2022-23: A Year of Success, Gratitude, and Future Planning

Beginning with the opening of our STEM expansion to enhance the student learning experience, the 2022-23 school year has been one of great change. From selecting a new Head of School to elevating our professional development program, there has been a focus on growing and fostering our faculty and staff. We have brought our community together with reinvigorated events and rallied support through our fundraising efforts. And we have heightened our protection of everyone on our campus each day with an emphasis on health and security. None of this would be possible without our parents, faculty, staff, and trustees, and we want to take a moment to highlight our success, thank our supporters, and plan for our students’ future.

 

Successes
STEM Expansion Opening
Before the start of the 2022-23 school year, we completed our Meadows STEM Expansion. This was our first capital enhancement to campus in nearly 15 years and it includes a robotics lab, science lab, five classrooms, and several storage spaces. This wonderful addition to our campus has given our students in K-12 more room to explore the sciences, including engineering and robotics, in state-of-the-art spaces.

HOS Search and Onboarding
We began the year in partnership with RG175, a global educational leadership firm, to find the next great leader of The Meadows School. Three candidates were brought to campus for rigorous interviews with all TMS stakeholders, and in October, Dr. Jay Berckley was announced as our incoming Head of School.

Since then, the Board of Trustees, BOT Transition Committee, Interim Head of School Claude Grubair, the faculty and administrative team, as well as students, have focused on making his onboarding smooth and productive. Dr. Berckley has attended many of our key second semester events and has been present for important conversations, meetings, and planning sessions that will allow him to hit the ground running when he officially starts in July 2023.

 

Professional Development and NAIS
This has been a very active year for professional development. With the help of a generous donation to the school, we were able to send 30 faculty members to conferences around the world, and pay a portion of our faculty and staff’s student loan debt or continuing education fees. We also had faculty speak at a number of conferences including the NWAIS Fall conference and AERA.

Our year of professional development culminated in February when the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) brought its annual conference to Las Vegas allowing us to send our entire faculty to the conference for a day of enrichment, camaraderie, and personal growth. Many of the learnings gained at these conferences were then shared at our own TMS Professional Development conference on campus where 16 faculty members presented to their peers.

 

Fundraising and Events
We had many extraordinary fundraising accomplishments at The Meadows this year, beginning with our Celebrating Excellence Kickoff Celebration in the fall. This was followed by our Rooted in The Meadows campaign, 31 Days of Giving holiday initiative, and the wildly successful Betting on Excellence Poker Tournament and Soiree. These not only provided a platform for raising funds but also allowed us to come together and celebrate our shared commitment to the success of our students and school.

Our community also enjoyed numerous events including our annual Pancake Breakfast, Homecoming, the Athletic Hall of Fame induction, Trunk or Treat, the Second Grade Bake Sale, and the Spring Carnival, allowing families, students, and faculty to bond, have fun, and create lasting memories all while supporting TMS.

Security, Safety, and Health
This year, we continued to prioritize the safety and security of all members of our community while on our campus. We added Share911 for incident management, which provides us with a tool to issue emergency alerts and urgent messages, view real-time reports, and confirm where everyone is on campus during a crisis, all from a single source. We were able to run multiple school-wide drills using this tool and all classrooms were equipped with access to Share911 via their Newline boards. We also added SchoolPass for visitor management and completed a safety and security audit of campus.

We also welcomed the school’s first school nurse in November, and she has quickly become an essential part of supporting the health of our students in every division.

Over the summer, we plan to install a new alert and paging system and hire a new Director of Security that will be on campus for the start of the school year.

 

Thank Yous
TMSPA
We extend our most heartfelt thanks to The Meadows School Parents Association Executive Committee, who have devoted countless hours to facilitating and coordinating our activities throughout the year. To our Room Parents, thank you for creating an environment of support and care in our classrooms. The bridge you build between home and school is invaluable.