State of the School

Dear Parents,

Relief has come to Ojai in the way of rainfall that blessed us with ten inches, after a drought going back a couple of years. Keep those rain thoughts coming, though: we need more. We have nice sunshine today however, a nice way to greet this weekend we have devoted to increasing our students' awareness of campus energy consumption and "sustainability." 
 
On the student front, the school year has thus far been a strong one. The seniors are doing well with college admission. To date, early acceptance has been gained to Amherst, Babson, Bard, Baylor, Boston College, Cal State Northridge, Cambridge, Charleston, Colorado College (2), Dartmouth (4), Davidson (2), Elon, Emory (2), Georgetown, Howard, Idaho State, Lewis & Clark, Loyola Marymount, Marymount, New York, Northeastern, Pembroke, Pitzer, Southern Methodist, Smith, Stanford (3), St. John’s, St. Louis, Texas Christian, Trinity College, Trinity University, Tufts, Tulane, one each to the Universities of Chicago, Colorado, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming, University of Vermont (3), USC, Wesleyan (2), and Willamette. Others will receive news by the beginning of April.

Our athletic teams, while not powerhouses, are spirited, and quite amazingly all four varsity teams earned spots in the CIF playoffs and while our boys’ soccer team ended their season on the road with a hard-fought one-goal game in their opening round of play, the students packed our gym to cheer on our boys’ and girls’ basketball teams as they earned commanding victories in their first rounds.  As I write to you, we’re poised to surround the upper field on yet another beautiful afternoon here in the Ojai, so we can support our girls’ soccer team as they begin their post-season. While we’d love to see the girls’ soccer squad pull out a victory, regardless of when these post season runs come to an end, suffice it to say that we have every reason to be proud of the way all of our teams represented Thacher on the courts and fields this winter. 

Despite the demands of schoolwork, sports, the school play and applying to colleges (for the seniors), our students continue to get into the backcountry on foot and on horseback.  Some have traveled over Pine Mountain, camped in Joshua Tree National Park and rock climbed on the lonely spires, but adventure has also been had closer to home thanks to particularly heavy storms that dumped 2-3 feet of snow.  Just riding over the ridge from Patton's Cabin has required students and faculty (and horses) to negotiate steep trails more reminiscent of outer Mongolia than the Los Padres we know so well. 

Our Extra-Day Trips continue to be diverse, ranging from trips to the Santa Cruz Mountains to the High Sierra.  Whether horse camping, backpacking, sea kayaking or mountaineering, our students getting first-hand experience in some of richest wilderness that California has to offer.

Voluntary weekend camping among students continues to involve around 35-40 percent of the student body. Perhaps more importantly, however, is the number of students involved in the A and B Camper Programs. In some cases, we have difficulty accommodating all of the student interest. Some of our current crop of seniors have become remarkably skilled as campers, both as horse packers and backpackers. I would trust many of these students to take out a group of students on a week-long camping trip without a faculty member.

Student awareness of international issues has been strong, and again, the Class of 2008 is leading the way. Naturally, there is a growing interest in the presidential campaign. Most students are gravitating at this point to Senator Obama in the way that the youth pulled together for Kennedy way back when. Our Environmental Club is moving forward and working with the Sustainability Committee. Composting is being attended to religiously now, for example. Under the leadership of senior Danny Waldman, we have developed a vegetable oil fuel system. With seniors Robin Walter and Maddi Sowash, we have had strong student concern and participation in fund-raising for Darfur, Myanmar, and Amnesty International. The sophomores are engaged currently in the Human Relationships and Sexuality program—a series of lectures and discussions that has been expanded and refined throughout the years. And Richard Ryan, our drug/alcohol counselor, was here a few weeks back to hold his annual meetings with students.

Our intrepid Dean Sabina McMahon and (some of) the students undertook two Moving Day Extravaganzas, where we shipped off the frosh boys to Lower School, the girls off the Hill and into Middle School, and the senior girls from the Courts up to Sespe. They are all happily ensconced now and peace has returned to the land.

The Thacher Masquers are diligently working on Les Miserables, which will be presented in the Performing Arts Center on February 21, 22, and 23 at 7:30. I hope you can attend one of the performances.  

Our faculty strategic planning committees are working hard on their assignments. Bill McMahon is the strategic consultant and Jake Jacobsen is the overall coordinator of these committees. Alice Meyer has taken on the Physiology of Consciousness Committee, which is considering how to balance the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical needs of teens in order to provide an optimal environment for students to grow and learn by identifying and analyzing current practices and values at Thacher. They will look at nutrition, fitness, physical activity, stress management, sleep, sexuality, spirituality and altruism, autonomy, decision-making and leadership, and academic learning environments. Kurt Meyer is heading the Sustainability Committee, which is focused on helping all community members to be responsible stewards of the world's natural resources and to be active participants in the practices of sustainable living. Maria Morales-Kent and Molly Perry's Diversity Committee is examining Thacher's successes and weaknesses in creating an open and affirming community that encourages all members to recognize, celebrate, accept, and respect all aspects of diversity: race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, gender, sexual orientation. Chris Mazzola's Technology Committee is reviewing technology's impact on Thacher's program, including how students live and learn and how the faculty utilizes it to teach and communicate with students and parents. Finally, Derick Perry is supervising the Campus Master Plan Committee, which is analyzing the implications of the Bechtel Master Plan (Thacher 2020) with respect to sequence, scope, and utility of projects along with the attendant use of resources: financial, material, and human. We are now engaging help from alumni and we will seek Trustee participation, as well. This is not a foot race; this is an organic process and we look forward to developing some good advances as a result of this work.

Our first Anacapa Scholar to share an entire trimester with us is community activist, author, and former fisherma'am Dr. Riki Ott. She has a degree in marine toxicology with a specialty in oil pollution. She is teaching a course entitled "Ultimate Civics," which analyzes corporate responsibility in the face of disaster; she draws extensively on her experience with the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska, about which she has written two books: Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill which will be published later this year.

The new Lower School is a happy habitat for the freshman boys and all is going well there. During the Board Meeting earlier this month, we held Assembly in the Lower School quad area in order to properly dedicate this new dormitory. We look forward to the construction of the Hill dorm soon to follow. We also hope to revamp a well that we rediscovered in Horn Canyon. Finally, we are sending Paul Hoornbeck out to build a shed at Patton's Cabin (our base station in the Sespe) with student labor and recycled materials. This is turning into a great wilderness outpost.

In terms of technology in the classroom, we have placed Smart Boards in four classrooms; they are basically computerized white boards that have memories and can bring up anything from the computer; papers can be critiqued; and notes can be made. These are important additions to our classrooms and our teachers love them.

The Campaign for Thacher concluded on December 31 and I am pleased to inform you that we exceeded our $80-million goal. In many ways, the success of this campaign has been transformational for our school. We have seen our endowment grow to over $100-million and have made great progress in the areas of financial aid, increased compensation for our faculty, and new buildings and improvements to our campus. This could not have been accomplished without the generosity of our parents, alumni, grandparents, and many friends. Thank you for your support!

So far, so good. It has been a great year (knock on the proverbial wood) thus far. Our students are engaged. There has been very little attrition or need for disciplinary action. Our faculty is happily ensconced and we have very little anticipated turnover. The campaign has strengthened our financial situation—although the overall economy looks worrisome. The great work of the School continues.

What is on your mind?

Sincerely,

Michael K. Mulligan
Head of School