Dear Families,

 

It has been great to catch up with some of you this week (from six feet, of course) as you dropped off your children's contracts. I look forward to connecting with more of you next week. Please be in touch early in the week with any questions; I'll plan to call families with outstanding contracts by the middle of next week. Thank you.

 

We had a wonderful virtual event last night, with alum Cate Byrne '15, playing three pieces, one an original score. It was great fun to see many of you there for a beautiful night of music. 

 

This morning's Flip Flop day was recorded, if your child missed it. Please look for the posting of the recorded event, or contact your child's teacher who can share the link. Flip Flop Day is an event we started about a decade ago, giving children a chance to meet their next year's teacher before summer begins. 

 

Next Thursday is Recognition Day. Your child's teacher will share the link for the event the day before. This will be pre-recorded with photos celebrating each class, along with our annual awards being announced. If you can tune in at 9:00 a.m., we can watch the recorded event together. For those for whom that time doesn't work, you can go to the link any time throughout the day and into the weekend. Those of you new to Pine Cobble, Recognition Day brings students, their families, and our faculty together to celebrate our year together and all the growth each student has made inside and outside the classroom. While this remote version will be far from what we know Recognition Day to be, it will stay true to honoring our students.

 

Next week we will share a link for Friday's live streamed graduation event. We hope you'll be able to tune in at some point during the day. With each family coming, one at a time, we will run through the ceremony five times, so feel free to join us for one or all of the one-hour graduation celebrations. They begin at 8:30 a.m., and run for an hour each, with a half hour in between each family's time here. We will have our invocation shared by Sharif Rosen who is the Muslim Chaplain at Williams College and the Assistant Director for Community Engagement at the Center for Learning in Action at Williams. 

 

Our graduation speaker is Michael Edwards, an alum of Pine Cobble from the mid 90's. Michael graduated from Pine Cobble and went on to Concord Academy in Concord, MA, then to University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree in English and continued on to get an advanced dual degree (a master's degree in international affairs and a JD - juris doctor degree) from American University-Washington College of Law. Since finishing his MA/JD Michael has been at the World Council of Credit Unions where he advocated on behalf of credit unions before international standards-setting organizations such as the Financial Action Task Force and the G20, the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) in Washington, D.C., as its senior assistant general counsel where he advocated for credit unions' interests before U.S. regulatory agencies and the U.S. Congress, and an articles editor for the American Bar Association's Administrative Law Review and for a Philadelphia law firm. Michael has a sharp mind, a wry sense of humor, and a heart of gold. He is looking forward to being part of this special graduation ceremony for our eighth and ninth graders. Thank you to Sharif and Michael.

 

It has been a painfully challenging few weeks, and I trust our Pine Cobble families will continue to step up and be part of change in big and small ways in the days and weeks ahead.

 

Peace to you all,

Sue