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August 1, 2023
Dear Academy Families,
I hope your summer is filled with all that makes you happy! For me, it certainly has been great to spend more time with friends and family. I have had a chance to read, cheer on the New York Liberty, travel and plan for the upcoming school year and beyond with our Administrative Team and new Board Officers.
A few books I have enjoyed this summer are; Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (you can take the girl out of Brooklyn but you cannot take Brooklyn out of my reading), Say The Right Thing; How To Talk about Identity, Diversity and Justice by David Glasgow and Kenji Yoshino (which the Administrative and The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Teams are reading to expand our community work with DEIB initiatives), and The Scaffold Effect: Raising Resilient, Self-Reliant, and Secure Kids in an Age of Anxiety by Harold S. Koplewicz (the title speaks for itself, however, it is also part of professional development that our teaching faculty will take part in throughout the upcoming school year).
Headed to the Barclays Center dozens of times this summer to support the WNBA and the New York Liberty has not only afforded me the opportunity to watch exciting basketball, it also allows me to continue to be an advocate of women in sports. These games are a wonderful reminder of the importance of working together as a collective, a team, something we value in all aspects of our work at The Academy.
My travels enabled me to enjoy some Shakespeare in Verona, Italy and explore the canals of Venice, the City of Water. When the weekends allow, I sit on the beach in Long Branch, New Jersey and watch the surf lap the sand. Towards the end of the summer, I will sit lakeside with close friends. Clearly, water is part of my travels whenever possible. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Water is the driving force of all” – it helps me think and clear my mind.
This clarity has helped me embark with our Administrative Team and our Board of Trustees on a Strategic Plan for the Academy. Key points to this proposed plan include a greater focus on technology and how it stimulates student innovation and supports the three A’s that we value most; Academics, Arts and Athletics. We will explore ways to enhance employee benefits and professional growth, as well as, enhance the physical plant- while at the same time being conscious of our environmental impact as a community. Once we have formulated the formal Strategic Plan we will share it with our entire school community in the hopes that we will work as a collective to meet our goals to grow and continue to thrive as the incredible educational institution we are.
Everything we do at Staten Island Academy is through the lens of our Mission Statement. I am proud of the revised Mission Statement that all employees had a hand in writing and the Board approved after we completed our self-study for our NYSAIS accreditation process. Please take the time to read the Mission Statement and know that all Academy community members are expected to respect and abide by these words.
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