Letter from Head of School

A NOTE FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

SARA RUBINSTEIN

"Let’s build bridges, not walls. " Martin Luther King, Jr.

This was a year for building bridges.

Of course, there is one significant and literal bridge that we built this year--the bridge connecting our refurbished MS and US building to our brand new Center for Innovation. With its opening in September, we celebrated not just the chance to learn in spaces designed to accommodate the active, student-centered curriculum at the core of what we do, but also the unique CDS spirit that allowed us to get the project done in the first place.

When we say we are entrepreneurial thinkers for a global society, we mean it. We proved as a community of students, families, faculty, administration, and staff that we are ready to face challenges of global proportions with creativity, resourcefulness, adaptability, and resiliency. That building will stand forever as a testament to that CDS spirit, our unwillingness to give up in the face of challenge and our ability to find new paths forward even in the most difficult of times. That bridge really is a bridge to our future. CDS has stepped into a brand new era. This year brought record enrollment, with over 1100 Patriots learning, growing, and laughing together every day. It brought new leadership with the arrival of three new division heads, ready to celebrate our history and traditions and bring some innovations of their own to Patriot Nation. It brought new programming and opportunities in everything from design technology to honor societies, the performing arts to science. Most of all it brought more well-deserved attention to our amazing students, who enjoyed unprecedented success in college admissions to some of the most selective schools in the country. CDS has taken its place as a destination school for an authentic and relevant independent education, recognized locally and nationally for our unique blend of internationalism, meaningful academic rigor, and entrepreneurial mindset, all grounded in a welcoming community dedicated to real and authentic character development.

In the end, this year and every year, the most important bridge we build is the bridge between people. If you’ve heard me speak, you’ve probably heard me reference the IB principle that people with their differences can also be right. At CDS, we can have different perspectives and opinions, different ideas on how to approach a problem, and still work together towards our bigger and more important goal to support our children into their best possible individual and collective future.

This year has shown us that when the world presents obstacles and divisiveness, the way through is by working together to protect the integrity of our values and community. It is an important model for our kids, the path to the future we all want for them, one filled with less conflict and more problem solving, fewer walls and more bridges. As we end this year, I look towards a bright future, excited to build on the strong foundation we have all created. I am profoundly grateful to our Patriot Nation for all you have done to support each other and our school this year.

We proved as a community of students, families, faculty, administration, and staff that we are ready to face challenges of global proportions with creativity, resourcefulness, adaptability, and resiliency.