Weekly Message from Head of School 2025/06/02-2025/06/06

Dear Keystonians,

It’s been another exciting week at Keystone Academy as we enter the final stretch of the school year. Alongside our students’ hard work, we’ve celebrated milestones for our faculty, alumni, and parents.

Alumni Reunion: A Homecoming Worth the Wait

Today, we welcome alumni back to campus for our annual Alumni Reunion! Graduates from all classes are joining us for an afternoon of activities and celebration. This year is especially meaningful for the Class of 2020, marking their 5th reunion—five years since their graduation. Though they finished classes in May 2020, their graduation ceremony was postponed twice due to the pandemic, finally taking place that August.

Their graduation tagline, “Worth the wait,” reflected their resilience. In his speech, Founding Head of School Malcolm McKenzie praised the class for their leadership and positivity amid unprecedented challenges. He reminded them that their disrupted senior spring—a sudden departure after Spring Festival with no return to normalcy—was a unifying experience shared by students worldwide. While hindsight shows they weren’t the only class affected, they were the first to face such abrupt change. The resilience they built at Keystone prepared them not just for that moment, but for life beyond it. Today, we’re thrilled to see them reunited with alumni from 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and our newest graduates, the Class of 2025.

Faculty Milestone: Launching the Keystone Professional Educator Program (KPEP)

Our faculty also celebrated a milestone! The KPEP Research and Design Committee concludes a year of intensive work to create a system that promotes teaching excellence through continual growth. This program will integrate peer observations, student feedback, and portfolio discussions into our culture of learning.

A special thanks to the TLC leadership and all teachers who dedicated time to this transformative effort.

Parent Leadership: Welcoming the 2025-2026 PTA Executive Committee

For our parents, we’re honoring the 2024-2025 PTA Executive Committee while preparing for next year’s leadership. Applications for faculty/staff roles are open (email me to express interest!), and incoming parent leadership volunteers will share speeches at the election meeting for the 2025-2026 PTA on Tuesday, June 10th, at 3:30 PM in the West Lecture Hall. All are welcome to attend! Remember, all parents and employees are members of the PTA! Our goals for the 2025-2025 PTA are closeness and trust! We will also be calling for volunteers for a Parent-School Communication Taskforce—stay tuned for more information about that next week!

Closing Wisdom from Malcolm McKenzie

I’ll leave you with Founding Head of School Malcolm McKenzie’s parting words to the Class of 2020—a timeless reminder for us all:

Be and stay on the caring side of our species.

Be careful. And be full of care. Take care. And give care.

Yours,

Dr. Emily McCarren

Executive Head of School