Head of School
Teacher Appreciation Week
Dear parents,
Our Home and School Association certainly demonstrated extraordinary appreciation of our faculty and staff with an incredible luncheon on Wednesday for Teacher Appreciation Week. Co-chairs Alaina Brandon and Jo Hankins organized a delicious “Taste of Tuscany,” parent volunteers helped with cooking, set-up and serving, and the many generous contributions to the raffle made our teachers and staff members smile—as did the postcards from students to teachers. Thank you!
There is nothing more important than appreciating our teachers. Our faculty are truly the backbone of the school, and they work tirelessly day in and day out. From facilitating engaging class discussions, to advising and coaching, to helping students bounce back from a setback, the connections teachers make with our students are invaluable and inspire a lifetime of curiosity, hard work, responsibility and creativity.
Our strategic planning process last year revealed a community-wide interest in supporting teachers, and one of the plan’s three pillars focuses exclusively on faculty development. RSVP to our Strategic Plan Update sessions for parents on May 17 to learn more. I meet with teachers every day, and it is always a privilege to hear about their classes, their professional goals and why they love Tower Hill. Through these daily conversations, it is always important to ask how we can be supporting our teachers’ growth even further as well as what their hopes and dreams are for Tower Hill. Investing in our faculty is and will always be an ongoing priority at Tower Hill; to this end, we have allocated a significant amount of funding recently in order to accomplish the following in support of teaching excellence:
- Increased our salaries to national benchmarks
- Committed to subsidizing 50% of graduate school tuition
- Improved, clarified and implemented a robust teacher evaluation process
- Doubled our investment in professional development, workshops and conferences
- Entire faculty attend a conference together annually promoting cross-divisional collaboration
- Conduct national searches and attend recruiting fairs to ensure Tower Hill continues to attract top teachers
At all schools, personal and professional circumstances inevitably result in staffing changes from year to year (Division Heads will provide updates in The Weathervane later this month). Tower Hill is committed to attracting and retaining the very best teachers. This has been an exceptional place to teach for nearly a century, and together we will ensure that legacy continues for another 100 years. It is a great privilege to be amongst colleagues whose talents affect the minds and souls of our students in profound ways.
Sincerely,
Bessie
Elizabeth C. Speers
Head of School
