Dear St. Michael’s Parents and Families—

Thanks to so many of you who replied last week after reading the Atlantic essay about balancing kindness and empathy with academic achievement. More and more educational research supports devoting equal time for academics and character development in preparing students for success. This same foundational premise underscores and affirms what Episcopal schools—St. Michael’s School, namely—have excelled at for decades. Developing students who are competent and compassionate, ‘who respect the dignity of every person,’ is at the heart of our mission. As we prepare for our re-accreditation with SAES (Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools), culminating in our four-day on-campus visit in March 2020, I look forward to hearing from you, our community of parents, about how we can together strengthen St. Michael’s School, especially our efforts to better balance the teaching of compassion and kindness (among other key traits) with academic excellence. To that end, please take a few minutes to complete the online survey that Dr. Matt Teller, who is coordinating our SAES self-study, sent via email to all of you last week; here again is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/stmichaelsparentsurvey2019WDCD3CB. We want to hear from you!

Thank you as well to all who attended and participated in our annual golf event last weekend at Forty-Niners Golf Course! Special thanks again to Dr. Duane Dyson of Dyson Pediatrics for his generous title sponsorship, and to Dr. Phil Williams for co-chairing the event this year. We thank all of our volunteers as well who showed up and pitched in for the day. Congratulations to our winning foursome—Maddie Greene (’16), Michael Townsdin (P ’23), Bernard Lagat (P ’20, ’23) and Michael Greene (P ’16, ’20). We will host the event again next fall and look forward to your participation!

Next Saturday, we will honor and celebrate the life of Mr. Alan Schultz at a funeral Mass in the parish chapel, at 1:00 pm. We encourage all to attend. Mr. Schultz served the St. Michael and All Angels Parish and School community with distinction and honor for more than forty years. Mr. Schultz passed away last week, suddenly, at the age of 77. He was a foundational member of the St. Michael’s School community and of the St. Michael and All Angels Parish community, having served as organist/choirmaster for many years, as well as a choir singer and our composer-in-residence. At St. Michael’s School, Alan was an outstanding English teacher in our middle school for over forty years, as well as declamation coach and organist for school Masses right up to his death. The Mass will be offered on Saturday, November 23, at 1:00 p.m.

Thank you for reviewing all content in this week’s Eagle Express. As I have noted before, please be in touch as needed for any and all concerns and suggestions.

Looking forward to seeing you on campus!

Brendan Sullivan
Head of School
bsullivan@stmichael.net