January 2012 Ridge Report

Report

The Ridge

January 2012

About the Boys School

and Other Steps Forward into an Exciting Future Over the past two years you have heard bits and pieces about a potential boys school program as part of our mission as a Sacred Heart school. Since the topic has been on and off the table for more than 30 years, I knew we needed more clarity around the initiative, especially given that the program would not be launched on our current site.

At the end of my first year, in May 2010, the Board and I agreed that we needed to meet three benchmarks before pressing ahead with the program: sufficient enrollment, appropriate funding and an accessible site. While the first two items did not appear to be potential roadblocks, the third benchmark has proved the most difficult. Our 2012 start date was not realistic.

We have searched and visited potential sites, and we continue our investigations, but clearly this is the largest—and most important— hurdle to overcome before we can move forward. I have no doubt we would have the students; I am extremely optimistic we would have the support, but the property is the piece that holds us back.

I am not discouraged—but I am disappointed we cannot move forward on the schedule we promised. However, this hurdle could prove a blessing in disguise: We have begun to dream of other possibilities for boys—and for our girls—if we had a sizeable piece of property. We once owned 100 acres here in Somerset, and while we would love to turn back the clock and recapture those precious acres, I need to be realistic. Finding property has become one of my goals and one of the Board’s goals. We know that more land is key to our dreams. Finding the right property would be a huge step toward providing a more enhanced program for our girls and, one day, a great program for boys.

The exciting thing about boys school research over the past several years is that it has led us to thoughtfully and deliberately consider a bigger picture for the future of Forest Ridge. What opportunities do we have to enhance our entire infrastructure and programming that will allow our community to thrive now and 40 years into the future.

With that in mind, the Board has created three task force committees that will fully investigate the exciting possibilities in these bigger picture areas: 1.) Boys School, 2.) Middle School and Enhanced Facilities, and

3.) the Women as Global Leaders Program with the possibility of an associated Boarding Program.

We are developing a new Campus Master Plan that will reflect our findings as we continue to deliberate on these opportunities and challenges and plan for our future. I will keep you updated in the very near future as we move forward.

I am open to any information you might have about potential property—and potential funding. Together I have no doubt these dreams will be reality one day in the near future. We can make this happen.

Mark Pierotti Head of School

Let’s create something together!

Janet Burns Annual Fund/Auction Director

Everyone knows that Forest Ridge has an Auction.

But do we know why?

In addition to being lots of fun, a great opportunity for parents to meet other parents and make friends, and a wonderful way to win something amazing, the Auction is also the school’s second largest fundraiser (after the Annual Fund).

Last year, the Auction grossed $196,000 for operational expenses, which funded many programs, such as learning specialists, drama, sports, educational software, campus ministry, science equipment and a safe, secure environment for our students.

In addition, the Auction raised $47,000 for Fund-A-Need, which contributed to scholarship endowments, thereby improving accessibility to our school.

This year our goal is to raise $250,000 for the Forest Ridge operations budget (the monies needed to run the school on a day-to-day basis). Fund-A-Need will focus on the fine arts at Forest Ridge. A growing body of studies, including those in the research compendium Critical Links, presents compelling evidence connecting student learning in the arts to a wide spectrum of academic and social benefits. These studies document the habits of mind, social competencies and personal dispositions inherent to arts learning. Additionally, research has shown that what students learn in the arts may help them to master other subjects, such as reading, math or social studies.

Here at Forest Ridge, our students are singers in awardwinning choirs, dancers, photographers, actors, artists and handbell musicians. In the Middle School, students take an interdisciplinary approach to the arts and their academics.

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For example, in the seventh grade, students write about themselves in English and then create a sculpture that relates to their writing in art class.

With fine arts as the focus, auction chairs Mary Frances Feider and Susie Sharp have developed an inspirational theme for this year’s Auction: Create. Their idea is that the Auction can help “create hope, create knowledge, create beauty and create awareness.” The knowledge that we are each responsible for what we create and that together we can create an inspiring learning environment for our girls makes this theme powerful.

In early March the Auction will offer an online auction where you can bid, from your own home, on interesting and useful items. The online auction is another way to support Forest Ridge. We hope you will participate.

Please mark your calendar for Friday, March 23, 2012, and join us in what promises to be an exciting evening of fun as we support Forest Ridge.

Mark Your Calendar and Create Some Fun! Friday, March 23, 2012

Excitement builds as our creative Auction chairs, Mary Frances Feider, mother of Chiarra Feider-Blazer ’17 and Estelle Feider-Blazer ’15, and Susie Sharp, mother of Izzy Sharp ’19 and Nina Sharp ’15, pull together an inspiring evening of imagination, highlighting the power of an all-girls education.

