More than the first day of school, it’s the annual Back-to-School picnic that truly heralds the start of a new school year; it was a real pleasure to see so many of you on Randall’s Island last Saturday. I’d like to thank and congratulate Bolek for the seamless organization (I don’t know how he does it, imagine coordinating an event for 800 people during the first week of school!)

This week, After-School activities started back as did the Open Houses (already!) which allow us present The École to prospective parents. These three events traditionally punctuate the start of the school year, but don’t let them fool you into thinking it’s business as usual at The École—plenty of things have changed! Ninety-three new students have joined us (some even arrived today!) and twenty new colleagues are guiding them. The third floor of the Elementary and Middle School Building has been completely transformed and now hosts our 3rd and 5th Grade classes. The École is always evolving and I don’t just mean in terms of numbers and brick-and-mortar changes.

To accompany our evolution, we need a robust leadership team. As I explained here, I have taken over direct leadership of our Middle School. I’m assisted daily by Javier Gonzalez who supervises the students all day long. Benoît Brisset, who made such a difference in Elementary last year, is now the de facto Elementary Head. Bolek Poniatowski is taking on a more administrative role in keeping with our needs and in response to the growth in our student and staff numbers (we have more than 70 members of staff this year!) Sarah El has joined the admin team as our office assistant—I know that many of you have already been in touch with her. It’s also Andria’s first back-to-school with us and her work over the summer on the Family Handbook allowed parents to have all the information they needed for a smooth back-to-school. Ben continues to coordinate the Maternelle team, and Miriam Tangara is our new Extra-Curricular Program Manager, a role that was created because of the success of the activities proposed (240 students registered!), As for Dara Herschenfeld, she is leading our House system. Finally, Sara Weintraub’s position as the US Curriculum Coordinator has been bolstered. Sara’s more robust role, which allows her to work more closely with all of our American Elementary teachers, is a clear sign of how serious we are about supporting our families whose aim is for their children to go to a US high school. It is in keeping with the thinking behind our partnership with Léman.

I am also happy to announce some breaking news. Jan Salamon, our superhero in the shadows—who spends his weekends and evenings at the school tirelessly ensuring that our students and teachers work in the best possible conditions—has done us the honor of accepting the position of our Director of Facilities. He will be recruiting a building and IT maintenance specialist in the coming weeks to assist him in his work, which often resembles a Sisyphean task.

The kids who take the yellow buses this year know only too well that it is always best if the bus doesn’t break down and if the driver knows where he’s going (for those who are not aware, there have been quite a few teething problems with the buses provided by the City of New York this week!) At The École we know exactly where we are going. We have the perfect team in place and I’m delighted that we were able to promote the talents of many of our staff members. It is one of the greatest pleasures I have as a head of school because a school that enables its staff to thrive is one where the students reap the greatest rewards.