August 31, 2011
Dear Parents,
I hope that you have had a wonderful summer with your families, and that you are poised for the new school year full of renewed energy and genuine excitement for what lies ahead at Agnes Irwin.
In a few days, on September 7, we will welcome our returning students and 102 new classmates for the first day of the 2011-2012 school year. The Agnes Irwin School is indeed thriving! This is not a coincidence, but rather a result of the dedication of our admission team, administrative staff and faculty, the support of our parent community and a widespread belief in all the possibilities that The Agnes Irwin School embodies.
When you return to campus, you will notice a significant change in our physical appearance. Our summer construction projects are nearly complete, including the addition of off-street parking along Ithan Avenue in front of the Middle/Upper School building. These spaces have been designated for staff use since staff typically will not be mobile throughout the day, thus minimizing distractions to the classrooms on that side of the building.
During our Lower, Middle and Upper School Parents’ Nights this fall, you will encounter 14 new staffers across all divisions and learn more about exciting initiatives on the horizon, including the official launch celebration for our Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG).
With a lease approval from Radnor Township this summer, we are moving forward with the permitting and engineering necessary to install a turf field for use by our sports and township teams at Memorial Field on Matsonford Road; we have targeted a completion date of mid-March 2012. We continue to lay the groundwork for the second phase of our Campus Improvements Project. Early work for a capital campaign to fund the project has been under way since late 2010, launched under the banner, "Dare to Do More."
To date, we have received several gifts and commitments from Trustees and a small number of lead donors. The Board of Trustees has established that construction will begin once the school attains gifts and pledges totaling half of the $40 million campaign goal. The target date to reach this monetary goal is fall 2011, after which construction would begin in spring 2012. The school is committed to taking a disciplined approach to this project, which, ultimately, will be funded in its entirety through philanthropy.
All of the above-mentioned initiatives leave us extremely optimistic about the future of Agnes Irwin.
On October 14, we will publicly launch our newly developed Center for the Advancement of Girls (CAG) with a reception and keynote address by Newsweek editor Tina Brown at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The work of the Center, led by Mariandl Hufford, will focus on applying and disseminating current research and designing cutting-edge programming for students, parents and educators. The four pillars of its work (leadership, global citizenship, teaching and learning in the 21st Century, and wellness) represent an intentional design that will be the foundation of the Agnes Irwin experience.
The Center’s first leadership initiative, “The Real Deal,” provided an opportunity for a broad range of girls in grades 7-9 to attend a residential leadership academy in June. This program, fully developed by a core group of Agnes Irwin faculty, represents an initial example of how we will intentionally develop and integrate special experiences into the Agnes Irwin curriculum.
In keeping with our emphasis on global citizenship, four new members of the student body have joined us as residents in our new international program. These young women (in grades 9 and 10) hail from diverse regions of China and have already experienced the warm welcome so typical of this community. The girls reside with Middle School Director Lynne Myavec and her husband, Mark, who are serving as house parents during the girls’ stay, and they are anxious to engage with our students and families.
Teaching and learning in a 21st Century school involves the use of data to make informed decisions. As we consider the experience of each girl and young woman in our community, we will be using a variety of data points to guide our work. One such source is the Challenge Success Foundation survey that many of our students participated in last spring. This survey examined attitudes related to engagement in school and community and issues related to learning, health and wellness. An additional data point is the MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) that was piloted at the Lower School last school year. The girls were assessed in math and language arts, and the results (available within 24 hours) will be used to assist teachers in developing instruction specific to the girls’ needs. Lower School parents will be hearing much more about this process as the school year gets underway. A team of faculty and administrators has also joined with the Board Diversity Committee to engage in preliminary work that will lead to an assessment of our community attitudes related to diversity (AIM Survey). You will be hearing more about this initiative as the year progresses.
In the wellness domain, we are committed to best practice in physical education, nutrition and athletics. We have welcomed Sheila Pauley, our former Athletic Director, back to Agnes Irwin. Together with Katie Cooper, our new Assistant Athletic Director, Sheila has overseen the completion of new training sessions for coaches and supervised an active fall sports pre-season. You may have attended the excellent presentation by Dr. Theodore Ganley, Director of Sports Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an advisory board member for the Center for the Advancement of Girls; but, if you did not, a video of his lecture will soon be available on our website.
As we try to expand on our paperless communication, we encourage you to use our website as a primary source of community information. Today, school websites are dynamic environments, constantly changing and improving. We hope our efforts in this regard will keep you engaged and up-to-date.
In my two years as Head of School, I have come to understand that a huge part of what makes Agnes Irwin such a special place is the strong sense of community that exists. This summer, we received word that a tragedy struck one of our families. Tim Mahoney, father of Kiley (grade 8), Katherine (grade 6) and Kiera (grade 3), was involved in a mountain biking accident and sustained very serious, life-changing injuries. The Mahoney family appreciates all of the outreach from our community as they try to adjust to the challenges they are facing, and we should all be buoyed by the goodwill and compassion that surrounds us.
We are anxious to welcome your daughter(s) back to campus and, as always, look forward to your engagement and involvement.
With kind regards,
Mary Seppala, Ed.D.
Head of School