen to stories about family folklore.

As I have gotten older, much has changed about how I celebrate the holiday, but the trinity of football, food, and family are still the focus.  Now, however, food and family take center stage, with football games playing in the background throughout the day.

While it may seem that the constants of football, food and family are what make my Thanksgiving celebrations so special to me.  In actuality, my love for Thanksgiving is rooted in connection.  The rituals of football, turkeys, and Grandma J’s apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar are just that, rituals that facilitate connection from year to year and person to person.  I am incredibly grateful and thankful to be so deeply connected to my family and friends, and for me, Thanksgiving provides that connection in ways that other holidays do not.

At The Beech Hill School, I have tried to create a community where our students, faculty and parents can feel a similar depth of connection.  On the Monday before Thanksgiving, BHS has been welcoming alumni back to school for several years now.  This year, Ms. Fries, Mr. Arruda, Ms. England, and Mr. Holt helped me to welcome back over 30 recent BHS graduates.  Our alumni are off doing great things at a number of different schools, each leading very exciting lives away from BHS.  However, when they returned, they were able to reconnect with one another, with their former teachers, and to the school.  The joy that permeated our campus last Monday was something to witness.

This year it is those connections – with my actual family and with my BHS family, for which I give thanks.  I am an extremely fortunate individual!

I hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Thoughts from the Road

Greetings from Dallas, Texas!  On Thursday, following the matinee of Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone -  which was amazing – my daughter and I flew down to Dallas for a weekend lacrosse tournament.  For most of you, this may seem crazy – flying to Dallas for a weekend of lacrosse with a 15 year old.  Just typing it has me thinking it’s absurd.  But, for those in the girl’s high school lacrosse world, and the roughly 3,000 sophomore and junior girls participating in this event, it is well understood that The President’s Cup tournament is a very big deal.  For my daughter, she loves it all – and I love watching her play, but does make me wonder about the commitment levels of today’s youths.

Just this week, we discussed the same general topic at our faculty meeting.  We were observing that many of our students were fully engaged with schoolwork, the play, a climbing competition, a robotics competition, and any of a number of other things outside of school.  On one level, the students love the opportunity to engage, and I am excited that they choose to participate in such a positive manner.  On the other hand, I worry that they are overextending themselves and becoming both worn down and developing a false sense that they must constantly be “doing.”  As a faculty we had a great discussion.  While we did not come away with any solutions, we all agreed that we really needed to watch the kids, and support them if it seemed that they were overwhelmed.

Through the years, this is how I have proceeded with my daughter – I am constantly trying to monitor her physical and mental well-being and try to make myself accessible if she needs me.  To this point, it appears that all of her many commitments seem to energize her and make her happy.  Likewise, it seems that even as our students were tired and a bit emotional, the multiple commitments, like classes, the play, etc., seems to also feed their emotions in a positive manner.

Going forward we will continue to monitor this and to think about our community expectations in this domain.  If you have thoughts on this matter, I hope that you might join us at an upcoming Coffee with Rick and share them.  If unable to attend a Coffee with Rick, you can always send me a quick email or just pop in the office.

In the end, the play was amazing, I heard that the Robotics team qualified for States, and the climbers have yet to let me know how they did.  I hope that everyone finished the trimester well and I look forward to conferences tomorrow. As a side note, my daughter and her team are playing great so far, and we are enjoying our time together in Big D!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!