Click here to listen to this week’s JAM – 365 Days (And Counting)
It’s the first day of school. I am recording this early in the morning. Really early. I never sleep well the night before the first day of school. The anticipation – even after having experienced decades worth of first days – remains so intense, the butterflies in the stomach are real. Our team has spent weeks preparing for this moment. The campus is in tip top shape, classrooms sit at the ready for children to enter, and all of us – teachers, staff, and the leadership team – are eagerly awaiting the arrival of children and families onto campus.
This year feels different from other years. It is our final year as a JK-8 with only one campus. At this time next year – 365 days from now – we will be opening our new high school on our second campus in downtown San Jose. There is a lot to do between now and then – hire a full team of teachers, renovate historical spaces, enroll the founding class of 9th graders, design and fully develop the curriculum, hire an athletic director, build community connections in our new downtown location. We are so excited to tackle this project that will transform Hillbrook and create a new high school option, a school that will be different from any other school in our area. As you know if you have been following along with the podcast, there are a lot of things that will distinguish our program from other high schools. I’ll get back to those in next week’s episode.
For today, I am focused on the first day of this year. I’m focused on the children in JK-8 who will be coming to our campus and who are eagerly anticipating the year ahead. I’m focused on making sure that we live out our vision – to inspire students to achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world – each and every day. That vision, of course, applies not only to our current students but to the future high schoolers who we can’t wait to serve in the years ahead. 365 days and counting.