Board of Directors Update

On behalf of the board, I’m so excited to share with you all the work we have been doing behind the scenes and celebrate La

Scuola’s amazing successes. Thanks to our fearless leader, Valentina, our amazing faculty and staff, and the dedication of our parent community and board, we have accomplished a great deal this year. We continued to thrive through the complexity of the pandemic and the many waves of infections across the city. Thanks to Dani’s leadership and Sanjay’s support, the pandemic had minimal impact on the operation of the school this year because we were prepared, informed by data, and constantly thinking about the wellbeing of our students.

We shared with you, before, the five pillars of our strategic plan and I’m so happy to see the great progress we have made on each pillar.

Lama Nachman, Board Chair

On Permanence, we have brought our K-8 community all together under one roof in our Mission Campus, demolished the old convent building in preparation for building our new campus, added temporary classrooms in the yard, and continued to advance on entitlements, paving the way to breaking ground as soon as possible.

You can see in this publication the designs by our esteemed architect Michele Zini, truly demonstrating the role of the environment in our pedagogy. We also made good progress on fundraising and will continue to run as fast as we can to make our dream come true. This will be a building like no other in the Americas, and we can’t wait to see our students and faculty enjoying it.

COMMUNITY

On Community, our super power, and what makes La Scuola so special, we have come a long way to enhancing our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging goals. Melina Madrigal, Fong Marcolongo and our DEIB committee have been working hard on integrating DEIB into the curriculum and campus life, facilitating training and sharing of ideas for teachers, students, parents and the board, connecting with the broader community on meaningful programs, creating a sense of community across all our campuses, and enhancing our diversity representation.

There are so many wonderful examples across this publication that truly demonstrate the breadth and depth of DEIB work at La Scuola, and I hope you take the time to dig in and join us next year in our continued efforts on this front.

I also want to acknowledge the wonderful work by our PALS leader, Melissa Ippolito, and the PALS team to support our community in the hardest of times through the pandemic; your work is truly remarkable.

1 PERMANENCE

To build a place that furthers the magic of our community, spaces, and programs

2 NURTURE + GROW

To nurture the professional growth of our team & continue to attract and retain the best educators

3 HEART + MIND

To integrate the richness and strength of the IB framework with the intentionality and creativity of the Reggio Emilia Pedagogy to ensure that our students understand the world and create their place in it

4 COMMUNITY

To preserve our unique multiculturalism and further diversity, inclusivity, and equity within our community

5 THRIVEABILITY

To transition from sustainability to thriveability

So, a lot has happened and so much more to come, and we are all in. Next year we will be embarking on a new strategic plan as we are approaching the last year of the previous plan. Just like we did last time, we will engage the whole community in this process and continue to define our future. Thank you all for your wonderful commitment and support!

We continue to Nurture and Grow as we consistently prioritize attracting, retaining, and growing the best faculty and staff possible. This year we continued to focus on professional development. We concentrated on ensuring competitive compensation and reducing the burden of San Francisco costs and high inflation.

HEART AND MIND

When we started on the Heart and Mind pillar of the strategic plan four years ago, we didn’t yet have middle school graduates, but we identified the need to create a portrait of a “La Scuola graduate” and articulate the key attributes and learning outcomes that enable La Scuola students to get into and succeed in the best high schools. I’m happy to report that we managed to materialize this so beautifully over the last three years. The outcome of La Scuola’s brilliant pedagogical approach is no longer theoretical, it has been proven!

We graduated our third Grade 8 class, and they are off to great schools in San Francisco and Italy. One of the things that make us so proud is to see how our high schoolers are open to the world, thriving academically and socially across the very different schools they are attending. They are the best La Scuola ambassadors and continue to pave the way for our upand-coming high schoolers. It was also wonderful to see them coming back to La Scuola and engaging in our admissions events, summer camps and other activities.

THRIVEABILITY

Last but not least, on Thriveability, we have been working on ensuring a strong financial foundation for La Scuola, and exploring different growth opportunities to make it more robust. As you all know, we have secured a gift to open our Silicon Valley Campus, and we will be full steam ahead this coming year. If you haven’t gotten a chance to visit that campus, you should definitely check it out.

Through the support of a local family, we are also exploring a Milan expansion opportunity to strengthen our connection with Italy, enable compelling opportunities and movement for faculty and students across campuses, attract new faculty and students, and strengthen our brand as an international school.