News & Weekly Letters

Summer is a time of reflection for those of us who work in the offices of a school. It’s the season to tackle projects that have been long-postponed for want of time, and it gives us the opportunity to take a step back from regular tasks and rethink, reimagine, and plan. Admittedly, it’s also a time of solitude. The hallways are empty, the classrooms silent, and the days feel pretty long.

Obviously, this is an exceptional back-to-school season at The École since we have left our historic Elementary & Middle School Building at 111 and moved next door to our new space at 115 22nd Street. The summer was an atypical one for the admin team, with shorter vacations, unpacking boxes, the spell of fresh paint, and the sound of drilling all on the agenda. But it was all for a good cause because the result is a resounding success, which gives me the opportunity to celebrate the astounding work of our facilities and maintenance team, led by Jan Salamon, assisted by Raul Bello Perez. Everyone pitched in, including Francis, our security guard from 206, who spent a long stretch of his summer at 115 helping out, and Cassandre, our receptionist, who became an expert assembler of Billy bookcases.

As I sat down at my computer this morning, I realized that this is my last real letter of the year—I’ll wish you a happy summer break on Wednesday, the last day of school, but that will be a brief message. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your positive feedback about these letters. I truly enjoy writing them, then reading Andria’s translation, and I’m glad to hear that, for at least some of you, they’ve become an important weekly rendezvous.

The weeks leading up to the end of the school year are packed with celebrations that we love. Ahead of the graduations, shows, and tonight’s traditional Splash of Summer party, we enjoyed two evenings of After-School recitals this week. Students from 1st to 8th Grade, who take individual music lessons as part of our After-School program, took to the stage to play a piece they had learned and put their heart and soul into.

With this week of shows coming to an end, and only the 5th graders left to perform next week when they return from the AEFE-UNSS sports tournament, a chapter is also closing. When I arrived in 2020, the corridors were still humming with the rapturous applause from the end-of-year shows orchestrated by Julien Budrino and Vincent Pauchon. For a long time after, people sang the praises of the children’s talent, the beauty of the choreography, and the wonderful things they had seen. COVID brought all of that to a halt.