Dear Students and Parents:
This year is special for us. A plan we set in motion several years ago has finally become a reality. We have reduced the maximum number of students from 375 to 360 and hired an additional teacher for each department. This change was about creating a smaller, more focused class size as the Harkness Table method requires. Our Teacher Training program continues bearing fruit; we were able to hire two young teachers in Chemistry and Mathematics this year.
Our auditorium continues to be a place of community building where guest speakers, college and university presentations, and faculty and student meetings occur regularly. School assemblies, now completely run by students and attended by the whole community, feel even more engaging and well-prepared. One of this year’s highlights so far was the Founders Day. We were excited to welcome Donald Thomas, the founding director of GZAAT, who was able to travel to Georgia one more time and delight us with his knowledge and good humor.
In terms of academics, we have continued the development of the senior year program and, at the same time, introduced two new courses for juniors: Advanced Physics and AP Pre-Calculus.
Additionally, German is now taught in the eighth and ninth grades, and finally, the school will introduce a new course on civic education in the eleventh grade – the course that I will have the pleasure of teaching.
Naturally, all these developments come at a high cost, financial and otherwise. Nonetheless, we embrace them, as we believe they enrich our school programs and encourage our students to take even more responsibility for their learning in the years ahead.
Andrés J. Cruz
Director
