Happy new year!

It’s amazing to think that we have been in school for almost a month. The start of school this year eas especially smooth and calm. As an administrator, I feel like my job is always to wait for “the other shoe to drop.” I’m happy to report that is has not (yet!) All of our students along with our faculty and staff have been off to an energetic and enthuasistic start to the school year.

We have welcomed two new administrators this year, Ms. Cook as our Assistant Principal of Academics and Mr. Reed as our Dean of Students. Both of them have acclimated very well to the SJND community and culture and are doing great work with our students and teachers.

I am most excited about the program of professional development that Ms. Cook has put together for our faculty this year, a program of learning that is connected to each other, responsive to student and school needs and imbued with the use of technology within the curriculum. It’s also a program that wil foster collaboration among student as well as teachers.

On the technology front, we continue to move ahead with plans for out student 1:1 laptop program which we hope to adopt during the 2011-12 school year. We have decided upon PC netbooks as the platform of choice for our program. If you have not had a chance to see a netbook, do a quick internet serach for this product and find out about it. It’s a smaller version of a typical laptop that comes in at a fraction of the price of a laptop (a typical netbook ranges anywhere from $200-$500) but has almost all the functionality, speed and power of a laptop. We think it’s going to be a great solutuion for our students. We will work hard over the next two years to prepare our teachers as well as our technoogy infrastructure and resources for the introduction of this program two years from now.

SJND Theatre

We just finished our spring musical, Damn Yankees. What a fine show it was. Over the past two years, I have had the pleasure of seeing our students and teachers put on shows of not only a high quality but also do these shows in a joy-filled and spirited way. We are fortunate to have the great teachers on staff who devote countless hours to working on various aspects of this show, including Joyce Henderson (drama), Didi Kubicek (musical), Jennifer Dlugosh (musical), Chris Micheli (costumes) , Paula Cekola (music) and Mark Ritter (sets).

At the center of all of these shows, of course, is our students and in particular the Class of 2009, which has produced a large number of talented individuals who have acted, sung, built and produces such fine shows over the past four years. Ms. Dlugosh put together a video that honors the past four years of theatre here at SJND and I’m happy to share it with you below.

SJND in the community

We’re proud of the many things SJND students do in our community. Our Christian Service Program each year asks student to perform 80 hours of community service before graduation. More importantly than the hours is the fact that our school community regularly participates in events to help worthy causes in Alameda as well as the greater Alameda County.

Annually, we participate in the Pennies for Patients drive for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year, one penny drive coincided with our school’s spirit week. I’m happy to announce that we raised over $2800 this year for this important cause.

During the holiday season, we regularly participate in a food drive for the Alameda County Community Food Bank. This year, not only did we raise nearly $1000 for this organization but we also donated 430 pounds of food to the food bank. Combined, these efforts will provide more than 3,300 meals to deserving children, adults and families in our community.

Championship basketball returns to SJND

Congratulations to our basketball teams for very successful seasons. Our women’s basketball team finished their season with a 21-8 record and made it to the semi-final round of the North Coast Section (NCS) playoffs, the deepest they have went into the playoffs in nearly a dozen years. Our men’s team is the 2009 North Coast Section Division V Champion, the 10th Section Championship in the school’s history and second most of all-time. With this championship, SJND is the first school to win a title in three divisions (I, IV and V). The Boys team opened up play in the NorCal Championships against Woodside Priory on March 10th with an exciting win. They won again on March 12th in a semi-final match up against Redding Christian.

Our Men’s Basketball team won the Northern California Championship this past Saturday with a thrilling 42-40 over Branson School. I hope you have had the chance to read the newspaper accounts of this game. It was indeed one for the ages!

We now advance to the State Championship game to be held this Friday at 1:30PM at Arco Arena in Sacramento. As it so happens, we have a school holiday this Friday for St. Joseph day. We will have a student rooters bus going to the game as well as many faculty and staff whom I know will travel to the game. We are now attempting to secure our fourth state championship in men’s basketball. Our last state championship was in 2004 when we won the championship in Division IV. Prior to that, of course, were the school’s back to back state championships in Division I in 1991 and 1992.

