News & Weekly Letters

I’m not normally one to boast but, as someone who likes to stage a melodramatic back to school, I think I have exceeded myself this time! This week, there was tension as we faced the resurgence of COVID, suspense as we waited for our PCR results, laughter and/ or tears once we got them, and finally, there was even a touch of romance as we woke up this morning to a snow-covered New York City. I’m expecting an Oscar nomination any day now!

My office in the Elementary & Middle School Building is on the 2nd floor at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Yesterday, a little boy who was passing by paused in the doorway, walked shyly into my office, and confided in me that he wasn’t feeling too well because he’d lost his water bottle around two weeks ago now.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been focusing on the next school year. After opening a Pre-Nursery class in September, and announcing a High School track that will allow our students to extend their unique bilingual education beyond Middle School, there’s no denying that The École is dynamic and agile when it comes to providing the best options for our students and families.

One of the things I’ve noticed in my 16 months in this city is that when New Yorkers eat out in restaurants, they have the excellent habit of striking up a conversation with the people at the table beside them. At least that is how, on a fairly regular basis, my wife Andria and I surreptitiously get to know and share delicious moments with complete strangers. What always surprises me is their reaction when I tell them what I do for a living (I can’t help myself).

Becoming a head of school means having to adjust to not being at your students’ sides for all of their achievements. For that to happen, you need to be in class with them all the time. Learning to read, for example, doesn’t happen overnight: it’s a journey strewn with obstacles, signs to decode, and churlish letters that a child may recognize one-by-one but when coupled together, make an entirely different flummoxing sound.