ACADEMIC ASSISTANCE: ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT CENTER DEBUTED FALL 2022

by Elliot Lovitt ’24

The Academic Enrichment Center, founded by upper school learning support counselor Ashley Beck, made its upper school debut this fall as an in-house tutoring center.

“Mr. Heil and I had conversations about the fact that we have so many outside tutors that come on campus,” Beck said. “We thought it would be great if all students can have access to extra support and tutoring, at no cost to parents, from our own faculty and our own National Honor Society students.

We often say to students, ‘Who else better knows our curriculum [than students and faculty]?’”

The center is situated in the upstairs letter pod near Beck’s office, which is right next to the stairs. Math support is offered at least once each day in the schedule, while writing support is provided each Monday, Thursday, and Friday as well as on upper school schedule Day 1 and Day 4.

“As of right now, we’re not looking go be leaders in other independent schools.”

ESD hired Educators Collaborative, a nationwide search firm that specializes in executive searches for independent schools. Sixty candidates were found before being narrowed down to 10.

“These 10 applicants that we got were really wonderful,” Baad said. “Their current jobs ranged from a sitting head of school, many heads of upper school at various independent schools around the country, high school principals, and chief academic officers who had been heads of upper school before that – a really wide variety of folks. There were five men and five women in the pool and one person of color. Everybody had an advanced degree: nine with master’s [degrees] and one with a Ph.D.”

Baad and the search committee have been meeting in person with the four finalists. “We are very, very excited about the group,” Baad said. “The finalists obviously will have an opportunity to talk to a broad cross-section of the faculty, but also [to] students. And we also plan to have a small group of parents meet with them to try to give them a really broad experience while they are here. We hope to have an appointment within a month, maybe less than that.” at going past just the basic writing, math, and executive function support,” Beck said. “We want that part to really take off.”

The center not only offers help to students with ESD-related assignments but also offers assistance to seniors with college applications. Beck hopes that the center will become a place where students can drop by for help at any time.

“I think there’s a really big need for it, and our students are using it,” Beck said. “Our big plan is to have it staffed all day long, full time. We’re not there yet, but we definitely have a place to start, and it’s exciting.”

Whether during Friday morning’s lower school club or middle or upper school free time, Eagles love chess.