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February 21, 2006 Dear Friends, Mild and dry weather combined with a long vacation over winter break contributed to the seemingly overnight transformation on our Wisconsin Avenue campus. The building site near the Upper School is truly beginning to take shape, and on 37th Street the outline of the new Middle School is now easily seen! Progress!!! I am delighted to report that we seem to be on track both in respect to timing and to the budget. By June, the parking facility—with offices for Buildings & Grounds, Security and Technology and a regulation artificial playing field—should be completed. This will ease the parking situation for Commencement, Camp and Summer School and should eliminate much of the traffic tensions with neighbors. It will be most helpful to have the on-campus parking as we finish the construction and renovation of the Middle School. That effort is planned to move at breakneck speed, and the School is keeping a careful and continuous watch on the schedule. Much credit goes to Mike Saxenian and Lucia Pierce for their very effective communications with the surrounding community. In recent weeks, I have had the privilege of talking about our new "green" Middle School to a number of local foundations and have been met with gratifying interest and support. Colleagues in the foundation world are applauding the prospect of a Quaker Middle School located in the backyard of Congress that will "walk the talk" of sustainable architecture and point the way forward for other private and public institutions as they address their own construction needs. These supporters especially appreciate SFS's efforts to make the new building a "faculty member," and to use the facility as a means of demonstrating to young students the values of environmental stewardship and the concepts of accountability and consequences as we all interact with the natural world. Many people are increasingly concerned about asthma, diabetes, weight issues, learning problems and other health matters as they impact our children, and Sidwell Friends' attention to organic food service, clean air and water, and a generally healthy learning environment more absent of "VOC's"—volatile organic compounds—is getting a warm reception virtually everywhere. Additionally, our faculty is continuing to work on curriculum design and many have applied for Venture Grants to develop new courses over the summer months. All of this groundbreaking academic activity is one wonderful result of our paradigm-shifting new School. Fund-raising continues to proceed apace, and I am deeply grateful to Josh Bernstein '81, Deborah Harmon and Frank Newman for their most diligent and effective efforts. The Campaign Chairs are working closely with National Leadership Gifts Board (NLGB) Chairs Lisa Claudy Fleischman, Jon McBride '60 and Tom Nides to train a cadre of volunteers to seek major six-figure gifts. Others are giving their attention to critically important smaller gifts, and I am confident that their joint success will provide vital momentum as our Campaign pushes ever more successfully ahead. I am proud to report that the NLGB has added $5 million in Campaign gifts over the last four months since the Campaign's public launch in September! SFS now stands at $33 million, an achievement that will undoubtedly give comfort to our Trustees as they meet to authorize the next stage of construction, a phase currently scheduled to begin on the Edgemoor campus as early as this summer. Rich Lodish and the Lower School faculty and families are very excited about the proposed new gymnasium, additional classrooms and the expansive retrofitting planned for the Groome Building. While thinking about new additions, it has also been my sad responsibility to experience particularly significant losses. Earlier this month, the School held a memorial service for Bobby Newmyer '74, son of Ginger and Jimmie Newmyer '37 and brother of Elsa Newmyer '72 and Lory Newmyer '76. Innumerable family members, friends, classmates and colleagues gathered in the Kogod Arts Center to honor a life truly well-lived. Bobby was the noted producer of such major films as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Training Day, and the Santa Clause movies. He also was intensely involved in aiding the "Lost Boys" of Sudan, giving critical attention to a group tragically underserved by most in the world. Bobby's premature death saddened us all, and he will be profoundly missed by his family and all who knew him. Most of the Class of 1974 was present at the service, the second time in the last twelve months that this Class has been called upon to say good-bye to a talented classmate. Yvedt Matory '74, a noted breast cancer surgeon and clinical researcher, lost her own battle with skin cancer last April. A successful clinical practitioner and researcher, Yvedt founded a small company that utilizes technology to provide follow-up care for cancer patients. An accomplished pianist, she had also played Mozart's Sonata in G, K.283 at a recital just a few days before she died. This past Saturday, there was a memorial service in the Mary Ellen Caplin Theatre to celebrate the life of Betty Schulman, mother of three SFS alumni—John '64, General Counsel for Warner Brothers; Barbara '67, an architect in Atlanta; and Michael '73, a lawyer in Los Angeles. Betty was Sidwell Friends School's first development officer as well as volunteer extraordinaire. Her many contributions to this community will have lasting impact. Just yesterday, the School community gathered to memorialize the life of a deeply beloved Upper School Spanish teacher and coach, Tony Palmiero. His influence upon Friends was and remains dramatic. Few educators ever achieve his level of devotion from students while challenging them so intensely in the development of their spirituality, intellect, character, leadership and personal fitness. Personally, I have worked with few colleagues in my over forty-five year career who brought so much to so many so often. I will miss Tony immensely, but I am pleased that his young daughter will be enrolling in our Lower School in the fall of 2007. What is profoundly apparent to me is the constant ebbing and flowing in life and in this community. While rich new additions are being accomplished here—in both buildings and programs—we see the loss, too, of many individuals who were particularly powerful in shaping the community that we have become. I hope that all of us will take a moment to remember that embedded in the warp and woof of this institution's fabric are the invaluable life, blood and spirit of generations. Finally, although campaigns and buildings are significant and powerful in shaping a school, there is no doubt in my mind but that the extraordinary human legacy we are blessed with is by far our most precious resource. I thank all of you for that and for the way you always rally in support of those who need it most. With best wishes and earnest hopes for an early spring, I remain Sincerely yours, Bruce B. Stewart |
