Last week, John Baker, Kim Dynia, and I attended the Virginia Association of Independent School's annual Leading Learning Conference, along with Kay Vose, Chesapeake Academy's Board Chair. The keynote speaker was Charles Vogl, a writer and minister who writes about the art of forming community. 

In our rural area and in our small school, it's clear that we have many advantages in creating and maintaining community. It also clear that our community forms the very model of connection that needs to be the cornerstone of our broader culture and national discourse.

Chesapeake Academy is a community institution built on mutual respect and connection for all constituency groups--teachers and staff, parents and grandparents, students, volunteers, contributors, and board members--but we cannot take those connections for granted. As I listened to Mr. Vogl speak on the core elements of community, it was clear to me that outreach and invitation  are key.  

Community building starts with each of us and occurs every day. Communities need tending and require attention not only to our common values but to each other. Community connections need to be reinforced over and over again with kindness, integrity, empathy, inclusion, forbearance, outreach, grace, and courtesy. 

I'm certain that if you ask your ospreys what they love about school, a good number of them will say recess! This will likely be followed by talk of their friends, of classmates, of teammates, and of teachers. Maybe they'll mention an academic subject if pressed! In other words, they will speak of connection and community, which are the strongest foundations for both academic learning and character development.  

As I mentioned at Grandparents' Day, I see that leadership, empathy, and connection unfold in small and large ways at Chesapeake Academy: a pre-k 3&4 student reaches out a comforting hand to a nervous peer; a third grader invites a kindergartener to play soccer; a seventh grader teaches a fourth grader about integers in math; fourth graders work with first graders on computer coding; a group of girls writes daily affirmations for the rest of the Middle School girls on the bathroom mirrors; or the whole school does the limbo during assembly! Lifelong connections with each other form in these moments. And we each and all feel able to stretch, risk, learn, and grow in a safe environment.

I'm particularly proud that our mission statement incorporates the values that we believe and gives us a reason for working together--so each can make our community and world a better place. Our community is a small one, but we can have a big impact on each other and, I believe, the broader world.    

With all the opportunities to feel divided in our larger culture, our Chesapeake Academy community is a beacon. While we will not ever be perfect, our strength lies in our ironclad commitment to each other. I hope that you will continue to reach out to new folks and old friends with intention, constantly include, engage with the school positively, support your child's education and development, and spread the news about the strength of our school far and wide. The future of our children and the future for our children depend on our ability to create every day the kind of community we want them to be a part of.  

Thank you for "becoming" along side us. Thank you for bringing your best to all we share at Chesapeake Academy. And thank you for taking this spirit of community out into the world.  Our children are watching, and it matters.