{"id":1822,"date":"2013-09-21T04:33:14","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T04:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2013-10-11T15:48:04","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T15:48:04","slug":"know-going-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2013\/09\/know-going-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Should Know Going Into The School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"DSC_0076<\/a>
High school students and faculty on the quad on the first day of school. Photo courtesy of Toby Himmel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, as students trade in their beach bags for backpacks, and return to the Fieldston campus, they will be faced with several noteworthy changes. Many of these changes have been implemented in order to make every day procedures at Fieldston more efficient. For instance, this year all students will be receiving a new school email address, which will be the only address to which teachers send them emails. According to Principal Danforth, this system is implemented at almost all universities. \u201cWhat we had before was really archaic,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is much more professional. It is streamlining communication.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a related note, the Fieldston phone system is also being reformed this year. Previously, all calls\u00a0to the main school number would reach a receptionist from the Upper School office, who would then transfer the caller to one of the four school divisions. This year, all callers will hear a recording welcoming them to Fieldston and advising them to press a certain number depending on which division they wish to be transferred to. Immediately after the caller identifies which division they are interested in, he\/she can speak with a divisional receptionist.<\/p>\n

Upperclassmen who dread waiting until their 1:20 lunch period should know that they will not be going hungry by midmorning and early afternoon. Principal Danforth says that after she \u201creally listened to feedback from everyone in the community,\u201d she decided to continue offering a free continental breakfast to every student. Hot breakfast, such as omelets and bacon egg and cheeses, will be available at an extra cost. Additionally, the juice machines will be available to use at breakfast, so that students no longer need to waste plastic and glass bottles. As occurred last spring, fresh fruit will be offered in the Student Commons up until lunch time.<\/p>\n

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Principal Laura Danforth adresses the school.
Photo by Jacob Cader.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further concerns and requests regarding meals and snacks will be addressed by a student Food Task Force that Principal Danforth plans to organize in the 2013-2014 school year. The Food Task Force is just one of many new groups this year aiming at increasing student involvement in administrative decisions. Principal Danforth explained that she also wants organize two or three \u201ctown meetings\u201d per year, \u201cwhere students can come and bring their concerns and recommendations for change.\u201d She also plans on \u201ccreating a student advisory board that [she] will meet with once a month to hear complaints and suggestions; like a mini town hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the upcoming school year, the Academic Integrity Task Force will continue to meet and discuss how academic integrity can be fully obtained and maintained at Fieldston. This task force will carefully look at the procedure that a student faces when accused of academic dishonesty, and possibly reform it. One idea is to have students be more involved in the disciplinary process. \u201cThere is a desire amongst some students to have a peer honor board,\u201d said Principal Danforth. The Academic Integrity Task Force will address this possibility as well as many other possible changes.<\/p>\n

Principal Danforth also plans to \u201cput together a task force to look at our academic schedule.\u201d As Rachel Ehrlich often says, \u201cOur schedule is our moral document.\u201d Principal Danforth plans to embrace this view and push the task force to investigate \u201cwhat our schedule says about our morals and who we are as an institution.\u201d Though extreme schedule changes will probably not be implemented this year, Principal Danforth hopes that the task force will \u201clook outside the box\u201d when brainstorming future schedule alterations. \u201cWe need to focus on what we are doing to properly prepare our students for what lies ahead of them,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Finally, this year ECFS faculty and staff will be taking even more precautions to make the Fieldston campus a safe environment. According to Principal Danforth, the school has hired a new head of security who differs from the previous one in that he will be a direct employee of Fieldston and not of Fieldston\u2019s security company. Faculty will continue to be trained, so that they know how to act in potentially dangerous situations, and there may even be an evacuation drill. \u201cThat\u2019s one thing that will not change this year,\u201d said Principal Danforth. \u201cStudent safety will continue to be my number one priority.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year, as students trade in their beach bags for backpacks, and return to the Fieldston campus, they will be faced with several noteworthy changes. Many of these changes have been implemented in order to make every day procedures at Fieldston more efficient. For instance, this year all students will be receiving a new school email address, which will be the only address to which teachers send them emails. According to Principal Danforth, this system<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/First-Day-Cover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}