Top Ten List, 2004-05

Another terrific year, a year not so much of singular great accomplishments, like last year’s CAIS/WASC maximum length term re-accreditation or the previous year’s purchase of our campus, but instead of multiple important incremental steps.

1. Enrollment Growth and All The Terrific New Families

Certainly the single most important development for the school has been its extraordinary growth in student enrollment. From a low of 104 students in September 2003, the school grew by very nearly 50% to more than 150 by January 2005. Middle School enrollment has more than doubled, and early indications for the coming year suggest further growth to come. Of course, Saklan continues to revel in being a small school, “where everybody knows your name,” and class sizes continue to average only 13 students per classroom, putting our students in a highly advantaged learning environment. Enrollment growth reflects the school’s growing reputation in our community and provides additional resources for the school’s future. And besides, aren’t all these new families terrific people? We welcome them, the incoming “Class of 2004-05” as it were, and appreciate all they are doing to contribute to the school’s well being. Just for an example, the newly elected Parent Association President, Vice President, and Auction Chair (Pam Yares, Darcy Cole, and Stephanie Brandt respectively) are all members of this new incoming group!

2. Standardized Testing Success

You know we hate to put too great an emphasis on this—our student learning achievement is best demonstrated by the writing they compose, the presentations they make, the problems they solve, and not by a computerized bubble sheet they complete. However, it is nice to see the confirmation these test scores provide. One of the statistics we have tracked for a long time is the percentage of our students performing high enough on the test to qualify for the national Johns Hopkins Talented Youth search competition; in past years, we proudly declared that about 55% of our students did so by scoring at the 97th or higher national percentile. This past year, our most recent results reported, a full 67% of our test-taking students did so!

3. Astronomy Fair

Resulting from an exciting new collaboration between our very own Mrs. Seeburger and the Chabot Space Center, Saklan enjoyed this very special one time three hour evening event where students enjoyed rocket making, telescope viewing, moonwalking, and much more. The “science explorer passport” guided students to learn more about rocket propulsion, telescope refraction, vacuum chambers, astronaut equilibrium, and much more. It was very fun and very educational evening, made possible by a grant from the US Department of Education.

4. Campus Facility Growth

It is here, finally—our new building for the middle school, and additional space that will benefit all students in the school. This exciting addition will provide two more classrooms for middle school student programs, and thereby open the library and the science lab to more use by the Pre-School through Fifth grade students as well. The deck, still to come, will provide a great new social arena for our kids. We should give a great big bravo to Board of Trustees Buildings and Grounds Chair Marcela Salem for this achievement.

5. Growing Regional/National Recognition of our Faculty

It has been a great step forward this year for our faculty’s being recognized for leadership in our region and beyond. As above, Mrs. Seeburger has been distinguished by being one of only a dozen East Bay teachers to become a federal grant funded Chabot Space and Science Center collaborating teaching fellow. Madame Amy and M. Vincent were selected by the Northern California French teachers Association to chair the annual student awards event, and Madame Amy emceed that event to an audience of 350 with great talent. M. Vincent, Ms. Mitchell, Mrs. Schofield, Mrs. Haesloop, and Mrs. Bybee all presented workshops at the state association teacher’s conference. Mr. LaBonte was selected for a very competitive national honor as a E.E. Ford Aspiring Head Fellow. And if you will permit me, I will share with you that I myself have been elevated to what might be considered the ranks of “senior” CAIS Heads by being invited into the selective pool of CAIS accreditation visiting team Chairs—I will Chair a team of five to accredit a Los Angeles school next winter.

6. Middle School Sports Success and Play with the Pros!

The newly expanded middle school population enjoyed a great growth in their interscholastic sports programming, including a fall soccer season, winter basketball (two teams!), and a spring Volleyball season. All in all, playing other small-medium sized private middle schools, Saklan’s record was near .500, a good step forward, and beyond the w’s and l’s column, they just plain had a great time exerting themselves this way. A high point probably was the basketball’s team victory over Seven Hills at Seven Hills’ gymnasium. Additionally our PE program expanded its Presidential Council on Physical Fitness goals curriculum, and our fourth and fifth graders joined in with 30 other Lamorinda youth to enjoy a very special opportunity to drill in basketball at our “Play with the Pros” clinic featuring Saklan parent and Golden State Warrior Calbert Cheaney and our very own PE teacher and former Harlem Globetrotter Terrance O’Kelley.

7. Record Setting Auction and Annual Giving

Our outstanding record of school philanthropy continued this year. Under the strong leadership of Jennifer Griessel and John Macauley our Annual Giving campaign earned a record $160,000; under the great stewardship of PA President Kate Dey and the many other Auction leaders, (Caren Rice, Katie Fahrner, Pam Yares, Annie Barendregt, and Scott Beisner among them), this extraordinary event realized over $70,000 net! All these incredibly valuable funds go to the school’s operation and make possible expanded programs in art, music, and science, and also of course help us to raise the salaries of our hard working teachers.

8. Increased Faculty Professional Development and Continued High Faculty Retention

One of the critical markers of a strengthening organization is its investment in continued growth of its employees; in the past year, the budgeted commitment to faculty development has nearly tripled, and this year saw a huge increase in the commitment of our teachers to ongoing training and growth. Our teachers benefited from multiple on site trainings in reading comprehension, student writing enhancement, and children’s literature. They attended many other workshops outside the school, including in math problem-solving and student journal writing. Perhaps related, the school is again enjoying outstanding faculty stability, with 90% (15 out of 17) of our teachers having pledged to continue on at Saklan in the coming year.

9. Terrific High School Admissions Success

A great big Bravo to our terrific group of 8th grade graduating students, all of whom were admitted to their first choice selective private high schools, including Bentley High School (to which every single one of our 8th graders was admitted); the full list of schools admitting our students includes Athenian, East Bay Waldorf, Orinda Academy, College Preparatory School, Holy Names High School, and Marin’s Branson School. See the student scoop for more.

10. Extraordinary Student Leadership and Service

Thrilling it always is to see the exemplary leadership our 8th graders provide their family groups, and Friday’s Family Group Field Day was the crème de la crème in this regard, displaying terrific student camaraderie and exuberance. Student service expanded this year to include a truly inspirational set of literacy tutoring trips to an East Oakland public elementary school and a vigorous fundraising effort in January to aid Tsunami victims. Ongoing annual efforts such as the canned food drive, the Guide Dog for the Blind bakes sales, Halloween visiting at the nearby senior residences, and urban park cleanup trips also showed student service leadership.

Jonathan Martin

Jonathan Martin

Head of School