Spring 2013 - Manlius Pebble Hill School

MPH:On the MoveB Y D . S C O T T W I G G I N S , H E A D O F S C H O O LFrom the vantage point of six months into my first year as head ofschool, I see the future of MPH come into sharper focus. Withstrategic planning in full swing as we seek to coalesce our institutionalidentity going forward and chart a course to fiscal sustainability, MPH ispoised to engage new avenues of learning in the digital age, reassert ourpreeminence as an outstanding independent school islanded in a vast sea ofpublic school choices, and expand and rejuvenate our campus facilities.In 2010, after a rigorous and exactingapplication/proving process, MPH wasselected as a Malone Family FoundationSchool, garnering a $2 million endow -ment grant to be used for scholarship forfuture enrollees and establishing an activecollaboration with other MaloneFoundation Schools. This is a group of50 of the most highly regarded andprestigious independent schools nation -wide, one college, and the StanfordUniversity Online High School (OHS).Within the past 18 months, a consortiumof Malone Schools has worked closelywith the Stanford University OHS todevelop the Malone Schools OnlineNetwork, which will launch in the fall of2013. The MSON will provide studentsat participating Malone Schools theopportunity to take courses for creditonline – in real-time seminars – fromteachers at member schools.The advantages of the MSON arepowerful. First, the opportunity forstudents to engage in active learning withclassmates in different schools across thecountry creates a collaboration that willbecome the order of the day in the futureas the digital age transforms thelandscape of government, commerce, andhuman interaction. Second, one of thelimiting factors many independentschools face today is inadequate fundingto provide an expansive range ofacademic offerings that require uniqueinstructor expertise or that appeal to afinite number of students. In sharingteacher expertise and in populatingcourses with a few students from anumber of Malone Schools, full enroll -ment can be achieved at a veryhand some cost savings. The opportunityfor students in Malone Schools to takeinteresting and unique course electiveswill greatly enhance their academicexperience. It will also prove a majorfactor of distinction for MPH in CentralNew York.One of the great advantages of existingas an independent pre-K - 12 school inCentral New York is that MPH is the onlyshow in town. There are, of course,parochial schools that serve asalternatives to public schools, but thereligiously steeped ethos and program -matic agenda of these schools are quitedifferent from what we offer and focus onat MPH. Moreover, unlike MPH,parochial schools abdicate the mosttransformative aspect of their statuseswhen they eschew “independent” to aligntheir curricula with the New York StateRegents curriculum and submit theirstudents to state accountability testing.At our most recent admissions openhouse on January 6, our new director ofadmissions, Nicole Cicoria, unveiled aprogram for attendees that captured the“ah ha” realization that many potentialMPH families have no idea how anindependent school differs from a publicschool. Certainly, if paying tuition werethe only perceived difference, then ouradmissions funnel would be smallindeed. And so, our focus at that openhouse began with explaining to attendeeshow independent schools are trulydifferent from public schools.One of those differences inheres in thefact that you are now reading a letter in amagazine that is designed for you as analumnus of The Manlius School orPebble Hill School or Manlius Pebble HillSchool. Being myself a product of publicschool, I have never received a note orletter or call from my high school seekingto keep me connected to it, and I(Continued on page 6)MPH REFLECTIONS 2013 3