Dear Friends,

As most of you are aware, our recently published Strategic Plan highlights a variety of critical issues that will guide our efforts over the course of the next three to five years. One of the important components of this plan is the creation of a Learning Center, a specific program designed to support students across the four divisions of the school with learning “differences” or in some cases learning disabilities. The decision to move in this direction has been driven by a philosophical commitment stated in our core values to, “guide and nurture our students as they discover and cultivate their unique gifts and talents, challenging each individual to achieve his or her full potential,” as well as a determination to sustain, “high academic standards, family continuity and ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity.” In short, we believe that our mission is better fulfilled by creating a specific program to support learning and teaching strategies for students with learning differences.
Having said this, we recognize the potential for misunderstanding the goals of this program, and it is the objective of this article and of other presentations in the future to bring clarity to what this program is and what it is not. Beyond the fact that many of the finest educational institutions in the country have similar programs, two primary factors have led to our decision to create this Learning Center – the realization that not all students learn in the same way and the acknowledgment that we are and intend to continue to be a family school. Given that many of our students enter St. Margaret’s in Preschool and given that we have made the commitment to give preference in the admission process to qualified siblings (when space allows), the likelihood for learning issues to surface over the course of a student’s career is high. While we believe that our plans for a Learning Center are an important step in strengthening our ability to better serve our students, we also recognize the regrettable but unavoidable fact that, in the end, some students may not have the ability to meet the demands of our rigorous program. We are in agreement, however, that up to this point we must do all we can to support each and every one of our students.
With this in mind, the Learning Center will be initiated on a pilot basis for the second semester of the 2005-06 school year during which time we will implement, refine, and evaluate best practices with the intention to provide a permanent program in September 2006. The goals of the program are to:

– identify learning differences and disabilities
at an early age
– recommend and provide early intervention strategies
– help students better understand their learning
challenges and strengths
– develop and provide teaching strategies consistent with
school standards to support students with learning
differences/disabilities
– coordinate all educational therapy and
tutoring sessions (on and off campus)
– nurture a partnership between home and school where
opencommunication and thoughtful planning is focused
on the individual needs of the student
– provide workshops for teachers and parents on
learning differences
– maintain a database of students in all divisions
receiving learning support

In the course of the next several months, we will be developing a comprehensive description of the program which we will make available to you directly and on the school web page. In the meantime, a few important comments are worthy of note. We are not in any way altering the school’s mission to provide a rigorous and demanding program designed to prepare our students for entrance into the most selective of colleges. Further, we are not moving in a direction where we can now serve students with serious learning disabilities. In fact, the more we refine the processes associated with the Learning Center, the better able we will be to identify learning issues early on and to know, in a more thorough and comprehensive manner, which students we can serve and which ones we can not.

Finally, we are fortunate to be able to coordinate these initial efforts in consultation with clinical psychologists, Dr. Shirin Ansari and Dr. Greg Koch, each of whom has extensive background in supporting students with learning differences. We are confident that with their help we will strengthen further the learning environment that has been at the heart of the St. Margaret’s experience for the past twenty-seven years.

Warm regards,
Marcus D. Hurlbut