Almost There
Phew! What a full end to the 2008-2009 school year! Projects, tests, quizzes, presentations, potlucks, potlucks and more potlucks, concerts, recitals, more potlucks, award ceremonies and on and on. All interesting, all fun, all opportunities to display the hard work and serious learning that have gone on throughout year. My hat is off to the students and teachers who are managing to stay fresh and focused in the face of this series of quite fortunate events.
The seniors are counting the hours until graduation—25 or so at press time. Last week the twelfth graders presented their Senior Projects, the result of internships and many weeks work, to standing room only crowds. Last Friday, the class attended the Senior Prom and tonight, along with their families, they will participate in the annual Senior Banquet. Performances, speeches, gifts for each student and the presentation of our most prestigious institutional awards—it is a wonderful evening and one to which we look forward each year. And tomorrow, their day of days, the senior class will be honored in LREI’s 64th Commencement Exercises. Hard to describe how moving this event is each year. If you are not a parent of a senior you will just have to wait to see.
Click here to see the most up to date list of our seniors’ college acceptances.
Click here to see the most up to date list of college matriculation plans for the Class of 2009.
Monday will bring a return to school for those the seniors will have left behind. Final exams will take up most of the last week in the high school, while Lower and Middle School students will finish up their academic and arts classes with a variety of events and participate in our traditional moving up exercises and then slip away to summer. Please visit the three divisional blogs to get a sense of what is happening throughout the school.
Our summer camp, “Summers at LREI”, will fill much of both campuses starting in late June. Summer will also bring significant construction to both buildings. On Sixth Avenue we will continue the upgrade and greening of the classrooms that we began last summer. The middle school classrooms that we renovated a year ago have added tremendously to the day-to-day life in the brownstones. During the coming summer we will renovate several lower school classrooms in a similar manner. I will be in touch to share renderings of these spaces as soon as possible. .
On Charlton Street we will continue the phase of construction that we started in March. Let me pause to thank the high school students and faculty for their patience during the construction. Major disruption was limited to a few days, but these days were hard. Thank you very much. This summer we will be renovating the 40 Charlton Street lobby and our chemistry lab, adding an elevator and renovating the townhouse (future home to the college guidance and admissions offices, humanities classrooms and faculty offices) to the west of the current high school building and integrating this restored landmark building into the existing facility. We will be adding considerable space to the high school’s basement classrooms and enlarging the cafeteria/student center. In the fall we will hold classes and receptions in a spacious outdoor courtyard. This project is a huge undertaking. The bulk of the work will be completed in time for the opening of school with the rest coming on line in mid-September.
I hope that you enjoy the exciting end of the school year. The thought and care and learning evident in all that the students will do in the next two weeks will earn them well deserved pats on the back and will send a raft of “Thank you’s” to their teachers. The summer will begin, and end, at the same breakneck pace that we are experiencing now. We will, and hope that you will, find some time during the summer to reflect on your child’s experience at LREI and how much they have learned and grown.
Warmly,
Phil