Q:What were all the projects that were worked on this summer with construction and the staff, and what was the big focus coming into this year?
A: The big projects that we worked on, really was the most important, was on boarding the new staff. So early June, we had a three day retreat that was focused on community building a kind of mission of the middle school. So like, people’s motivations, what experience are they bringing? What are their nervous about? What are they nervous about things like that? So it’s wonderful. And then we had a whole week where we focused on curriculum planning. So like, what are we teaching in the classes? And then kind of school planning, like, what are the rules in the hallway, homework, cell phones, that kind of stuff. So those are really the big projects, apart from getting things set up, like CYC sports and other activities and non academic stuff. Construction obviously continued relatively smoothly. There were a couple things, but you kind of plan for there to be challenges. So the creation of middle school science lab, counseling spaces, the Learning Center for the whole school. A new assembly space. Mr. Sherrock got a new room, two new rooms, actually, for music, production and vocal music. So facility wise, it was just kind of cleaning this stuff up down here. And over the summer, the three day retreat for all the staff.

Q: How has the new middle school staff evolved over the summer and come together before this first year?
A: There is always an unknown when you bring new people in, especially a big group, But it was a very positive experience. i think the change just developing a level of comfort and shared purpose was really our focus, and I think we’ve got that right. Like, there is a lot of reflection on why did I become a teacher? Why was I drawn to De Smet? What am I hoping for with De Smet? And we kind of identified our focus. One of the things we actually did, we took the grad at grad and took all of those main points of like, open to growth, loving, intellectually competent, and we modified them. So it’s kind of like, how can we be in line with those high school grad at grad concepts? But what does that mean for middle school? And we kind of reworked the language to young men for others. Loving became learning to love. Open to growth became something else. We’re still working on the language there, but there was just a lot of conversation and thought around like, what are we trying to do for and with these young men.

Q:How do you think the middle school will evolve the entire De Smet experience, including the high school experience, as well as the schools academics?
A:I think that the high school program will be strengthened by what’s coming out of the middle school eventually, like students, will be prepared in ways that we want them to be. But I think culture wise, there’s high school students already who are taking leadership positions to support the middle school. Middle school is going to add an element of energy and excitement and participation in school wide events and just kind of just wanting to wear De Smet on the sports field or out in public. I just see the high school and middle school benefiting from each other’s influence. Obviously the Middle School is its own department, so we will have a lot of meetings just as a team, but the middle school history teachers will be able to get to know the high school history department and the middle school English teachers, the high school English department and s where most elementary middle schools, your kind of on an island. These teachers now have this team of experts and others to work with, and I think that is going to help everybody.

Q: Are you and the staff excited for this year, and do you have any goals are expectations for the year?
A: I am so excited. It has been 14 months since I started. When we started, we did not have a single student or a single staff member, and now its to the point where we have got 138 incoming middle schoolers. We have 53 sixth graders, 50 seventh graders, and 35 eighth graders, so I’m very excited. We’ve had some like, get to know you type of events, and so the energy is building. Their schedules are out and they’re ordering books. Just like, it’s very real. So I’m just excited to get this thing going, to have them in the hallway, to see how much life it brings to the community. And I just have excitement and gratitude are really the two words that come to mind.