For more about our victory over Branson see these articles in the Oakland Tribune:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_11918868

http://www.insidebayarea.com/high-school-sports/ci_11917033

And this article from the San Francisco Chronicle profiling Coach Don Lippi and his son Dominic:

A YouTube video of game highlights is below.

Reflections on teaching

I had the pleasure last night of reuniting with a former student of mine whom I taught when I taught English at St. Ignatius in San Francisco. She was a student in my sophomore English class the first year I began teaching in 1993. As a teacher, we tend to remember that first year very vividly, largely because the first year of teaching is typically a year of minor tragedies and major errors interspersed with some small victories. Mine was no different.

In any case, this former student of mine is now and English teacher at Albany High School here in the East Bay and she mentioned to me during the course of our conversation that she was inspired by our English class to love literature and that the class was the first time she felt that she could be good at studying English. She is now in her fourth year of teaching, moderating the school Yearbook and doing very well for herself, clearly happy at her job.

As an administrator, it’s not often that students come back to tell you that they were inspired by your work disciplining them or changing a school rule for them. Often times, the work of an administrator is tranparent to the vast majority of students. That’s why I always say that the magic of a school happens not in my office but in the classrooms. Occasionally, like last night, I still get some feedback about the times when I taught in the classroom and I treasure those moments immensely. Knowing that one’s work had a psitive impact on the lives of real people is a priceless reward that few jobs allow one to have. As a principal, I have faith in the fact that our work here at school in our offices has a positive impact on our teachers and allows them to continue their good work with our students. However, a conversation like last night reminds me of the power of teaching – it affects lives.

Happy new year 2009

I hope that you and your family had a joyous and restful Christmas time.

As we enter the new year, I have had a chance to reflect back on the progress our school has made this past year. I am proud of many accomplishments here at SJND. I wanted to highlight two of them.

After a full semester, our Student Independent Reading Program (SIR) has been successful at encouraging students and teachers to become lifelong readers. The feedback I have received from students and teachers has been overwhelmingly positive. To prepare for SIR, the library purchased 300 new fiction books this year. Circulation of books in our library has increased by 308% over last year, with a total of 641 books circulated this past semester. Our students are reading more and enjoying what they read, since they are able to select their SIR book on their own. Clearly, this program is successful at getting our students to read more as well as to enjoy what they read more.

The 2008-09 Annual Fund campaign, “Investing in Tomorrow’s Leaders,” kicked off in September with a goal of $290,000. With the help of many in our community, the school has raised $140,085 in Annual Fund gifts, thus far. 100% of our own faculty and staff have pledged Annual Fund gifts to the school, for a total of $7,386, a tremendous show of support on behalf of our own school, telling a strong story to our alumni, parents and friends about the importance of this fundraising initiative.

New admissions video

SJND has put together a new admissions video that highlights the school three major components: academics, cocurricular opportunities and spiritual development. It’s a great way to get a close up look at what our school is all about.

SJND commercial to hit airwaves

The SJND Admissions Department is excited to announce the debut of SJND’s first TV commercial to be featured on the local CBS and CW network affiliates here in the Bay Area. The premiere of this 30 second spot marks the first showcase of our students and faculty to the general public on such a large stage. This commercial will give the broader Bay Area community an opportunity to discover what SJND has to offer.

