Dear High School Community,

Please remember that there will be no school this coming Monday as our Secondary faculty gather for a Professional Development Day.

This day is not a pause in our work, but an investment in it. The Middle School Principal and I, along with our faculty teams, will be engaged in planning for the coming academic year, with refined timetables, strengthened scheduling structures, that has been intentionally maximized for both student choice and instructional time. Thoughtful scheduling is not merely logistical, it reflects our commitment to stewarding students’ time well and creating space for deep, meaningful learning.

This morning, the PA hosted a coffee conversation with a group of parents to discuss these scheduling developments, as well as ongoing policies aimed at addressing social media addiction and technology overuse. These are not peripheral concerns. Attention is a moral and intellectual issue. In a distracted age, schools must be deliberate about cultivating focus, self-control, and healthy habits of mind.

Our approach remains grounded in a deeply Christian philosophy of education. We believe education is not simply the transfer of information, but the formation of persons. We seek to cultivate virtues like wisdom, temperance, perseverance, humility, alongside academic excellence.

At the same time, we are informed by sound cognitive science. Learning is strengthened when students engage deeply, practice retrieval, and move knowledge from short-term memory to long-term memory. Durable learning requires attention, repetition, and meaningful engagement, conditions that distraction undermines.