Page 3 - Priorities #16 2001-February

From the Headmaster
Dear Priory Community,
One of the benefits of our ongoing
planning process is seeing that
our core values and philosophy—
the Priory experience we have in
common here—are translating into
contemporary educational activities on a
daily basis. Educating the mind, heart,
body and spirit of every student in our charge is what our daily life is about.
The trick, of course, is to maintain a strong faculty and give them adequate space and tools, so that the vision can come to life. We know from all of our recent studies and planning exercises that we are facing some significant needs.
Our needs can be briefly defined as:
• Housing for our on-campus community • Space for our larger student body and
broader curriculum
• Endowment resources to help us successfully
weather the current teacher crisis and to protect us from decimating programs in future economic downturns.
The photo on this page tells a wonderful story, related to the first bullet point. This is the on-campus home of Chris and Shawna Trujillo and their daughter Taylor. Chris is director of residential life, Shawna is dean of the middle school, and Taylor-well, she just celebrated her first birthday and is doing pretty well as little sister to the thirty-eight boys in the dorms.
To bring the Trujillos here from Wuoming, we needed to provide them with a home, and we had none. The good fairy in this story is the Maas family— Suzanne and Alvin, with their children Miranda, a tenth grader, and Ryan, a freshman at Stevens Institute of Technology. Their generosity made it possible to refurbish this home for the Trujillos and to fund roughly half of the other projects we need to meet our on-campus housing goals.
Campus housing now includes eight family units plus two small units suitable for a single individual. In February we started the addition of apartment units at the front of each of our dorms. These
individual apartments will give our house masters a more normal adult home, while keeping their closeness to the students. Currently, the house masters have the same rooms as the students.
Wehopetoadd sevenmorehousing units on the south edge of the campus, along the private access road leading to the Gambetta Ranch property. The master plan
committee envisions wood-frame units — four 2-bedroom, two 3-bedroom, and one one-bedroom apartment.
With this housing addition, significantly more of our faculty could join the on-campus community.
Briefly, the on-campus housing is essential for two reasons. As every local school community knows and the newspapers keep stressing, teachers can’t afford to live in this area. A second reason, unique to the Priory, is the importance of that “core community” of students and adults who call 302 Portola Road home. They bring a sense of calm and stability to campus life that can’t be re-created in other ways.
We also must look at
ways to enhance the
physical plant of the Priory.
As we look ahead, we see a
number of priorities for us,
starting with
enhancements of our
performing arts
department. I hope you
will enjoy reading the
Conversation with Tom
Carter, performing arts
department chair, in this
issue. And to refresh your memory of that educational mission we seek to deliver every day, check www. woodsidepriory.com, and click on Academics:philosophy.
Sincerely,
Tim Molak Headmaster
3
To bring the Trujillos here from Wyoming, we needed to provide them with a home and we had none. The good fairy in this story is the Maas family.
Chris, Shawna and baby Taylor Trujillo with Suzanne Maas. The Maas family made it possible to refurbish an older, uninhabitable home on the campus.