Letter from Headmaster Matthew S. Hoeniger ‘81

from the headmaster

As I take a moment to reflect on this past year, I continue to remain grateful and inspired by the loyalty, the generosity, and the many ways our community finds to support our School and expand our students’ opportunities and growth. Each of you help make Rumsey Hall a nurturing, supportive environment where our students’ full range of abilities, creative gifts and compassion can grow. Our Mission and School values of Honesty, Kindness and Respect guide all that we do here at Rumsey Hall. Each day our work is dedicated to educating the whole child. We are committed to ensuring that each of our student’s experience here at Rumsey Hall is guided by the practice of effort, not the expectation of perfection. We value equally the lessons that take place inside our classrooms as well as outside of them.

This past year, we continued to add and improve the educational opportunities we provide here at Rumsey Hall School. What follows is a brief report of these opportunities that your generosity allowed for. Additional playground equipment was added to the new Explorer Dome, which provides students of all ages an opportunity to test and develop their gross motor skills in countless ways. There is also a new outdoor learning area that provides students with a space in which to study, learn and explore their environment. This space includes a weather station, raised garden-beds, bird houses and feeders, tables and seating. As a school, we continued our speakers, performances and weekend programming. The following are highlights of those visits to our campus last year:

Richard Guerry, the founder of the Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (IROC2). He is a nationally renowned expert in educating students and parents on the relevant issues surrounding digital responsibility and solutions. He offered guidance on how to prevent and avoid digital pitfalls through a dynamic and age appropriate program.

Mark Tyler Nobleman joined us to offer creative writing workshops with our Upper School English classes. He is the author of Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, and Brave Like My Brother.

The Viola Question, the premiere improv comedy group at Yale University, performed for our students, as did Take Five, Kenyon College’s a cappella group, where May Chen ’12, was one of the performers.

Weekend Art Workshops were offered on Sunday afternoons to expand our arts offerings and weekend activities. These workshops included jewelry making, metal shop, and basic crafts. Additionally, in these weekend workshops, a faculty and student led effort was initiated to create greeting cards for hospitalized children.

“We value equally the lessons that take place inside our classrooms as well as outside of them.”

Our Robotics Program launched the Lego Space Challenge, creating robots and writing code to embark on an imaginative scenario where they rescued a man lost in space, raised a satellite dish, and sent a rover to collect resources. The School was also able to purchase Spheros (spherical robots) which are white orbs wrapped in polycarbonate, capable of rolling around and are controlled by a smartphone or tablet. Students learn basic coding and sequencing to program these robots. The Computer Skills course now includes a graphic design component. Studying the use of lines, shapes, textures and color, students learn how to manipulate images, words, and shapes in Google Drawings.

We created a Lower School Skills teaching position. This person works closely with our faculty to identify and support students in their Language Arts and Mathematical development. In addition, we have hired a new Director of Health and Wellness who works closely with our students in both the Lower and Upper School, giving guidance not only to students, but parents and faculty to help ensure the mental health and well being of all of our students.

The passion, commitment and caring of students, alumni, faculty, staff and parents suggest to me that service to others is not a hollow phrase meant to make people feel good; rather something ingrained in the bedrock of the Rumsey Hall community that encourages us to be a school that values service and community involvement. This letter is an opportunity to express my appreciation to all those whose service and commitment to Rumsey Hall is reflected in the following pages. The financial results are important, but this report also tells a story of hard work, dedication, vision, commitment, and generosity.

I would like to thank our talented and dedicated faculty and staff, our Board of Trustees led by Board Chair Nicholas Solley ’64, and the countless volunteers who support and sustain Rumsey Hall’s culture and commitment to providing an environment that puts Effort, Family and Community at the forefront. It is with these contributions that we are able to sustain a special place, a special school, and a special home.

Sincerely,

Matthew Hoeniger ’81, P’11, ’15 Headmaster