Staffing Update

Dear Families,
It is with a balanced sense of disappointment and excitement with which I write this letter. Recently, one of our first grade teachers, Stephanie Jarvis, resigned. She stepped away for matters of a personal nature. She will surely be missed by families and colleagues, but students most of all. We wish her all the best in her career and life, and hope to see her at future Dragon events.

This is a common matter, as often times we lose a teacher over the course of the summer for unforeseen reasons. Nevertheless, it is always challenging for students to encounter such confusing transitions. Do know, however, that we immediately reinstituted our staffing search procedures. As many of you know, with our unprecedented growth we were able to hire thirteen new teachers, so we had a tremendous bank of resumes and face-to-face encounters to pull from.

Now, the excitement! We have hired a new 1st grade team member, Kimberly Lewis. Our interview panel consisted of an administrative team and a separate teaching team. Both teams unanimously chose Kimberly. It just goes to show that the Dragon culture, mission and vision is in tact, and we are working as a common unit. All students who were placed in Stephanie's classroom for the upcoming school year will be rolled into Mrs. Lewis' classroom.

Please welcome Kimberly into our Dragon community with open arms. We are trying to get all of our staff bios up and running by the first week in August, so stay tuned!

Remarks from the Poetry Reading

Last Thursday, Lisa Zimmerman, a resident poet at Flagstaff over the course of the past three months, led some of her star students in an evening of poetry. Her residency was made possible by Xilinx and the Think 360 grant. The following is an excerpt from a note of appreciation at the end of the evening:

"Thank you, first of all, to the vision of Patty Nation and Xilinx, who made this evening possible.

Community connections build successful schools. From Junior Achievement to Lap Tops and Lab Equipment, this event is indicitive of the impact that a local business can have on the lives of students. Having listened to the remarkable verses recited tonight, I know that the work of Poet Zimmerman has indeed reached our students. Parents and teachers, these are all of our students, and tonight, Poet Zimmerman, these are your students.

Dragon parents, please stand up and give a fiery round of applause to Poet Zimmerman and her students!

Parents, please remember that an anthology of Flagstaff Student poetry will be available through the school. Thank you all for coming!"

Coming and Going

Endings ellicit different responses from different people. Often, a blend of sadness and anticipation grows as the ending approaches. During this time, students may cling tightly to the experience they are leaving. Or, they may push away from things they cherish. As tough as endings may be, sometimes the next step, the transition itself, may be even tougher. Entering into a transition is like entering into the unknown. We never know how the next stage of life will unfold.

However, transitions are always easier when we have something great to look forward to! This summer, we have the incredible opportunity to look forward to next year’s new campus, new teachers, new sports programs, and new friends! Touring our new facility on Wednesday, I noticed a visible change in the eyes of our students as they began to glimpse our future. For the rest of the day our building buzzed with eager chatter about our new beginning.

Sharing these conversations with one another is a good way to acknowledge the myriad emotions that arise in the midst of change. I encourage you to reflect with your children about where we have been and where we are going.

Classroom Selection Process

School growth provides opportunity in many areas. Growth allows us to provide more academic and social choices for our students. Academically, with more teachers in agrade level, we have more options for ability grouping scenarios. Socially, more students means more opportunity for diverse student interactions.

Growth allows us to hire more teachers, teachers with unique personalities and backgrounds, which compliment current grade level teams. Bringing in new teachers, who possess more diverse skill sets adds furhter balance to our options. Ultimately, that balance provides us even more opportunity to find the right fit for a student, and provides students and families greater opportunities to get their needs met.

We use many avenues, and exhaust all of our resources in the process of best determining class lists. We are working to put student in classrooms in which they will succeed academically and socially. We weigh these decisions carefully, taking into account a variety of factors. Ultimately, however, it is a group decision, made by delicately balancing the best interests of the individual as well as the whole.

We will send out packets mid-June. These packets will contain a variety of important information, including childrens' classroom assignments. Please understand that we take this process very seriously, and we understand that you have chosen to be a Dragon with the perspective that we work tremendously hard to accommodate every child, every day. Trust that we do, and know that we value each child's learning style and personal preferences.

It is my pleasure to announce that I have been offered the full time position of principal for the 2009-2010 school year. Thank you board members and hiring committee for choosing me from the 19 other viable candidates!

I am thrilled by the opportunities we have ahead of us. We are at the threshold of a unique and exciting time for Flagstaff Academy. We have a strong body of evidence and record of excellence supporting our mission and vision, and with our identity established, we can now fine tune our program offerings and extend a hand further out into the community.

Let's go Dragons!

Once again, we find that change is a constant, and that the things that we grow to depend upon might one day be gone.

Parents, students, and teachers alike have come to rely on the inspiration and fun generated by Mr. Tommy Reddicks. As many of you have become recently aware of, Tommy's tenure at Flagstaff is coming to an end. Tommy will be sorely missed by us all.

The stage is set for Tommy to try new things. He is becoming a National Core Knowledge consultant this fall, and will complete his administrative licensure over the summer. In many arenas, his skills will be sought after for years to come.

I want to acknowledge the great thanks Flagstaff has for the heart and soul Tommy has infused into our school community. A tireless worker, Tommy has logged nearly as many hours at school as Fuego, the Flagstaff Dragon. Whether fine tuning his original musical scores, tweaking a song for the Dragon Pops, or teaching before or afterschool enrichment classes, Tommy is always around, working for the betterment of our school.

But, where will he go? Will he blast off to the moon, or better yet - another galaxy? We only know that we wish him well, and trust that the students of his future will be able to learn as much about the Arts, Core Knowledge, and life as our students have.

We will be able to find another great music teacher (in fact, it is going to take two teachers to fill his shoes in the new building), but we will never be able to replace Tommy Reddicks. Please follow his growth and progress, whether to the moon or otherwise, at his personal webpage: http://www.tommyreddicks.com/.

Thank you, and please continue to visit our homepage, as we announce our candidate selections for music and other positions later this spring.

Our interview process is quickly producing great candidates. By tomorrow we will have finished our first round of interviews, and scheduled mock teaching lessons for our top candidates. Our interview team is representing our staff and community with great intergrity. We all recognize the importance of this selection process.

From my desk, it feels as though our team of teachers is stronger than ever, and we are all eagerly awaiting the final selection of new staff members to welcome into our Flagstaff family. Please stay tuned, as we will announce our new teachers on our website as the process unfolds.

Imagination Takes Flight

On Friday, I was lucky enough to be able to lead new and returning families around the new facility. I was immediately struck by the grandeur and beauty of the interior design. The Science and Technology Labs are huge. Green technology and recycled products are prominent, such as the dozen or so solar tubes that help light up the hallways.

I have been over to the buiding three or four times, and each time the progress towards fruition reminds me just how amazing our school is. It is really incredible to see the looks of awe and wonder on the faces of the visiting families. The only thing more exciting, I think, will be the electricity generated by the enthusiasm of our students as they walk the halls for the first time later this year.