Join us on Friday, March 23 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue as we create fun, create community and, most importantly, create opportunity for our students. New this year will be a wine grab, table captains and corporate sponsorship. And, as always, we will have the ever-popular raffles: one for half tuition and the other, the Golden Ticket (your choice of the Live Auction items).”

This year’s Fund-A-Need spotlights the arts. Help support our award-winning vocal choirs, dazzling dance and drama departments, along with the fine arts and handbell choir.

All our students—100 percent—participate in the arts, so all students benefit from your support.

Enjoy our online auction, beginning in early March, from the comfort of your own home! Bid on interesting, unique and useful items—a great way to support Forest Ridge!

As always, we need auction items! Looking for ideas about what to donate?

Start With Yourself Consider what you already have, know or do that could be donated.

• Do you have a skill you could offer? Cook a meal? Plan a party? Teach something?

• Do you have a vacation home, condo or boat you could offer?

• Do you have season tickets to cultural or sporting events?

• Do you have promotional items or special opportunities through your company?

• Can you purchase something wholesale to offer as a donation?

• Do you have an interesting profession or hobby? Offer “A Day in my Shoes.”

• Do you have airline miles that you could donate or convert into gift certificates ?

• Do you have a membership in a golf club, dinner club or other venue?

Team Up Combine your skills, ideas and locales with other parents to make a package.

Approach Businesses Contact businesses that you patronize often. Be sure to fill in your name and phone number on the procurement form so that you get proper credit for the donation!

Here is a list of our historically best-selling Items: • Parties/Experiences (for kids, families or adults only or corporate access only) • Cultural Events (theater or concert tickets) • Wine, Wine and more Wine!

• Sporting Event Tickets • Getaways and Vacations • Dining In (food and chef services) • Themed Gift Baskets • Children’s Classes or Events Anything that can be packaged with other donations to create a party, a vacation or a memorable outing is definitely something we want to offer. For example, the following items are great for packages: • Party Venue ~ Your home, your boat, a private room at a restaurant or club • Food ~ Catered or home-cooked • Getaway Destination ~ Vacation home, cabin, lodging at a resort or hotel • Entertainment ~ DJ, dance instructor, singer or band

Another Option Or if procurement simply isn’t your thing, just write a check for $200 or more, and your family contribution is complete.

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A New Year Means Taking Stock and Measuring Growth

The new year often brings with it the need to take stock as individuals, to evaluate where we are, to strategically plan how to proceed. School life is no different in that we’re already planning the 2012–2013 year, while living in the present year.

That kind of intentional process is similar to what we ask of today’s students. We expect our students to be strategic about their learning, their experiences, and we work hard to provide them with a learning environment that stresses connectivity rather than insular experiences.

So in reflecting on the first semester of the 2011–2012 academic year, what stands out to me are these connections that teachers provide and students see. One of the greatest gifts members of our high school faculty share is a passion for teaching and learning.

Students are consistently challenged and encouraged to seek out diverse perspectives. Seminar-style classes lead to lively discussions and a respect for others’ opinions. But unless there is a clear connection to real life, learning can become abstract. Although making these connection takes time and effort, our students more often than not benefit from and share their thoughts and ideas when art and history overlap; when learning about the brain in biology brings an unforeseen insight about one’s own learning; or when the study of literature goes far beyond analysis and intentionally strays into the richness of what it means to be truly human.

We are all learners, no matter our age or occupation. But how often have we said, ”I’m not good at this?” I believe that as ongoing learners we have an obligation to remind students and each other about one of the key insights discussed in Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, namely that intelligence and talent develop as a result of hard work and effective strategies as opposed to depending on talent alone. This is not to say that a person might not have an aptitude for a specific subject matter or skill set. Rather, it means that by believing in that hard work we embrace what Dweck calls the growth mindset, the openness to take risks, to try even though we might not be “good at it.”

It follows that we support these efforts inside and outside the classroom. We need to provide the time and opportunity for experimentation; it begins with us, the teachers. I learned early in my teaching career that some lessons worked beautifully while others, well, bombed. What became important, however, was the ongoing experimentation. Frankly, that hasn’t changed in my life as a school administrator. Some initiatives and efforts take hold, others don’t; every day brings another opportunity for 4 The Ridge Report

Carola D. Wittmann Director of the High School

experimentation. But unless we give each other the capacity to learn from mistakes, that growth mindset can’t possibly develop.

At first glance, the growth mindset seems most appropriately housed in the academic setting; upon closer examination, however, I’ve found that its presence is just as important in extracurricular activities. Therefore, the intentional process of being strategic that I referred to earlier means showing a clear continuum when offering these growth experiences to our students. Similar to the academic continuum, it is through these intentional experiences outside the classroom that we model and teach the value of emotional insights and embracing creativity.

