June 9, 2022
Dear LREI Community,
Hello, LREI, at the end of this busy week. From potlucks to curriculum shares to field trips, additional field days, and senior project evening, wow! We are barreling down towards the three biggies – Fourth Grade Moving-Up, Eighth Grade Moving-Up, and GRADUATION! I want to focus on one culminating event, briefly, and then share other news, below. Please read all the way through.
On Tuesday night we held our annual Senior Project Presentations, not been experienced in person since June 2019. Each spring, during the third trimester, seniors engage in an independent project, a small group experience, an internship, or a similar exploration of an area of interest, passion, or challenge. Project plans are the result of a series of conversations and investigations that begin earlier in the school year. In April and May, students spend six weeks fully immersed in this work. In addition, they are writing about these experiences, reading about their topics, and participating in a series of seminars. When they return to campus, in addition to creating a presentation, they are involved in a series of workshops focused on their soon to become more independent lives.
On Tuesday evening the students presented their projects, their products, and their reflections to an audience of their families, classmates, the eleventh graders, and the teachers. A few groups/individuals presented to a large audience in the theater, while others presented to smaller groups. Still others, mostly visual artists, presented their work in gallery spaces around the building. What were some of the projects you ask? This year’s projects included:
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“Investigating the LREI Archives”
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Making a Menu (this project included working in our cafeterias and cooking a delicious lunch for the whole high school. Risotto cakes, anyone?
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A number of students created albums of original musical recordings.
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A student scored a favorite animated short
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“Immersing Myself in Neuroscience Research”
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A variety of painting, filmmaking, and photography projects
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“Urban Design Exploration”
There was just a huge variety of projects, matching the diversity of the students’ interests.
At the end of their presentations, the students reflected on the process and acknowledged this project’s relationship to the culminating projects they participated in throughout their time at LREI and the connections all of the projects have to the day-to-day work in classrooms. Tuesday was one huge celebration of the daily distance traveled towards graduation and a truly independent life as a citizen. It was just so great. Thank you, Seniors, and good luck!
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As we end the year with cherished traditions, we continue to plan for the future, with additional change coming our way. I write to share information regarding transitions in the school’s administration.
Mary Young, Director of Admissions, and the person who is responsible for many of you being at LREI, will step down from her admissions role at the end of this school year. Mary, thankfully, will stay on as our early childhood learning specialist, a role that she has juggled with her work in admissions for quite a while. Mary’s work in guiding LREI’s admissions program for so many years has been exemplary. She is a warm and welcoming presence and has helped many families navigate the early days of their children’s schooling. We are so grateful for all that she has done to bring so many wonderful children to LREI over the years.
I ask you to join me in welcoming Michelle Atienza, currently Associate Director of Admissions, and Felicia Aikens, currently Director of High School Admissions, as our Co-Directors of Admissions. Individually, Michelle and Felicia are just so talented and know the school so well. Together they will be an important component of the school’s administration. Michelle has been a member of the community for a long time, in a variety of roles, in the classroom and in admissions, and as a mom. Felicia joined us during lockdown and has, through her talents and hard work, created a terrific high school admissions process that, this year, led to our largest ninth grade class ever. I am excited to see all that this dynamic team will bring to our enrollment efforts. We are also in the process of hiring an additional associate-level admissions officer to support Michelle’s and Felicia’s work in enrolling the next generation of LREI families.
A final departure from our Leadership Team. Mark Silberberg, Director of Learning and Innovation, has decided to step down from his work at LREI. Mark joined us as middle school principal, a position he held for more than ten years. Both as divisional principal and in his current institutional role, Mark has taught us so much about how we can all best learn and work together and how to imagine a school that continues to evolve as our world does. Whether initiating or supporting program design and innovation, leading conversations among our newest or most experienced teachers, or helping us to leverage technology to support learning and to navigate these most complex times, Mark’s creativity and perseverance have, and will continue to, serve the school well.
While we will miss our departing colleagues, we are excited about the opportunities that change brings.
