I am pleased to report that Brooklyn Friends School opened its 144 th academic year with a record total enrollment of 754 students.

This number includes 42 children participating in our newly relocated and expanded Family Center for 2 year-olds. Faced with a Department of Health requirement that the Pearl Street Family Center move to a ground floor location for safety reasons or lose its operating license, we were able to lease a newly constructed ground-floor retail space on Schermerhorn and Hoyt Streets that we built out to provide three classrooms, an indoor playground, and other beautifully designed, toddler-friendly facilities.

As called for in our Strategic Plan, we also increased our first grade enrollment to 61, renovating the sixth and seventh floors of Pearl Street to accommodate the required additional First Grade classroom as well as a Second Grade classroom that will house next year’s additional class.

A very successful academic year and admissions season also enabled us to add 30 students above First Grade by recruiting excellent new students to Middle School and Upper School grades while retaining more current students than in the past. 

Such enrollment increases let us increase faculty resources in each division including the appointment of Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. to the Director of Diversity position called for in the Strategic Plan and of Whitney Thompson as Dean of Faculty. Whitney’s first responsibility in her new position will be to lead the school through a Quaker Self-Study along the guidelines provided by the Friends Council on Education.

Our International Baccalaureate program in the Upper School continued to follow a steep success curve in its third year. The program’s elective capstone--the IB Diploma that requires successful completion of highly challenging course, external examination, and experiential requirements—was awarded to all eleven students who applied for it. This is only one less than the total number of diplomas awarded during the program’s first two years.

My first year back at BFS was thus one of growth. But growth, in and of itself, is not necessarily a virtue. Over the course of the year, I tried to identify six defining characteristics of our school that must be nurtured and supported by such growth if we are to make maximum meaningful use of our expanding resources.

 1)BFS is One School. As we approach the final conclusion of our search for a new location for our Pre-School and Lower School, we anxiously anticipate the reintegration of the Middle and Upper Schools at 375 Pearl Street. Our goal is to develop a coherent, challenging, and values-based program for children and young adults from the age of 2 through 18. Investing in the continuous support and improvement of the single faculty, staff, and administrative team that will bring that program to life each day represents our most important task.

2) BFS is a Friends School.The testimonies, practices, ideals, and collective consciousness of the Religious Society of Friends remain central to BFS. Current students as well as many alumni continually reiterate the centrality of weekly meeting for worship to their school experience. The search for paths to simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality and stewardship informs many of the most important student-faculty learning experiences. 

3)BFS is an Intellectually Challenging School. The life of the mind is vibrant, creative, and fully engaging in every part of our school. Our teachers are passionate participants in the process of life-long learning as well as communicators of their own mastery of fact, theory, and method. We create the opportunities for students to go as deeply and broadly as they can into areas of their own intellectual interest while also requiring them to meet ambitious standards of achievement in the humanities, mathematics, and sciences. 

 4)At BFS, Students Explore the Arts Deeply.Experiential exploration of the arts provides uniquely meaningful opportunities for students across the age spectrum to connect with the life of the heart and spirit as well as the mind. Significant numbers of BFS graduates have built on the foundations of their artistic work and study at the school to create careers of great accomplishment and social significance. This legacy informs our deep commitment to keep the arts growing and thriving at BFS.

5)BFS is a Diverse, Loving Learning Community.Students, faculty, and staff celebrate individual differences as they embrace the challenge of creating a unified community. In our admissions, financial aid, and hiring work, we seek to reflect the extraordinary diversity of the Brooklyn neighborhoods that is the wellspring of our school’s energy and vitality. Students and teachers from a panoply of cultures, races and class backgrounds who all love learning at BFS wait in anticipation for its doors to open each day. Such love fuels the highest aspirations of any educational institution. 

 6)BFS is a School that Prepares Students for Lives of Leadership andService. In a society that stresses the pursuit of individual satisfaction and achievement, it is difficult to nurture an awareness of the world beyond the self. At BFS, students including our youngest toddlers and most exuberant adolescents take advantage of opportunities to consider and serve the needs of others as important components of their lives at BFS. Taking leadership, seeking unity of group purpose, sharing the burdens of difficult, seemingly-unrewarding labor—all of these are invaluable learning experiences for students and ideal teachable moments for faculty.

            I’d like to close with the recognition that another important historical record was surpassed last year. Donations to our unrestricted Annual Giving campaign reached their highest level ever. Thanks to a most talented and energetic Development, Alumni, and Communications staff, we were able to raise participation levels in many important constituencies. We feel deeply grateful to current and former parents and grandparents, alumni, faculty, and friends of BFS as well as our Trustees and parent leadership. To all of you in the greater BFS community, we warmly welcome your interest, participation, and support. This one Brooklyn Friends School is your school, and it always will be.