The 2010-11 school year at Brooklyn Friends concluded with a series of graduation, moving-up and alumni events that reflected the school’s extraordinarily deep ongoing commitments to academic challenge, Quaker identity, artistic exploration, preparation for lives of service and leadership, and the continuous nurture of a close-knit learning community.
Whether it was the June 4th celebration of Martin Norregaard’s 50 years of teaching and stewardship at BFS which was attended by 180 alumni from graduating classes ranging from 1936 to 2009; the Pre-School, Lower School and Middle School year-end moving up ceremonies; or the distinguished Class of 2011’s moving Baccalaureate Service in the Schermerhorn Meeting House followed the next day by an inspiring commencement at One Hanson Place, we ended the year with a resounding affirmation of the growth, learning and community building that are produced when great teachers and highly motivated students can work together in an engaging and supportive environment.
Looking back on 2010-11 and ahead to 2011-12, we can take pride in important initiatives, improvements, and investments that we have made at every age-group level of the school to sustain and expand the development of the BFS learning community. Among such accomplishments are:
- The new and expanded Family Center that will open at 189 Schermerhorn Street next fall, with Sara Soll as Director, with facilities to serve three groups of twelve 2-year olds in 2 full-day and 1 half-day classrooms;
- The Pre-School, under the new leadership of Maura Eden as Interim Head, that will host the relocated Pre-School and Lower School Library on the Second Floor;
- The Lower School that will greet its Kindergarten students with three newly-renovated classrooms on the Sixth Floor and its First and Second Graders with three classrooms for each grade on the renovated Seventh Floor. The Lower School will welcome an additional Spanish teacher and add a full-time Math Coordinator, Jonathan Edmonds, to its faculty.
- The Middle School that will introduce new faculty and staff including an Assistant Head and Scheduler, Theater Teacher, and Physical Education teacher to its students as well as the new 10-day schedule that will replace the 7-day arrangement at the Lower and Upper Schools as well.
- The High School that will offer new second-language options of Mandarin Chinese and Italian to 9th graders, history electives to 10th graders, and science electives to 12th graders as well as an after-school seminar program.
- The entire school will also benefit from the presence and work of our new Director of Diversity, Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr., and our new Dean of Faculty, Whitney Thompson. One of Whitney’s first initiatives next year will be the design and implementation of BFS’ first Quaker Self-Study.
Already, we are quite busy this summer with construction projects. However, such work will not interfere with offering our full-range of summer programs including day camp, summer arts, and Horizons.
We wish all current and future BFS families the best of summer vacations and look forward with great anticipation to the 2011-12 school year.
In friendship,
Dr. Larry Weiss
Head of School