Hello Trivium Families!

It has been a while since I have shared an update with you, and for that I apologize. We have had so many good things in the works over the last year, I’ve been keeping my nose to the grindstone; but it’s also vitally important to keep you all informed and up-to-date on our plans and progress as a school. So, I will be making it a priority to provide updates on a regular basis.

This week, I am writing to share with you a “state of the union,” as it were to address some of our ongoing successes and challenges as we look ahead.

As you are likely aware, the pandemic had a lasting impact on us and all schools in Arizona, particularly in the areas of community and unity. So, much of our work over the last four years has been to reclaim our culture of academic and moral rigor as well as to foster an even greater sense of community and belonging on our campus than ever before. As you can imagine, this has been no easy task – we are not, nor will we ever be the wonderful and tiny 84-student, 6-teacher school we were 13 years ago. Rather, our goal is to be a wonderful 900-student equivalent.

Over the last two years, we have had several notable successes. We launched our homeroom initiative in middle school – a period at the end of the day where students can get a jump on homework, complete missing assignments, or receive math and ELA intervention. This was paired with the relaunch of our student mentorship program; and the two together are the first step in the relaunch of what was our thriving house program. To that end, we added two things this year: regular assemblies and a rotation of activities and games on Fridays for all the homerooms and the student mentors. And it has been amazing! We have students helping to care for the campus, taking keyboarding class, discussing what the virtues of friendship and wisdom look like in their everyday lives, playing dodgeball, beach-ball volleyball and, my personal favorite, capture the flag. As I said, the end goal is to have a thriving house-like program that incorporates our student mentorship.

This is also not the only area where we have been working to build community. We hosted monthly grade-level breakfasts, one grade-level per month, as a way for students to bond with one another and their teachers outside of class; we held our first annual 12^th grade lock-in, the “Night of Knights” which was a great success; lastly, I am extremely excited to tell you, we are bringing back Field Day for both middle school and high school! So, be on the lookout for more information soon.

Additionally, we have certainly had some recent challenges in our athletic department including smaller numbers of students coming out for certain sports and turnover of coaches and administration. Some of this is part of the natural ebb and flow that any school will experience in athletics, and some of it is not that at all. I have been working with my team and others to set a clear vision for athletics, to do better on communication and accountability, and to create the very best experiences we can for our student-athletes. I will likely have more to share on this in the coming weeks as well – it is a top priority for me personally, and athletics in general is currently a top priority for the Great Hearts network.

Finally, another challenge that we have heard from you is the rigor and rigidity of our high school program, and we are taking that very seriously as well. I am currently a member of a committee at the network level that is looking at our academic program with a particular focus on making it accessible, reasonable, and advantageous to all of our students, including those looking to earn college credit, while remaining true to the core mission of Great Hearts. So, some of the things we are looking at and acting upon are several options regarding dual enrollment, AP testing, and CLEP testing. Of course, nothing is set in stone as we want to proceed cautiously and not just quickly, but we are committed to addressing the concerns our parents around the network have communicated to us that might prevent them from choosing a Great Hearts high school.

I appreciate you all taking the time to read this update – I promise my future communications will not be nearly as long; but I felt it important to address each of these areas of focus in turn, so that you have a good sense of where we are and where we intend to go. I am incredibly proud of what we have overcome these last four years, and I am so excited to continue that growth into the future; and we cannot do any of this work without your partnership and engagement, so I am incredibly grateful for all of you.

My door is always open to all of you if you ever want to stop by and chat about Trivium, observe a class or two, or perhaps jump in on a game of dodgeball! Have a wonderful three-day weekend, and GO KNIGHTS!!

Warmly,

Dan Schutten

Headmaster

Trivium Preparatory Academy