“Not just a place to go to school…”

Dear Families,

As you may know, tomorrow is our professional day. NAIS, National Association of Independent Schools, is hosting its annual conference in New York City this year. That means, I have the benefit of not only enjoying workshops designed for educators and division heads in independent schools from around the country, but of seeing colleagues and friends from ages ago.

My best friend from high school, Don Orth, is Director of Communications at Cate School in California, and visiting for the conference. Of course, one of the things we planned was to have him visit LREI’s high school while in town.

When we talked about his visit later, he remarked, “In any good school, the kids feel confident and comfortable, they are at home and look you in the eye when speaking to you; that’s what I found in your school.” He went on to say, “Your students are invested and involved in lots of things, not just coming to school, then leaving. And ideally, a school should be like this, like yours, but they’re rare.” Finally, he noticed that the faculty members he met, Micah, Vinay, Preethi, Peggy, just clearly seem to “love the work.”

It feels great to be able to show off this awesome community and academic experience to someone who is so thoughtful and knowledgeable about education. I am happy he recognizes how particularly special this school is; as we host prospective students during these revisit days, I have heard from those newly admitted students similar remarks. They want to be like the students they meet and see in class. They want to know their teachers as our students know theirs, and they want to be as proud of their high school as we all are.

LREI is so different than the high school Don and I attended (a private Quaker school), and that is a very good thing.

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and announcements:

• The school’s calendar can be accessed by clicking here.

• Click here to view the 2008-2009 LREI Calendar.

• For general LREI Athletics news go to this link . This page will provide general announcements, game summaries, league standings and season recaps.

1. Our Annual School Spirit Game, in which our middle school and high school basketball teams play against the faculty has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 5th at 3:30PM in the Thompson Street Athletic Center at 145 Thompson Street. This is a fun event for young and old. You are all invited to attend.

2. Please attend the March 8th Community Service Coffee House: One Night for New York’s Children: A Coffee House Benefit for the High School Community Service Roundtable. The High School Community Service Roundtable is a unique service learning program in which students work on behalf of New York City’s children, their families and their communities both through direct volunteer service and grants of financial assistance. Since 2002, the Roundtable’s Student Action for Children project has devoted hundreds of hours of volunteer service and distributed grants totaling more than $60,000 dollars to over twenty-five literacy, leadership, cultural and arts programs for children from communities throughout New York City and, when special circumstances arise, beyond. You can be part of this worthy cause by attending the March 8th Community Service Coffee House (7PM in the Charlton Street PAC). Enjoy performances by student musicians and performers, as well as hear from special guest Stephen Shames whose foundation that provides education for AIDS orphans and child soldiers in Uganda the Community Service Roundtable has supported over the past two years.

3. Please note: Six of our students have been chosen to display their photography at Synchronicity Fine Arts, 106 West 13th Street. The show runs from February 5 through March 1.

4. For updates on faculty performances, openings, presentations, and publications visit the Faculty in the News page on the school web site.

5. LREI is a member of NYC-Parents in Action (NYC-PIA). NYC-PIA provides parenting education, information and a communications network to help parents prepare their children and teenagers to cope with social pressures and to make sound choices towards a future free of alcohol and drug abuse. Please read the attached flyer to view their 2007-2008 calendar. You can also access their website at http://www.parentsinaction.org/.