Chapter 79

During my summertime meetings with new families, I often ask parents to tell me their Hillbrook story. I’m interested in learning how they discovered Hillbrook, what inspired them when they visited and toured, and, ultimately, what convinced them to choose us for their child or children. While the answers vary, the most common themes center on the depth and breadth of our program, the dynamic teachers they watched and interacted with during the visit, the genuine sense of joy and engagement they saw in the students of all ages, and the beautiful, peaceful, and inspiring campus.

I’m struck by both the consistency of the stories and the unique qualities that distinguish individual families and children. Put another way, I’m struck by how each new family has a unique story and yet it clearly connects to the larger narrative that is Hillbrook School.

We all, of course, have our own Hillbrook story. While our newest students, families, faculty and staff are just completing the preface and preparing to start chapter one, some of our longest-tenured members of the community – both faculty and families – are preparing to write chapters 10, 15, 20 or more.

As we start a new school year, it is important to recognize that where each of us is in our Hillbrook story shapes how we view the same experiences and events. For example, our JK/K students will arrive to Flagon Monday morning wide-eyed and a bit in awe. It will be a morning of firsts, including their first experience of hearing an entire community sing happy birthday and watching children get on stage to tell jokes. The 8th graders, on the other hand, will arrive as seasoned veterans, experienced Flag-goers who know the ins and outs of the event. They will take their place in the back of the crowd and confidently sit down, yet, beneath the outward confidence, they too will likely be a bit in awe. After all, for many of them who started here in JK/K 9 or 10 years earlier, they may remain somewhat surprised to find themselves in their new position as big kids on campus.

Parents, of course, are also feeling wildly divergent emotions. Parents of new children, whether in JK/K or 7th grade, will feel some anxiety as their child transitions to a new school and community, while our 8th grade parents are bound to feel more than a bit of nostalgia. I encourage each of us to honor and appreciate where other people are in their journey, and to be especially conscious of the heightened emotion that tends to surround transitions. A little extra patience, flexibility, and kindness can go a long way at this time of year.

As I noted earlier, in addition to our individual stories, we are all part of the larger story that represents Hillbrook School. This story started 79 years ago when four women – Mary Orem, Elizabeth Glassford, Nathalie Wollin, and Ann Boge – brought together a small group of children on our campus and committed themselves to the vision that “as the twig is bent, the tree will grow.” During the ensuing years, the school has been transformed from a small boarding school for 17 wards of the state to a thriving JK-8 independent school recognized as a leader in elementary education throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Even amidst this transformation, we have not lost touch with the founder’s commitment to provide an extraordinary educational experience that inspires students to achieve their dreams and reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world.

So what does chapter 79 have in store for us?

We welcome back an incredibly talented team of teachers, along with a new cohort of equally dynamic educators, who are committed to working together to help each child reach their highest individual potential in school and in life. The resident teacher program – the core component of our Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) – enters its third year, with a co-teaching model that helps us individualize our program for the students.  In addition, the CTE has created a space for innovative, research-based projects – such as our Reimaging Classrooms initiative – that focuses on how the classroom environment impacts teaching and learning. We look forward to sharing our findings from this leading edge research in the year ahead.

Students will learn in newly renovated science classrooms that will be finished by the middle of September, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Richard and Marie Williamson. The Williamson’s gift, the second largest gift in the history of the school, provides an inspiring example of how philanthropic support can transform the educational experience.

We will also be working to renovate the outdoor stage, destroyed this past summer in a fire. Just as previous generations successfully responded to fires earlier in our school’s history, we will ensure that the damage does not negatively impact the student experience. We will keep the community posted as to our progress in the months ahead.

This year should also see the completion of our Making Hillbrook Even Stronger campaign, as our application to modify our conditional use permit so we can increase our enrollment will be heard by the Planning Commission on September 10. As we shared in a note to the community last week, we need every member of the Hillbrook community to step forward and support this effort. In particular, we need people to sign the petition, write letters to the Planning Commission in support of our application, attend the Planning Commission meeting on September 10, and consider speaking in support of our application that evening. Please read the following for more detailed information about the campaign and how you can support the school.

 All of this – and so much more – will be part of Hillbrook’s 79th chapter. As a historian by training, I have always felt a strong connection to the school’s storied past and have found it has deepened my own experience as we continually look to build the school for today and tomorrow. I am moved by the extraordinary impact the school has had on generations of children, an impact that is shared with me year after year through stories from our alumni community. As our first student, Richerd Cancilla, says in “As the Twig is Bent,” the school’s award-winning 75th anniversary video produced by alumni parent Felice Leeds and PE teacher and school historian Paul DiMarco, “Coming back to Hillbrook is like coming home. It feels so good to me that sometimes I just like to stay here and take it all in and just pretend that I never left.”

We are the keepers of the vision laid out by the school’s founders 79 years ago, a vision whose success is measured one child at a time. I look forward to welcoming all of the children and many parents to this newest chapter in our story next Wednesday at the Opening Flag. Welcome home.