Letter from the Principal - January 2020

By Mona Passman, Principal
January 8, 2020

Happy New Year! This year promises to be an exciting time at CDH as we move into our new space, propose a new schedule and launch our strategic plan. These updates are all part of our continuous effort to constantly improve the educational and extracurricular opportunities we offer to our students.

Students and staff returned on Monday to our new space, the Lentsch  Forum. The Forum is spectacular and is a welcoming spot for students, staff and other guests to gather. It is bright and spacious, with plenty of comfortable and functional furniture to visit, study or wait for rides. We will also host meetings and events there. We also completed several updates to the Wolff Activity Center facilities. You are welcome to stop in and take a look. Our official grand opening is on January 21 from 5-7 pm. We encourage you to stop by to help us celebrate and thank Tom and Debbie Lentsch.

In the next few weeks, we will be announcing our new daily schedule. A committee of teachers and administrators have been meeting regularly to design a schedule that will better meet the needs of our students. Thank you to the 400 parents who participated in the parent survey a few months ago. The response rate was excellent and helped us decide some key components to our new schedule.

• It is obvious that we need to provide academic help time during the day. 65 percent of you indicated that our schedule should offer academic help or study time during the day. 
• Another 10 percent indicated that our schedule should offer more flexibility for students in JROTC, Band, Choir, Learning Lab and other four year programs. 
• Start time was another concern. Over 60 percent of our parents believed that the school day should start at 8:15 or later. The biggest concerns with a later start time included the impact on after school activities and student jobs. 

We also surveyed and met with students and received similar feedback from them. Our plan is to present the preliminary schedule to the Board of Directors next week. We will release it along with the 2020-21 Calendar shortly after the board meeting.  

Our other new initiative is the CDH Strategic Plan. Many parents, alumni, staff, and community members have been involved in this process and helped draft the plan at our Weekend Retreat in October. Parent Listening Sessions will be held on Tuesday, January 14 at 6:30 pm at our Parent Association Meeting. We are also holding listening sessions for faculty, students and alumni.  

I am proud to be part of a community that is always looking for ways to improve, and look forward to the positive impact these updates will make on the CDH community!