Oak Hill School

Letter from Elliott Grey, Headmaster

Last Updated on Friday, 26 June 2009 21:11 By:

Dear Oak Hill community,

We're two days into summer and are already missing the bright smiles and personalities of the Oak Hill students on campus. I wanted to write and share both appreciation and news before taking a family vacation. Words cannot express the gratitude we have for every Oak Hill volunteer. However you donated your time and energy, I appreciate your generosity tremendously. Your effort helps to make our school not only function, but also helps to make it such a special place. Extra thanks to the parent body who also served on the Oak Hill School board.

At the annual meeting, I promised to notify you of our returning faculty by August 1. Ahead of schedule, here is who you can look forward to seeing on campus this fall:

• Lower School Faculty: Mary Ellen Arbuckle, Kathy Westervelt, Denise Kearney and Kim Davis.
• Foreign Languages: Ellie Laird, Armando Morales, Sophie Wang and Carolina Garcia.
• Humanities - Anne Sterling, Linda DeSpain, Gina Liotta.
• Mathematics: Joel Narva, Reza Oskui.
• Arts: Debi Noel, Kitsann Means, Diane Hill and Josh Humphrey.
• Staff - Elliott Grey, Carrie Miller, Bill Goldsmith, Lauren Moody, Laura Anderson, Tim Rogers, Ki-Won Rhew, Larry Hendricks, Jim Luzzi and Sally King.

We are in the process of hiring an upper school science teacher and lower school PE teacher. If you know of any strong candidates who you believe would contribute to our school culture, please encourage them to submit a cover letter and resume! We hope to announce hiring decisions by August 1.

Summer Reading
We value the individual student and endeavor to challenge each child so he or she is challenged—not overwhelmed nor bored. We’d like to continue this over the summer. For this reason, students in grades 4-12 will have required all-school summer reading books. The faculty (and some staff!) will be reading these books in addition to the students.

• Grade 4 - TBD.
• Grade 5 - Blubber by Judy Blume.
• Grades 6-8 - Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
• Grades 9-12 - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.

Summer Hours and Balancing the Budget
To offset the budget, I have furloughed the faculty and staff. The staff will have 10 days of unpaid leave. The faculty will have 7 days interspersed throughout the upcoming school year. The 10 day furlough for the staff begins Monday, June 29. The office will be closed through July 10. I do not expect staff to answer emails or calls. We will get back to you with any needs the week of July 13 and summer office hours are 9am – 4pm.

Oak Hill School web sites
I am excited to announce that we are revamping our www.oakhillschool.com and www.oakhillschool.net web sites. By mid-August, you will see one web site, not two, with a fresh look and feel. We do not intend on losing the oakhillschool.net content nor the progress that Tim Rogers and the community has generated therein. Therefore, in the short term, if you visit oakhillschool.net, you will see our work in progress. In lieu of shutting the site down, we are revamping it while the site remains live. Look for an official launch of the new site once the merger is complete. Until then, thank you for your patience navigating through the site-in-progress!

The 09-10 Daily Schedule
After considering the input of the staff, faculty, and student body, we have decided to implement the following schedules:

Grades K-5: School will begin at 8:20 and get out at 3:10 pm (not 2:45).
Grade 6: School will begin at 8:10 and end at 3:10 pm daily. The schedule will include arts, foreign language, and elective courses with the other middle schoolers, but will otherwise look and feel more like a lower school schedule with core courses and PE.
Students in grades 7-12 next year will follow the following schedule:

• 8:10-9:05 - First Period
• 9:10-9:20 - Morning Meeting
• 9:25-10:20 - Second Period
• 10:25-11:20 - Third Period
• 11:20-12:10 - Lunch
• 12:10-1:05 - Fourth Period
• 1:10-2:05 - Fifth Period
• 2:05-2:15 - 10 minute passing
• 2:15-3:10 - Sixth Period
•  

As I’ve been saying, next year will look and feel different. My hope is these differences will all be even better than what you’ve already experienced at Oak Hill to date. As ever, please contact me with questions, comments, or concerns.

Warmly,
Elliott Grey
Headmaster