Weekly Message from Head of School 2024/10/21-2024/10/25
Greetings Keystonians!
This week we enjoyed hosting some members of Keystone’s Board of Trustees on campus for a meeting. Having these wonderful supporters of Keystone Academy on campus gave me an opportunity to reflect on the notion of trust. The English word Trustee comes, of course from the word trust. School trustees hold the responsibility to steward the resources of the school for the benefit of others. Their selfless and engaged service ensures that we are not only using the school’s resources exclusively towards its mission, but also that we are operating the school in a way that ensures its long-term sustainability and continued success.
At Keystone, we are fortunate that we are able to operate as a non-profit school. Unlike many other schools, our school has no shareholders who benefit from our business model. Keystone Academy’s only beneficiaries are our students. Any small surplus that the school generates each year is re-invested into our excellent program and physical plant, with the goal of ever improving the quality of experience for our students through the time they spend with their teachers.
In this simple and elegant equation, trust is so important. Our Trustees count on the faculty and staff of the school to steward the school’s resources well. And students trust us to do everything we can for their safety, growth and learning. Parents also demonstrate lots of trust. Last weekend we welcomed hundreds of families to campus for our Primary School open house. As we welcomed our guests, I reminded prospective families of something that our community knows well: enrolling your child at Keystone requires trust because it is an educational experience that most parents (and teachers!) have not yet experienced. We are a New World School. Parents trust us to do the very best for their children, even though the experience of “school” here is different than what most adults in the community experienced when they were in school.
Also, in our very diverse community, trust is so important because so many of us come from different backgrounds, educational systems, and parts of the world. At Keystone we agree to communicate directly and carefully so as to avoid mistakes or confusion based on culture, language, or any number of other differences. And when we do have challenges, we trust that everyone involved is doing the very best they can. We trust each other and we have high expectations for our students, our faculty and staff and our families. At Keystone, we believe that if we trust each other, we can do amazing things together!
And speaking of amazing things—this weekend welcomes a special event—the Autum Fest! While the nights are colder, we still have time to enjoy the comfort of our beautiful outdoor spaces without our big winter coats. I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday on campus for our Autum Fest! This will be a great opportunity for our school community to spend time together enjoying our beautiful campus and each other. I am so grateful to all the parents, faculty and staff who have worked so hard to make this Sunday event a reality. Say hi and tell me how you think about trust as it relates to education. I look forward to learning from your diverse perspectives!
See you Sunday,
Emily
