Message From Head of School - Jean Waller Brune
School Heads across this nation are reflecting on sustainability in many different areas of their institutional operations. I have recently returned from an annual conference that has been sustained since 1911. For nearly 100 years, the Head Mistresses Association of the East (HMAE) has convened in November so that the leaders of girls’ schools can build relationships with each other and discuss ideas of common interest. I have followed in the footsteps of our previous Headmistresses, all of whom belonged to this organization. This year the focus of the conference was The Public Purpose of Private Schools. I was privileged to address my colleagues along with Tom Wilcox, Executive Director of The Baltimore Community Foundation and Maria Hampton, our Middle School Dean of Students about our Middle Grades Partnership Initiative: Growing Girls and Gardens. For the past five years, RPCS has been in partnership with a Baltimore City Public Middle School, Garrison Middle School, working with them to lead the way to sustainability in Baltimore City by challenging academically talented middle school girls in a rigorous summer program that we hope will sustain their study skills and motivation to learn and excel in Baltimore City high schools and thereby set their sights on college as well. In addition to classroom work, the girls cultivate a garden at Garrison Middle School which has provided hands on work that is later translated into math, science, technology and literature classes. Our program, like the garden, has taken root and grown. There are now weekend classes and meetings throughout the academic year, and the students continue to be supported into high school and as they approach the college admissions process. It was heartwarming to hear the positive response at the HMAE conference to RPCS’ community outreach program.
The garden has grown so well that it provides a bountiful harvest for the neighborhood around our partner school, and the students, for the first time, are even selling hand scrubs and soaps made from herbs grown in the garden at the Waverly Farmers’ Market. While there are many bounties in each of our lives, I know the current economic uncertainty is on our minds. It, too, was discussed at HMAE. The economic effect is being felt around the world, and RPCS is not immune. In fact, fuel, energy and food costs impact RPCS greatly. Thus, in our ongoing efforts toward financial sustainability, we are examining our operating budget to be sure that we are stewarding your tuition dollars wisely for the benefit of all our students. We have been actively strategizing on energy consumption for several years, with increased emphasis on cost effective purchasing and efficient usage of energy. Over the last three years, we have reduced our gas consumption by 15% and our electricity usage by 12%. While our School-under-one-roof sometimes presents complications for the HVAC systems, RPCS has established a goal of reducing main control temperature by 5% this year. As we move into the colder weather, please plan to send an RPCS uniform sweatshirt or sweater to School with your daughter so she can adjust to cooler classrooms and meeting spaces. Don’t forget to mark it with her name!
The most important and valuable resource to sustain is, without question, the people here at RPCS. It is our wonderful, energetic students and our dedicated, hardworking faculty who have maintained Roland Park Country School as a strong academic institution for over a century. As we continue to steward our endowment, annual giving and tuition dollars, these students and employees remain our highest priority, and sustaining the teaching and learning that happens here every day is at the forefront of my mind.
In a K-12 day school, parents are also very important people in the life of our RPCS community. At this time of year, many of our parents are working diligently on our annual Holiday Fair. I hope to see each of you on campus this Saturday (December 6th) for this event which is always full of fun for children and adults alike. I am sure you are as excited as I am to see the magical transformation of our campus and especially our new Athletic Complex. Plan to start your holiday shopping at RPCS! Thanks go to the many parent volunteers who have been working tirelessly throughout the fall and in particular to Carol Witz Hunt, 1976 and Tammy Fawcett, Holiday Fair Co-Chairs, Kim Shramko, Treasurer, Laurel Peltier, Greens Chair, Ingrid Boynton Polk, 1982, Cook Book Chair and Sally Barley, President of the Parents’ Association for their leadership of this effort.
Perhaps there is no better time of year, than now, when we are just coming back from our Thanksgiving holiday to be thankful for the special people who sustain us in our family life, in our efforts to raise and educate our children, in our careers and in our leisure endeavors. At Thanksgiving I like to remember that the words “thank” and “think” come from the same Old English root word. I hope that we are all thoughtful – now and throughout the New Year – in remembering to give thanks to people who sustain us and for the many bounties in our lives. And as our thoughts turn to the December holidays and winter break, I wish for each of you a joyous time, filled with the love of family and friends and a wonderful New Year!
~JWB