One of the successful experiments of this past semester has been the collaboration between high school programming and WAGL— Women as Global Leaders—when designing Winterim 2012.

Collaborating meant drawing from a wider base of resources and opportunities to assure that students can make developmentally appropriate connections and do so in environments that encourage healthy risk taking and value emotional insights. The overall goal for Winterim in each grade level is similar: the furthering of leadership skills and leadership creativity, eventually leading to the kind of innovative thinking that complements and enhances our students’ classroom experience. What made the work compelling was its focus on each grade level, never quite losing sight of the overall objective while being grade-level specific in terms of intent, activities, the professionals involved, even the location. As a result, what at first glance may look like four different Winterim experiences is, in effect, connected through the theme of leadership skill building, which in turn falls under the larger high school initiative of Challenge Success.

That transfer of knowledge across the spectra of the purely academic, emotional intelligence or creative insight is what is required of today’s learners and professionals. In our global society, insular experiences are being replaced by teams, and innovative thinking is viewed as something to be developed, not something one is necessarily born with.

We are fortunate that Forest Ridge already possesses a rich history of integrated learning experiences, something our alumnae frequently comment on. Looking forward, an even greater intentionality is developing—one that seeks the less obvious connections and welcomes the healthy risk of experiential learning.

Happy New Year!

About seeing new outcomes as possible, taking risks when needed and talking about process Julie Thenell Grasseschi Director of Middle School

It’s not really a new year!

We strongly believe that all students are most successful when they see new challenges as opportunities to grow and

We all know that January affords adults the opportunity to

gain new skills rather than as indicators of failure.

really go to the gym or to attend to the important work of improving our bad habits or working toward new and

Goal V indicates that “Schools of the Sacred Heart commit

different goals. What we can forget is that we are actually

themselves to educate to personal growth in an atmosphere

building on the successes or failures of previous months.

of wise freedom.” Our mission calls us to encourage each

January isn’t really a brand new slate; it is a time to continue

and every student to embrace and acknowledge that her

our growth, make adjustments, learn from what did not

personal growth is as important as her academic progress.

work or capitalize on what did work. However, this kind of

Therefore, we carefully support our girls during this second

message never seems to make the advertisement jingles for

trimester when the natural concerns over friendships and

the new year.

academic progress emerge across each grade level. The support we offer to each girl involves listening,

It would be helpful for our children to hear from us—

communicating with teachers and peers, even when that

and even from advertisement jingles—that personal and

feels hard, and helping each person see all sides of a

academic growth is an ongoing process. Middle school

challenge in order to move forward with success.

students can arrive back to school in January thinking that everything for their year is “set.” They will just never get

I encourage you to talk to your daughter about what you are

math, or math will continue to be their “best class,” or

building on, adjusting or growing toward in this new year.

reading and writing will always be “too hard” or a “piece of

Let her know how you feel about what you are doing and

cake.” It is normal for middle school students to feel some

how you trust yourself even when you are uncertain of the

sense of comfort in thinking that things will remain the

outcome. Ask your daughter about her growth during the

same. Our girls need to hear from us that change and growth

second trimester of this school year. Encourage her to see

are good, natural and welcome parts of life. Better yet, our

new outcomes as possible, take risks when needed and talk

girls need to see us model our own change and growth.

about process with you and her teachers. The true work of all learners is to engage in the ongoing journey of growth.

The important work of the second trimester during each

This can seem overwhelming to middle school students.

school year is to acknowledge that learning is a journey of

They are counting on us as parents to show them how

growth and development. We should celebrate successes

growth and change work each and every day. This might

along the way but not set a student up to feel finished or

mean that we really do go to the gym more often, but that

complete. As you know, we are a middle school that is

work will not happen because January is a blank slate; it

student centered and growth oriented while firmly grounded

will happen because we engage in the growth needed to

in the Goals and Criteria for Sacred Heart Schools.

make it possible.

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We’re on the road to another

Nancy Harty Associate Director of Admission

Jasmine Reyes ‘03 Associate Director of Admission

great admission year!

8F hope that your holiday season was filled with family and friends, time for renewal, relaxation, rest and fun. The month of January is upon us, and the Office of Admission is busy, as usual. We continue to accept and process applications, provide prospective families with campus and classroom observation tours and gear up for our second year of online reenrollment.

We are on the road to another great year!

In the new year, your family will have the opportunity to recommit to the mission of the Sacred Heart as you register your daughter(s) for the 2012–2013 academic year. On Feb. 1, current families will receive an email, which we hope will make online reenrollment easy and convenient for you. By requiring families to reenroll online, we are going green, conserving resources and postage fees. We appreciate your patience with this process as we refine the procedure we began last year.

