FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

scheduled to coincide with the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, these new spaces will transform the campus and our students’ experiences.

As summer comes to an end, the 2023-2024 school year is about to begin and it will be a special one. This spring, the Class of 2024 will walk across the stage and become Cape Henry Collegiate’s 50th graduating class! For our entire community, it will represent an amazing milestone and achievement. For fifty years as a K–12 school, we have been preparing students to go forth and contribute to our world.

At the same time, this year represents another impressive milestone. One hundred years ago, in the fall of 1924, eight students came together in a home near the ocean and the Everett School began. Over time, this elementary school grew and developed. In the late 1960s, it expanded and added a 6th and 7th grade and a vision for a high school. In 1970, the Everett School bought this campus on Mill Dam Road and became Cape Henry School. While early clearing and construction took place, Cape Henry used part of the old Virginia Beach Hospital as their school. At Thanksgiving in 1971, they moved onto this campus and four years later, the first class graduated!

This year, as we celebrate these two amazing milestones and celebrate our past accomplishments, we seek to build upon that history and to imagine how we will change and adapt to best serve students and families in our future. In this issue of Soundings, you can read about the expansion of our campus over the past fifty years. While we recognize the transformation of our 30 acres and marvel at the changes to our physical footprint, we also look to tomorrow, as we build upon that history with the construction of our 50,000-square-foot Clarke+Ervin Center for Innovation and Performing Arts. With an anticipated soft opening this spring and a grand opening

Also, in this issue of Soundings, you can read about the transformation of education and the future of artificial intelligence. Cape Henry Collegiate will build upon our history of having outstanding teachers who understand good pedagogy and practice and who commit to adaptation and innovation. Later in this issue, I also share my thoughts about nine of our graduates in the Class of 2023 and their decision to combine their higher education with military service. These students and the School’s commitment to military families speaks to an important part of our culture. We will build upon that history to strengthen our core value of community and to ensure it is always at the forefront of who we are and what we do.

So, as this year begins, we celebrate our history and commit to building upon it as we remain future-focused as an institution. As we prepare for that 50th class to cross the stage, Cape Henry Collegiate has established itself as a part of the permanent landscape of Virginia Beach. Our entire community should be proud of what this School has accomplished… and excited for what its future holds.

Enjoy Soundings and as always, I hope to see you on campus or out in the community soon!

Chris Garran, Ph.D. HEAD OF SCHOOL