Now that the academic year has drawn to a close - and it is amazing to me how quickly my fi rst year at Parker has passed - I would like to communicate with the school community about a few topics of note and at the same time to launch what I hope will become in the future a regular quarterly report from me as Head of School.
There is no question that this has been a remarkable year at Parker. Our students are fantastic and their accomplishments in academics, athletics and the arts have been amply chronicled in "Parker News and Notes".
In terms of our Master Plan for the campuses, it has been the year in which we opened Phase 4, did most of the construction of Phase 5 and the major planning for Phase 6, about which you will hear more when school opens in September. This year we also completed our Strategic Plan and our re-accreditation by WASC and CAIS, which resulted in another six-year accreditation, the maximum obtainable.
Our graduating class compiled an impressive record in college admissions, and this report includes a list of the schools our seniors will be attending in the fall. Although we rolled up some impressive acceptance totals at certain universities, such as 33 students admitted to USC and 16 to UC Berkeley, in the end our students have chosen to attend 66 different colleges. Such diversity is typical at Parker and refl ects our students self-confi dence in not following a herd but thinking individually about what school best fi ts their interests and needs.
In this issue, I would like to discuss the results of the parent survey we sent out this spring and also update everyone on the hiring we have done for next year. But I would also take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful and relaxing summer and also to recommend an interesting book for summer reading. The book is A Whole New Mind , by Daniel H. Pink.
I referred to this book, which is a hot topic in educational circles, in the most recent issue of "Parker Magazine". We have given a copy of it for summer reading to all our faculty and staff, and the Parents' Association is also recommending it to our parents, in the hope that we can organize one or more discussions around the book in the fall.
New Teachers
As we approach the summer, we have completed almost all our hiring for next year, and I am pleased to share with you the results of our hiring processes so far. As previously announced, we have fi lled the new position of Director of Science and Technology after an international search. The Director will be the public face of Parker in our outreach to the scientifi c and IT communities of San Diego and will also lead us in vertically integrating our programs K-12 and advancing horizontal integration between science, math and technology at all grade levels.
The new Director will be Mark Lipsey, who is currently teaching at St. John's International School in Waterloo, Belgium. Mark holds a B.S.E. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in ocean engineering from M.I.T. His prior teaching experience includes, among other assignments, fi ve years at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta and two years at the United States Naval Academy.