By Reed Gabhart, Head of Goshen Campus

Next week brings our Middle School Back-to-School night for parents on the Goshen Campus, and we wanted to let you know of some exciting changes to this informative event planned for this year. We are focusing on turning this night into an educational opportunity for YOU (along with meeting your child’s teachers and getting curricular information). So this year, you’ll get to hear about the summer reading books the faculty discussed and big-picture topics that are central to education in 2018. After our opening session together, faculty and administrators will serve up a menu of interesting 20-minute “mini-classes,” and you’ll choose which to attend. You will have your choice of two “classes” and then conclude the night with an Open House in which you can visit any classrooms/teachers you would like.

We hope you enjoy this new format and we look forward to your feedback afterwards. The Middle School Back-to-School Night is next Wednesday, September 5th from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., with the Lower School evening the following Wednesday, September 12th, at the same times. We’ll see you there!

Also, this week saw our first Middle School Student Council meeting of the year. Our 5th through 7th grade Advisors elected their Student Council representatives over the last week to join our 8th grade officers, who were elected last spring. Every student who wished to run had to give a short speech to state why s/he would be a good candidate. We elect our Student Council representatives by advisee groups so they can easily get ideas during advisory time from their classmates and then report back on meeting decisions. Congratulations to this year’s Middle School Student Council! I look forward to working with them, and have full confidence they will do a great job advocating for their peers and helping the school community in numerous ways. (And kudos to everyone else who was brave enough to run!)

8th Grade:
President – Jackson Sleadd
Officers – Amelia Gorman, Sophie Kirby, and Jane McLeroy

7th Grade:
Adkins – Mya Stevenson
Hilberg – Avery Flynn
Mushkin – Ella Reif

6th Grade:
Doble – Quentin Johnson
Holmes – Jude Sleadd
Snow – Abby Hairgrove 

5th Grade:
Koth – Charlie Rutherford
Spalding – Izzie Maki

And as we get rolling with our new work (assigning jobs to council members to help the School, holding our first meeting, etc), we are awaiting our Lower School counterparts to join us! Their elections will take place on Wednesday, September 12th during lead time. Each candidate will give a short speech prior to votes being cast. Students in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades will elect a boy and a girl to be their representatives. You can see them in action each week leading our Lower School Morning Meetings, and they meet weekly with sponsors Emily Campbell and Danny Ruano to discuss issues of importance to Lower School. Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!