Uncategorized

State of the School

As we enter a new calendar year, let me take a moment to continue a tradition at the school to share some highlights of the past year and look a bit towards the future.

We’ve Been Busy!
In addition to a leadership transition in the Head of School office, our board has expanded and changed leadership. It has been tremendously exciting for me to work with such a professional, talented, and dedicated group, led by our new Board Chair Monica Udell.

Our students continue to set the bar in the Triangle for quantitative outcomes that can be measured through standardized testing, such as the SAT. Our college acceptances demonstrate that our students are taking advantage of a wide range of exciting post-secondary options, both locally as well as nationally. We are particularly proud of our 84% acceptance rate at UNC-Chapel Hill, which exceeds state public and private school averages by a wide margin.

More importantly, our students are taking full advantage of the rich learning environment at Cary Academy through participation in extracurricular activities, athletics, and service projects. As we know from our own experiences, these opportunities allow for real-life skill development that serve as an essential complement to the good work happening in our classrooms.

Just a sampling of the many great things happening:

  • Our Science Olympiad team had the highest participation in the region last year, and our MS robotics program continued to win awards and hosted its first regional tournament this fall.
  • Students in our performing arts department earned accolades in a variety of honors competitions and from audiences near and far. Members of our MS and US chorus performed twice with The Tenors at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Our orchestra traveled to Washington, DC, to play three selections at the Kennedy Center.
  • More than 80% of Cary Academy students in grades 7-12 participated in our interscholastic athletic program last year. Our boys swimming and tennis teams finished as state runners up last winter and spring and our boys cross country team earned that distinction this fall. Three CA dancers earned places at the National High School Dance Festival. Two CA athletes in volleyball and girls’ basketball signed national letters of intent to play at the collegiate level.
  • Students in both our MS and our HS were honored locally and nationally for their extensive volunteer work.
We continue to invest to improve the school’s facilities to provide for an optimal educational and athletic environment. Over the last year both Berger Hall and the Dining Hall went through major renovations. We made several changes to reduce our carbon footprint, such as replacing the school’s boilers, installing LED lighting in the quad, and placing light sensors in our locker rooms. Carpeting was replaced throughout the middle school, and the SEA got a new roof and resurfaced gym floor.
As an institution, Cary Academy continues to thrive. We measure the health of the organization in several ways:
  • Applications to Cary Academy remain strong. Increasingly, a higher percentage of students are accepting an offer of admission, pushing up our yield rate. When combined with our low 5% attrition rate, we have needed to offer fewer acceptances than years’ past to fill available seats.
  • Cary Academy is attracting a more diverse student body.Overall, students of color make up nearly 30% of our enrollment. That number stands at 37% in the 6th grade this year. We like to believe that this is a reflection of the inclusive nature of the Cary Academy environment. The school’s commitment to socioeconomic diversity remains strong as well. In January of this year, Jim and Ann Goodnight have given an additional $5M to the school’s endowment for financial aid, ensuring that we can attract the best possible students, regardless of ability to pay.
  • Financially, Cary Academy operates from a position of strength. The school remains debt free, which is a rarity among many independent schools. Our endowment (much of which is restricted towards financial aid and professional development), helps bridge some of the gap between the cost of a Cary Academy education and our tuition.

Moving forward, the school is at a very exciting juncture. I’d like to highlight three important initiatives for next year:

  1. Cary Academy Field House. A field house has been a part of the long range facilities plan for Cary Academy for some time. We expect to break ground for this facility at the end of this school year.  It should be ready for use by October 2014.
  2. New laptop rollout and upgrade to Office 365 for online data storage. Our information services team has selected the Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga for all students next year. These laptops are included in tuition. The school will also move all students into Office 365, making files, calendar, and email available in the cloud and on any internet connected device.
  3. Strategic Plan. Next fall we will embark on the development of a three-year strategic plan that will help guide the next stage of development for Cary Academy. I expect the plan to develop alongside a new facilities masterplan that will examine our current use of space and make plans for new development to match the ever changing program at the school.

As I enter into the spring of my first year at Cary Academy, let me conclude by saying how proud I am to be a part of such a wonderful community. I have undertaken this year to meet individually with all 140 of our employees. As of early January, I had completed more than 100 of these meetings, and I can say that with each additional conversation I feel more energized and committed to this school. There is tremendous talent here, and with the continued and increasing support of our families, the future is bright indeed.