You can watch it here:

Beginning Monday, November 17, our commercial will be seen throughout the day on KPIX and CW as early as the 5AM morning news and as late as the prime time lineups for both networks. Be sure to watch and tell a friend. Next week’s broadcast schedule is:

KPIX
Date Time
11/17/08 08:56:00A
11/17/08 09:57:56A
11/18/08 05:26:00A
11/18/08 08:23:00A
11/18/08 09:45:00A
11/19/08 05:26:00A
11/19/08 08:58:55A
11/19/08 09:52:30A
11/20/08 09:15:30A
11/20/08 09:57:56A
11/21/08 05:38:00A
11/21/08 09:20:00A
11/23/08 05:28:26A

CW
Date Time
11/17/08 06:28:00
11/17/08 10:20:00P
11/17/08 11:58:00P
11/18/08 05:58:00A
11/18/08 03:10:00P
11/19/08 05:58:00A
11/19/08 10:35:00A
11/19/08 10:20:00P
11/20/08 05:58:00A
11/20/08 10:28:00A
11/20/08 03:25:00P
11/20/08 07:10:00P
11/21/08 02:05:00P
11/21/08 02:35:00P
11/21/08 10:20:00P

School diversity at SJND

As I begin my second year here at SJND, I am getting a better sense of those qualities which define our school. Certainly, our small size (current enrollment is 417 students in grades 9-12) is a defining characteristic of SJND. This smaller size allows for a sense of community and family that nurtures our students in significant ways. In fact, our Spring 2008 alumni Update magazine was devoted to this theme of community. I invite you to read it to find out more stories of how we live community at SJND.

Today, I want to write about another defining characteristic of our school that we have not talked about much and that is our school’s diversity.

As a school located in the Bay Area, we are proud of the fact that the student population of our school mirrors that of our diverse Bay Area community. In fact, SJND does not have any one racial group larger than 25% of our school, an astonishing achievement for any Catholic high school. The diversity of our school encompasses not only racial diversity, but also socioeconomic, cultural, educational and other markers of diversity that are less readily seen. We pride ourselves on the fact that we have diversity that works.

At many schools, even schools that are tremendously diverse, it is not uncommon to see students quickly separate and balkanize by race. At many high schools, all one needs to do is step into the student cafeteria at lunch to see how students separate into tables quite neatly by skin color. Perhaps it’s only human to want to be with those who are like us, but often times, diverse schools have diversity in name only.

At SJND, seeing this division is rare. Our school is too small for students to easily separate; it’s hard to hide at SJND. On the other hand, our school is not so big that students feel that they have to retreat to what they know in order to feel comfortable or supported. It is that first quality I wrote about – community – that helps our school’s diversity to work. We have wonderful students, students committed to learning and who have the support of their parents. When you put together that mix of community and diversity, the end result is place that works to form and transform our students to be people who, in the words of our school’s Vision Statement, “will be prepared to exercise leadership roles in their adult lives and foster democratic principles and Christian values of social justice in a diverse and technologically changing world.”

School visits

During this month, our admissions director Julianne Berry and I have been visiting the principals of our support schools, elementary schools who send their students to SJND. We have over 30 elementary schools represented at our school, each of them unique in their culture and community. It’s important that SJND gets to know these schools, to give them feedback on their students and to make sure that we are meeting the needs of their students as well as prospective students and their parents. Additionally, it’s always good to hear what the “word on the street” is about one’s school and what better place to hear it from than your support schools.

Our support schools are diverse in their make up. The largest group is made up of Catholic elementary schools in the Diocese of Oakland. Nearly half of our 32 support schools are Catholic schools in the diocese. The other half is made up of private independent schools, schools that are affiliated with other Christian churches and local public schools located in Alameda and Oakland. When our visits are done, we will have visited about 20 schools over the period of 30 days.

It’s been heartening to get feedback from our support school principals about SJND. People are hearing our message of change, renewed focus on our academic program, the news of our brand new science building and enhanced science curriculum and the sense of energy and enthusiasm that exixts here. Additionally, people are also hearing that there is a new sense of teacher accountability and expectation of excellence among the school community. In short, I feel good that the good news of what has been happenings here at SJND is no longer a “hidden secret,” a phrase I have heard often when talking to others about SJND.

Finally, as someone who has worked in high schools for my entire professional life, I continue to admire the work that elementary school principals do on a daily basis. From the care they exhibit for the schools and their students to the hard work they do to manage sometimes scarce resources, my visits reinforce for me the dedication that all elementary school principals have towards their job and vocation.