If you experience any difficulty with online reenrollment, do not hesitate to contact the Office of Admission. We are here to help you!

Completed contracts are due Friday, Feb. 9, 2012. Families sometimes ask, “Why is reenrollment so early?” or “Why do reenrollment contracts have to be turned around in such a short timeframe after we receive them?” These are both very good questions. Reenrollment is vital to the school’s planning for the upcoming school year. We need to know how many families plan to reenroll for the next school year so that we can project appropriate faculty staffing needs, plan appropriately for faculty and staff salaries and benefits and regulate class sizes. With reenrollment contracts due on Thursday, Feb. 9, we then can determine how many new students to accept into each grade level.

Look for further details regarding the electronic reenrollment process in POST IT, the FR Portal and the February issue of The Ridge Report.

Happy New Year and all the best to your family and friends in 2012!

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Finding Kind

in the New Year

As director of the Women as Global Leaders Program, I am excited to start the new year with a free screening of Finding Kind on Friday, Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lee Theatre. If you haven’t made your RSVP to me, there’s still time! The film will be shown, and then we will have a moderated discussion with Amy Mezulis, Ph.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychology from Seattle Pacific University http://www.spu.edu/depts/spfc/clinicalpsych/faculty-staff/mezulis.asp

Kisha Palmer Program Director Women As Global Leaders

The theme of Finding Kind fits perfectly with the Women as Global Leaders’ vision of creating relevant programming that is inclusive, respectful and attentive to the diverse needs of both individuals and the institution as a whole. It is a personal goal of mine to share kindness as the norm, not as an earned reward. What life has taught me thus far is that kindness is our responsibility as human beings, an acknowledgement of the value of a life.

As a child I assumed kindness was the same as friendship. I now view friendship as something altogether distinct, a bond forged in the intention of continued care and attention to a specific person or animal’s well-being and life development. Kindness has nothing to do with that. It is possible to be kind without having to be friends. Kindness is a declaration of the understanding of the worth of a life, the value of treating others with respect and dignity. And sometimes that kindness is a lifesaver. (Right, Blanche?)

In my most recent advisory meeting, a group of ninth-grade advisees asked me, “Ms. Palmer, do the teachers and the adults and stuff have the same things that the kids do? Like, do they not get along and stuff?” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Seven faces stared at me with candy canes in their hands. Silence.

“Yes, they do.”

“But you know, everyone seems like they get along and are friends.”

I laughed again. “Being friends is very different from being kind to each other and knowing how to get along in order to do your job.”

The students nodded and shrugged; the conversation moved on to everyone’s holiday plans, but the moment stuck with me. Kindness and friendship are two distinct animals, and yet both are necessary for our spiritual, if not physical, health.

I am looking forward to our conversation about kindness on Friday night, Jan. 6. For those who will not be able to join, I will post a summary of the event in Post IT and on the portal.

January 2012 also brings Winterim for the High School, and Women as Global Leaders is thrilled to be working with the high school on leadership skills, starting with the Class of 2015. Dr. Wittmann emailed a letter letter to HS parents with more information; there will also be additional information in the next POST IT. This year promises to be rich with new events and dynamic conversations, and I am so grateful to all of you for your willingness to engage. Let’s make 2012 fruitful, healthy and kind!

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Happy New Year from the Parent Association

Happy New Year, and welcome back to campus! We hope that you and your families enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing holiday, wherever you chose to spend your time.

In December, the Parent Association enjoyed the opportunity at the Faculty-Staff Appreciation Luncheon to celebrate the many members of the Forest Ridge community who work to support our daughters every day. The Commons was transformed into a winter wonderland! Chef Ron, Chef Gary and the amazing FRidge staff prepared a delicious lunch. We greatly appreciated the work of the many volunteers—cookie bakers and cookie packers and parents who made appetizers, donated beverages and decorated the Commons—and everyone who helped bring all of the details of the day together. Thank you for your time and effort. We were very grateful for your energy and enthusiasm.

As we begin the 2012 calendar year, the Parent Association is looking forward to the High School Father-Daughter Event on Jan. 27. For the young women in grades nine through 12, this is an evening not to be missed! Late-night laser tag on campus is fun for all daughters and fathers or father figures. It is sure to be an exciting evening; please refer to the weekly POST IT newsletter to buy your tickets.

Amy Anderson and Cynthia Seely Parent Association Co-Presidents

Speaking of playing outside, the Forest Ridge ski and snowboard bus is up and running for Friday night fun! This is a great opportunity for the girls to get outside, enjoy the snow and spend time with their friends. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced skier, you are welcome. More details available in POST IT. We wish you all the best during this month of transition as we say goodbye to the old and ring in the new. Happy 2012!