Unexpected, Unpredictable, and Endlessly Rewarding: Back to School Night 2021
Good evening and welcome to Back to School Night. We are so excited to have our parent community come together tonight to celebrate the start of the school year and to learn about the extraordinary educational journey your children are on in the months ahead.
I know some of you were here last Friday for Flag, the first time that the Owls – children in JK, K, 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th attended in person. We ended Flag, as we always do, with an opportunity for children to tell a joke. I called on a dozen or so children, including a number of our youngest and newest children. Somewhat by chance, the first child onstage was a new JKer. He walked up confidently and I knelt beside him. I whispered as I always do, “Introduce yourself.” Without much hesitation he said, “Hi, I’m ….” Then, I whispered, okay tell your joke. He held the microphone firmly, saying nothing. “Tell the joke you shared with Ms. Schilly,” I added helpfully, I thought. Nothing. We continued on like this, me trying to encourage him to tell his joke or understand what joke he was trying to tell or encouraging him to say anything, him holding onto the microphone, tightly. After what felt like a really long time but was, in reality, only 40-45 seconds, he finally yelled “Pickle pie!” into the microphone and with a big grin, handed the microphone back to me, went to the front of the stage, bowed, and then returned to his seat, applause ringing out in the amphitheater.
That moment – along with the ensuing five minutes of other jokes from children of different ages and stages – brought me so much joy and reminded me of all that I love about this school and this community. The celebration of humor, the encouragement for children to take risks from the youngest ages, the lessons involved with learning how to speak in public, and the reminder to me, even after all these years, that working with children is unexpected, unpredictable, intentionally AND unintentionally funny, and endlessly rewarding.
Tonight I am joined on stage by Associate Head of School Colleen Schilly. As Chair of the Board of Trustees Chuck Hammers shared last Spring, I will be taking a three-month sabbatical starting on October 1. During my sabbatical, Colleen will be the Acting Head of School. I am so grateful that the Board has granted me the opportunity for this time to disconnect and recharge, and also grateful to Colleen for her willingness to step into this role. I know she will do an exceptional job in my absence.
It is an exciting moment to be at Hillbrook.
- We are 360 students strong, including more than 47 percent who identify as students of color and nearly 30 percent who are paying below the top flexible tuition rate. A special welcome to the 75 new families who joined us this year!
- We are back on campus and students are able to more fully experience all that Hillbrook offers: interacting with peers throughout the day, engaging in choice-based Reach Beyond Blocks and electives in the Middle School, and participating in after school enrichment classes and sports. We are doing all of this while ensuring the health and safety of all members of our community.
- The Hub is fully open and operational. This dynamic new space is already being used in exciting ways, including photography, woodworking, painting, and drawing. One student is designing a baseball bat, multiple students are creating all types of free art projects, and a group of students have been designing wooden rings as part of a burgeoning social impact project.
- And, we are actively exploring a project – the development of a high school – that would be the most ambitious and significant change to the school in generations. As I shared at the pod-level breakfasts last week, the Board and members of the Senior Leadership team have been thoughtfully pursuing this idea for several years now, visiting other schools throughout the Bay Area and across the country and developing an academic model and a business plan that would provide a high school program that is a seamless connection to our existing program and that does not currently exist in our market. We will be sharing more in the months ahead, and I invite interested families to reach out and share your thoughts and questions with us.
Remarks from Associate Head of School Colleen Schilly:
No matter what ultimately comes to pass regarding a prospective high school, it is our collective commitment and priority to care for the ongoing excellence of Hillbrook’s Junior Kindergarten to 8th grade program. We’re here tonight in the amphitheater, surrounded by the Village of Friendly Relations – houses built by Hillbrook’s original students – which serve as an important reminder about a core truth that Hillbrook’s founders believed deeply in, and that we continue to uphold fervently: children are capable, and I’d like to highlight three ways this belief drives our work to deliver on the school’s mission and vision:
Children are capable of extraordinary learning.
Our educational program helps each child reach their highest potential in school and in life, and is the result of careful design and continual refinement. Our Director of Teaching & Learning Ilsa Dohmen, in close collaboration with other program leaders, works tirelessly to create a program that reflects the most current understanding of pedagogy and practice, a program that is deeply tied to our knowledge of how children learn. We have structures, including our annual program audit process, that ensure we regularly and thoughtfully review each strand of our curriculum. These structures now serve as models for other bay area schools in their curriculum design. Your child has a lively and rich intellect that we are eager to explore, inspire, and challenge.
Children are capable of promoting belonging.
Hillbrook has a longstanding and firm commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Tonight you will hear about tangible ways in which children learn about and see their own identity reflected within the curriculum and programs. Students also learn to look outside themselves to know, respect, and value the identities of others, studying especially the experiences and accomplishments of historically disenfranchised and underrepresented groups. Hillbrook’s approach to social-emotional learning teaches children concrete skills for perspective taking, self-awareness, self-regulation, conflict management, and more. Children need these skills in order to positively and productively belong in a community, and they need these skills in order to promote the culture of belonging that makes Hillbrook school special. I invite you to connect with Gulliver LaValle, our Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to learn more about the ways our program prepares students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to build a more equitable and just future.
Children are capable of making a difference.
At Hillbrook, both you and your child will frequently be asked to consider two powerful questions: What matters to you, and what are you doing about it? Hillbrook’s commitment to social impact and social entrepreneurship is driven by the work of the Scott Center, led by Director Annie Makela. By giving learners the tools they need to identify their interests, we empower them to turn ideas into sustainable impact. At Hillbrook making a difference is accessible and achievable.
Children are capable. We not only believe this, but we see it come to life everyday on this campus, and we’re excited to share with you tonight more about how you will get to see your child blossom and excel this year.