Greetings from the Head of School A Message from Michele Williams

Greetings

from the Head of School

A MESSAGE FROM MICHELE WILLIAMS

What an incredible year it has been! As you can see from the new title of our alumnae magazine, we have lots of news to share! Our community is over 100 years strong, and while our mission has been constant, our school is remembered under a variety of names. Perhaps you attended Miss Burke’s, or your family references KDBS when you are reminiscing about your school days. Burke’s Magazine came out of work by our Board Marketing Committee to more clearly articulate our school’s vision and philosophy and consistently showcase who we are as a brand and culture. We will continue to preserve the legacy and name of Katherine Delmar Burke in many ways, but moving forward, the school will be presented under one name — Burke’s. I hope you enjoy the new look of our publication, and rest assured that the stories of innovative teaching, joyful learning, and warm traditions are still the same!

Before I move on to our future plans, I can’t help but take one more moment to celebrate the successful completion of Many Voices. Many Hands. All Burkes.: The Campaign for Girls. From community meals and events to grade-level plays and exhibits, our state-of-the-art Campus Center is being put to good use! I can’t express how happy it makes me to watch the girls in the reimagined classrooms and Campus Center. They are happy, they are joyful, it is theirs — and we built it together. We could not be more grateful to the community for its generosity and support of this campaign. We are particularly grateful for our alumnae families’ participation in the Alma Mater Fund launched last spring to support the endowment portion of the campaign. Indeed, we are already seeing the benefits of an endowment increase of $8 million in expanded financial assistance, teacher salaries, and programmatic funding.

The campaign is complete, but as our feature story suggests, we still have many mountains to climb! Last spring, we launched a strategic-planning process with a 22-person committee co-chaired by Gabrielle Kivitz ’89. In early February of this year, more than 100 parents, faculty, staff, alumnae and current students came to Vision Day for an action-packed day of designthinking and teamwork (pictured at right). It has always been our goal to have the final strategic plan reflect the values, ideas, and dreams of the many constituencies at Burke’s. Vision Day was an incredible reminder of how much our community cares about this institution and its place in San Francisco and the greater world. We look forward to presenting an actionable strategic plan that is bold, creative, and forward-thinking to meet the challenges and opportunities of the years ahead.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to highlight our work around defining and developing a road map for a more diverse and inclusive school. Burke’s is at a pivotal point in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. The Director of Inclusivity and Community Building has become a full-time member of senior administration, and the school’s Equity and Inclusion Committee is creating a dashboard to track data on inclusion. The group will be working over the coming months on how to measure the data in a way that will have the most impact on our work. This dovetails with a preexisting parallel effort by the administration to weave DEI principals into all aspects of its work, including hiring, admissions, and decision-making. I look forward to updating you as we work to ensure our classrooms are even more reflective of the community around us.

I want to close with a note of gratitude. You are such an important part of our school’s history and future. Whether you supported the campaign, made a gift to the Annual Fund, or perhaps came back to campus for Alumnae Reunion Weekend, the Alumnae Mentorship Panel or a classroom visit with students, we are grateful to remain part of your lives and thank you for your support as we continue our work to be a model in K-8 girls’ education.

MICHELE WILLIAMS Head of School