In fact, the summer months offer one of the most productive and critical stretches for staff and administrators at Ransom Everglades, and this summer is off to a fast-paced start. You learned last week about the appointment of David Clark ’86 to the new position of Chief Operating Officer and Interim Head of the Upper School. David will be on campus next week, and Dr. John King and I are looking forward to working with him. We expect his return to Ransom Everglades – a school he has served as a student, teacher, dean, proud alumnus, coach and trustee – to enable us to move more efficiently, nimbly and powerfully into the future.

 

On that note, I am pleased to report that the northeastern part of our upper school campus – the La Brisa property we purchased four years ago – is starting to look less like a construction zone, and much more like a point of campus pride. The brick driveway has been laid, the doors and window frames have been repainted, plants and flowers are going in, and the inside of the house that will soon hold our administrative offices is in the final stages of what has been an amazing transformation. We expect La Brisa to be on line in the coming months, and we are excited for students, parents and alumni to see it. It will be beautiful.

 

We’re also continuing to work with security consultants on enhanced security plans for the fall, a priority for our entire leadership team, board and recently appointed security group. Our security audit to date has been broad; we are looking at our campuses, our infrastructure, our guidelines, our drills, our decision makers and our practices. We will also be bringing on a new Campus Security and Safety Coordinator to ensure that security remains a priority every day.

 

Our senior leadership team is meeting weekly throughout the summer, and one of my personal priorities is intentionality regarding community. We know our parents and alumni have missed visiting our campuses and taking part in community life and, as we emerge from the pandemic, we hope to address that. We have already decided to hold a true Homecoming Weekend October 7-8 – mark your calendars! We will also be offering grade-level parent breakfasts this fall (more details to come), to help foster relationships and deepen the connection to our campus and community.

 

As excited as I am about the fall, I also appreciate the particular bustle and energy the summer brings. Children have been coming to both campuses for an assortment of sports and activity camps, and our Pine Knot Scholars Program, in its second year, begins next week. (You can get a glimpse of what happens during “Summer at RE” on the Summer at RE pages on Instagram and Facebook.) Breakthrough Miami, with eight RE student teaching fellows, is underway. Children are making friends, experiencing nature, learning and trying new activities. 

 

We also have good news to share from outside our campuses: Ransom Everglades is home of a National History Bee champion; Parker Jelke '27 won the seventh-grade title, his second national championship, and Jacob Aronow '26 won first place in the U.S. in cartography as RE's team of Parker, Jaz Puri '28, Zach Corbin Cheah '27, and Lucas Gonzalez '27 finished third in the National History Bee at the recent event in Orlando. Also this month, two teams of RE speech and debate students – Noah Gold '22 and Zach Marcus and Ceci Grande-Scott '22 and Nicole Rodriguez '22 – finished in the top 10 in public forum at the national speech and debate championships. Meanwhile, our Class of 2023 Dan Leslie Bowden Fellows in the Humanities – Ian Barnett '23, Lucia Rose Dahn '23, Olivia Drulard '23, Sofia Gudino Ruffa '23, Jack Harris '23, Kyle Ng '23, Mason Signorello '23 and Liv Steinhardt '23 – are beginning their summer research, and I know many other RE students are engaged in significant work, projects, service or events. We are #REproud of all of them!

 

For RE parents reading this: Please don’t forget to periodically check the back-to-school page. There are recent updates about school supplies, summer reading lists and our technology orientations.

 

Have a great summer. Enjoy the time with family and friends, and get ready for an exciting fall at Ransom Everglades. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

 Warmest regards,